Affirmative Action, Indiana Jones, and Rising Home Prices

SCOTUS Nixes Affirmative Action

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that race-based standards for college admissions are unconstitutional, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling likely upends how most schools distribute need-based aid. 

The decision closes out two cases, brought against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The justices, wrapping both cases into one decision, ruled applicants may discuss their races and the challenges introduced into their lived experiences, but administrators should not explicitly consider race as an admission factor. 

University officials have argued race is one of many factors in determining admission, and affirmative action has leveled the playing field for Black and Hispanic students. Take a deep dive here.

'Indiana Jones' Returns

Harrison Ford will hang up his fedora for good as "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," the fifth installment of the adventure film series, hits theaters today.

The film is the first Indiana Jones movie not directed by Steven Spielberg, with James Mangold taking the helm. Utilizing de-aging AI technology in some scenes, the film follows Jones, now in his 80s, as he races against time to prevent an ancient dial, capable of altering history, from falling into the hands of his longtime Nazi nemesis. Since its creation by George Lucas over four decades ago, the Indiana Jones series has had a profound impact on both cinema and popular culture.

The movie is projected to earn $65M during its domestic opening weekend, placing it on par with 2018's "Mission: Impossible–Fallout." The Indiana Jones franchise has grossed over $2B at the box office when adjusted for inflation. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival May 18, where Harrison Ford was presented with an honorary Palme d'Or.

A Dark Mission

The study of one of the universe's biggest mysteries takes a key step forward this weekend as the European Space Agency looks to launch its Euclid Space Telescope tomorrow. The mission will probe the nature of dark energy and dark matter, which constitute 95% of the universe but remain poorly understood. 

The existence of both has been confirmed by, among other things, measuring how galaxies move and the energy coming from distant supernovas. The term “dark” refers to the properties known about each—dark matter exerts a gravitational pull on objects but doesn’t interact with light, while dark energy remains hypothetical and needed to account for the expansion of the universe.  

The Euclid mission will survey more than 1 billion galaxies, each with roughly 100 billion stars, to measure a single parameter describing the effect of dark energy on universal expansion. Read more about why the results, regardless of the outcome, will yield more questions than answers. 

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In-Depth

> Denied

ProPublica | Robin Fields. A deep dive into why health insurers get dodgy when questioned about the rates and reasons why claims are denied. (Read)

> The Grass of Wimbledon

Reuters | Travis Hartman, Ally J. Levine. The classic tennis Grand Slam event is played on grass cut to a quarter-inch height, with participants required to wear rubber shoes to protect it. (Read)

> Our Place in Time

To Scale | Wylie Overstreet, Alex Gorosh. To get a sense of the vastness of time and their tiny lives within it, several friends built a physical scale of time in the Mojave desert. (Watch)

> Without Antibiotics

Without | Omar El Akkad. (Podcast) A new, effective batch of antibiotics hasn't been developed for almost 40 years, and bacteria are growing increasingly resistant to the existing ones. (Listen)

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Historybook: Aztec emperor Moctezuma II dies in battle with Spanish conquistadors (1520); Famous Oxford debate on evolution takes place (1860); Singer and civil rights activist Lena Horne born (1917); Olympic legend Michael Phelps born (1985).