Julian Assange, Moon Rocks, and the 2024 Gerber Baby

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Assange Pleads Guilty

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to obtain and disclose US national defense information, ending over a decade of fighting extradition. Assange's plea deal includes a 62-month sentence, crediting the five years already served at a London prison, allowing him to avoid US imprisonment. The 52-year-old is expected to return to his home country of Australia.

The charges stem from hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents released by WikiLeaks in 2010 about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As part of the plea, Assange must destroy the information he supplied to WikiLeaks. Assange was granted asylum in 2012 and spent seven years at Ecuador’s London embassy before being arrested in 2019. He faced an 18-count indictment in the US and up to 175 years in prison. In April, the US provided assurance Assange could seek First Amendment protection and that no death penalty would be imposed.

The sentencing occurred in Saipan of the Northern Mariana Islands—a US territory about 135 miles northeast of Guam—chosen for its distance from the US mainland and its proximity to Australia.

Israeli Military Shake-Up

Israel's military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, the country's Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday in a decision that has potential ramifications for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.

Since Israel's founding in 1948, ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens have been exempt from compulsory military service, required for the country's secular Jewish majority (both men and women). Ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens account for roughly 13% of Israel's population, or 1 million people. The Supreme Court said the military exemption for religious scholars had no legal basis after related laws either expired or were struck down. The nine-judge panel also ordered the government to suspend millions of dollars of funding from religious schools—known as yeshivas—whose students don't comply with military draft notices. 

Netanyahu's coalition includes both secular parties and two ultra-Orthodox parties. The court decision could further fracture the coalition, collapsing the government and triggering new elections, all amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. See updates on the war here.

From the Moon's Far Side

A Chinese spacecraft successfully returned roughly 5 pounds of rocks mined from the far side of the moon to Earth yesterday, according to the China National Space Administration. The sample is the first far-side lunar regolith—the loose layer of dirt above bedrock—to be retrieved for scientific study. It is the latest success for China's Chang'e (pronounced "chong-uh") space program, which included the first controlled far-side lunar landing in 2019.

After launching May 3, the spacecraft spent several weeks in lunar orbit before descending to the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the solar system's oldest-known impact crater, where it harvested rocks and dust. Mission operators used two previously deployed orbiting satellites to communicate with the lander. A mechanical rover snapped a photo of the vehicle on the surface before the sample was launched back into orbit.

Chinese and international scholars expect the sample to shed light on the distinct geochemical makeup of the moon's cratered far side, which lacks the vast volcanic deposits covering the near side.

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