US Oil Reserve Sales to China Could Be Blocked in Defense Bill
China would be blocked from purchasing oil from the US’s emergency stockpiles under legislation slated for a Senate
2023-07-20 00:54
Venture-Capital Firms to be Held Liable for DeFi Sanctions Violations Under New US Bill
A new bipartisan Senate bill would hold venture-capital firms and other large investors accountable in some cases for
2023-07-20 00:53
World Series of Warzone Finals: How to Watch, Schedule
The World Series of Warzone Finals begin at 1 p.m. on July 19 and July 20. Fans can earn free rewards as they watch the WSOW Finals on Twitch.
2023-07-20 00:48
Sao Tome and Principe media guide
An overview of the media in Sao Tome and Principe, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.
2023-07-20 00:47
Elite liberal arts university ends legacy admissions in wake of Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action
An elite liberal arts university has taken steps in re-evaluating its admission process by ending legacy preferences following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action. Wesleyan University, a private college in Connecticut, announced in a letter on Wednesday that terminating its use of legacy admissions would benefit diversity on campus and cited the Court’s ruling as a catalyst in the decision. “In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action, we believe it important to formally end admissions preference for ‘legacy applicants,’” Wesleyan University President Michael S Roth wrote. “We still value the ongoing relationships that come from multi-generational Wesleyan attendance, but there will be no ‘bump’ in the selection process.” The school is the first prominent higher education institution to end legacy admissions following the Court’s decision to end affirmative action in June. Going forward, Wesleyan said it will promote a diverse student body by recruiting students from areas across the US outside of big cities and coasts, recruiting veterans and investing in a pipeline to recruit community college graduates. They also plan to increase financial aid support by normalising a three-year option, creating a scholarship program to recruit and support undergraduates from Africa and developing more free-credit bearing courses online. In his letter, Mr Roth clarified that an applicant’s connection to the university has never guaranteed them a spot and family members of alumni are admitted on their own merits “as has been almost always the case for a long time.” The announcement marks Wesleyan’s formal ending of any legacy-based admissions. Wesleyan joins a small group of other colleges and universities that have ended legacy admissions like Amherst College which concluded legacy preference in 2021, John Hopkins University which made the decision in 2020 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which has never considered legacy. For more than 20 years, colleges and universities have used affirmative action to help establish a diverse pool of accepted students. Race is not used as the sole factor in determining a student’s acceptance but it can be considered if there are two applicants with nearly identical qualifications that meet or exceed the school’s application standard. Mr Roth echoed this in his letter, saying Wesleyan “has never fixated on a checked box indicating a student’s racial identification” and has always taken a “holistic view” by looking at applicants’ records, letters of recommendation, college essays and more. But in a 6-3 decision last month, the Court struck down the long-used tool in two consolidated cases: Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina. Now, institutions of higher education can no longer consider race as a factor unless a student volunteers information about their race or culture in their personal essay. Advocates of affirmative action called on colleges and universities to re-evaluate their admissions processes and establish other methods of cultivating a diverse campus. President Joe Biden encouraged schools to “not abandon their commitment to ensuring student bodies of diverse backgrounds” and directed the Department of Education to analyse practices that hold diversity back. Those practices include legacy admissions which Mr Biden said, “expands privilege instead of opportunity.” Read More Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action, banning colleges from factoring race in admissions Slim majority of Americans support Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, but most believe politics rules the court Harvard sued over ‘legacy admissions’ after Supreme Court targets affirmative action Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’
2023-07-20 00:45
Netflix scraps cheapest ad-free plan to boost ad-tier
Netflix has removed its basic plan in the U.S. and UK in which users could watch shows and
2023-07-20 00:26
Aurora Solar Welcomes Jigar Shah, U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office Director and Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director at California Solar & Storage Association to Keynote Empower 2023
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 19, 2023--
2023-07-20 00:21
Veza Welcomes Phil Venables to its Board of Directors
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 19, 2023--
2023-07-20 00:17
5 European Princesses Who Are Preparing to Reign
In the coming decades, five princesses are expected to ascend the thrones of Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.
2023-07-20 00:16
U.S. antitrust enforcers tackle digital platforms in new merger guidelines
WASHINGTON New draft guidelines released by U.S. antitrust enforcers on Wednesday lay the groundwork for tougher scrutiny of
2023-07-19 23:59
A mysterious source has been sending radio signals to Earth from space for decades
An unknown source has been sending radio blasts towards Earth since at least 1988, scientists say. The researchers do not know what object is sending the radio waves towards Earth. The nature of the waves is such that they do not conform with any models that attempt to explain it. For 35 years, the source has been sending out regular 20-minute blasts of energy that vary considerably in their brightness, researchers say. The emissions appear something like the blasts that come out of pulsars or fast radio bursts, which last for milliseconds to several seconds. But the newly discovered source sends radio signals that pulsate on a period of 21 minutes – something previously thought impossible by expected explanations. Pulsars are neutron stars that spin around quickly, throwing out radio blasts as they do. When one crosses Earth, the emissions can be picked up very briefly and brightly, like being in the path of the light from a rotating lighthouse. Scientists believe that process can only work if the magnetic field of the pulsar is strong, and it is rotating quickly enough – if not, there would not be enough energy to see the pulsar from Earth. That has led to the development of the “pulsar death line”, which suggests that sources must be spinning fast and strong enough to be detected. The newly discovered object named GPMJ1839-10, however, is way beyond that death line. If it is a pulsar, then it seems to be operating in ways that scientists thought impossible. It could also be a highly magnetised white dwarf or magnetar, an extra kind of neutron star with incredibly strong magnetic fields. But they do not tend to send out emissions of this kind, researchers believe. The signals have been detected on Earth since at least 1988, scientists found by going through old records, but they had gone unnoticed by those collecting that data. After the source was detected, researchers checked radio archives and found that the source has been repeating for at least 35 years. Yet more discoveries may be made in this way in the future, said Victoria M Kaspi, a professor of physics at McGill University who did not work on the study. “Only time will tell what else lurks in these data, and what observations across many astronomical timescales will reveal,” she wrote in an accompanying article. That might include some explanation of how unusual the newly discovered source is. By examining whether there are is a similar collection of other objects in the data, researchers might be able to understand the mechanisms behind the newly discovered emissions. The findings are reported in a new paper, ‘A long-period radio transient active for three decades’, published in the journal Nature. Read More Scientists invent self-healing solar panels with ‘miracle material’ Powerful solar flare to disrupt communications, Russians warn New technique represents major breakthrough in search for aliens, scientists say
2023-07-19 23:59
Wesleyan University: Top US college says it will end 'legacy' admissions
The university says it is "important" to end the policy, seen as a perk for the white and wealthy.
2023-07-19 23:58
