You probably shouldn't sound the alarms quite yet, but scientists did just announce the discovery of water vapor on a far-away planet that is now considered one of the best known candidates to host alien life.
In findings released Tuesday and Wednesday, scientists detected water vapor, and likely clouds and rain, in the atmosphere of K2-18 b, a planet that's about 110 light years away from Earth. K2-18 b is about twice the size of Earth and eight times as massive, Space.com reports, and it orbits a red dwarf star from a distance where water could exist in a stable state on the world's surface, also known as the "habitable zone."
University College London's Angelos Tsiaras told Space.com that, when taken together, the evidence of water and its distance from its star, makes K2-18 b "the best target for habitability that we know right now." As always, though, there's plenty of reason to pause. There's still a lot scientists don't know about the world — for example, the atmosphere could contain anywhere between 0.01 percent and 50 percent water, and nobody is quite sure what the surface is like, either.
A lot of these questions will be difficult to answer, but researchers are hopeful that they might be able to chip away at some of them following the launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in 2021. Read more at Space.com. Tim O'Donnell
The Pentagon announced Friday that President Trump has agreed to send a "modest deployment" of American troops to Saudi Arabia in response to strikes last week against two major Saudi Arabian oil facilities. The Trump administration and Saudi Arabia believe the attacks were orchestrated by Iran, but Tehran denies the allegations.
In addition to the hundreds of troops, the U.S. will deploy air and missile defense systems. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the decision was "defensive in nature" and was reportedly made in response to requests from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who are seeking protection for their "critical infrastructure." When asked if the White House was considering a military strike against Iran, Esper said "that's not where we are right now." That seems to echo Trump's rhetoric about showing restraint for the time being.
Still, the threat of a conflict, though far from imminent, has been palpable of late, with Tehran warning that a U.S. or Saudi military strike would result in "an all-out war," while the White House ramped up sanctions against Iran on Friday. Read more at The Washington Post and The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell
Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan announced Friday that white supremacy would become a top priority under the department's new strategy to fight terrorism and "targeted violence." The ramped up mission comes as mass shootings motivated by white supremacy seem to happen every week in the U.S., and McAleenan cites last month's shooting in El Paso, Texas as a major reasoning behind the change, The Atlantic reports.
After the shooting in a Walmart left 21 people dead, McAleenan told The Atlantic he recalled thinking "this is an attack on all of us." The shooting in a largely Hispanic community was seemingly motivated by racism, and much of DHS' workforce, especially at the southern border, is Hispanic. This and other shootings soon "galvanized" DHS to look "beyond terrorists operating abroad" and start tackling "violent extremists of any ideology," McAleenan said in a Friday speech.
The revised plan calls for analyzing the "nature and extent" of domestic terror threats and working more closely with local law enforcement to prevent them, NBC News reports. DHS will also crack down on technology companies who host hate-filled websites, provide more active shooter training to local law enforcement, and run antiviolence messaging campaigns, per the proposal.
The report came just hours after the House Oversight Joint Subcommittee held a hearing on confronting white supremacy, where conservative provocateur Candace Owens said that "white nationalism" isn't a problem for "minority Americans." As DHS's shifting priorities and general facts of life make clear, it definitely is. Kathryn Krawczyk
Trump reportedly urged Ukraine's president to investigate Biden's son 8 times on a single phone call
President Trump in July reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, not once, not twice, but eight different times on a single phone call.
That's according to a report Friday from The Wall Street Journal, which cites sources familiar with the matter saying Trump pressured Zelensky to work with his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on an investigation into the matter.
The president reportedly wanted to probe whether Biden worked to shield from investigation a Ukrainian gas company with ties to his son, Hunter Biden. One of the sources the Journal cited said they did not believe Trump offered the Ukrainian president a quid-pro-quo.
This comes amid an ongoing scandal surrounding a whistleblower who filed a complaint in August regarding Trump's communications with a foreign leader, which The Washington Post reported Thursday is related to Ukraine. The whistleblower was reportedly troubled upon hearing the phone call and alerted Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who marked the complaint as being of "urgent concern."
On Friday, Trump denied having any "dicey" conversation with a foreign leader, writing, "there was nothing said wrong." But he did not deny discussing Biden in conversations with Ukraine; when directly asked if he did, Trump responded, "It doesn't matter what I discussed." The White House did not comment on the story from The Wall Street Journal. Brendan Morrow
The largest retailer in the United States is ending the sale of e-cigarettes.
Walmart said Friday it will no longer sell e-cigarettes at its U.S. stores, citing "growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty," CNBC reports. The company plans to sell off its current inventory, after which it will "complete our exit."
This comes a week after President Trump announced his administration plans to ban flavored e-cigarettes. Walmart already announced it would stop selling fruit and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes earlier this year at the same time that it raised the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21, The Associated Press reports.
When Trump made his announcement last week, there had been reports of six deaths of lung disease tied to vaping, and that number has since risen to eight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday there have been 530 confirmed or probable cases of lung injury associated with e-cigarette use. Brendan Morrow
Facebook just significantly bumped up the number of apps it says it has suspended in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The company announced Friday that amid its effort to "root out bad actors among developers" beginning in March 2018, it has suspended "tens of thousands" of apps, which were "associated with about 400 developers."
Facebook launched this probe after it came to light in early 2018 that millions of users' personal data was improperly harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the privacy scandal, which ultimately resulted in a $5 billion Federal Trade Commission fine, and said the company would audit apps with access to large amounts of data.
The number Facebook provided Friday, The New York Times notes, is "far higher than it had previously disclosed," as the company in May 2018 announced it had suspended 200 apps, and then in August 2018, it said it had suspended 400 apps. Some of the apps were banned, Facebook said Friday, with possible reasons including "inappropriately sharing data obtained from us," although the company also says that "many" apps were still in the testing phase, and "this is not necessarily an indication that these apps were posing a threat to people."
But The Washington Post writes that the announcement is "likely to reignite calls for heightened regulation of the social media giant." Facebook says it has hasn't "confirmed other instances of misuse to date other than those we have already notified the public about" as part of this investigation, which is ongoing.
Zuckerberg has been on Capitol Hill this week meeting with skeptical lawmakers in an attempt to salvage the company's reputation. The trip, which included a meeting with President Trump, was described by Axios as a "charm tour." Brendan Morrow