Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Today’s photos of insects were sent by Marcel van Oijen from Edinburgh, who notes that “these 13 pictures of insects we (my wife Netty and I) saw in Greece last April, one of which I hope you or your other readers can identify! All the photos were taken by Marcel, his captions and IDs are identified, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Insects in northern Greece
Marcel van Oijen & Netty van Dijk
We visited Greece in April 2025, mainly to look for orchids. But beautiful insects kept showing up. All pictures were taken with a Fujifilm X-T5.
The first four pictures are from Delphi. To the east of town are the famous ruins, but just north are mountain meadows with orchids and insects. This is a Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus).
The next two pictures are from the busy town of Nafpaktos. If you walk up to the old castle, you find peace and butterflies. This is a Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius):
The small island in Lake Pamvotida can be visited hourly by boat from Ioannina, the largest city in NW Greece. This is a Long-horned Bee (Eucera longicornis) on a bee orchid (Ophrys sp.):
The next three pictures were taken along the wonderful path through the Aoös gorge from Konitsa to the Stomio monastery. This is a Speckled Bush-cricket nymph (Leptophyes punctatissima) on a bee orchid (Ophrys sp.):
This little guy (Morimus asper funereus) was sitting quietly on the path and allowed me to lie down for a tête-à-tête:
A pair of mating European Firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus). They can stay coupled like this for many hours, making it easy to take pictures:
Copper Chafer (Protaetia cuprea) near the famous waterfalls of Edessa:
Male Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly (Calopteryx virgo) among the Roman-era ruins of Dion in Thessaly. The next picture was taken at the same spot:
Welcome to Friday, June 6, 2025, and it’s both Atheist Pride Day and Hug an AtheistDay. Below is a picture of the actual vinyl record album I was listening to in 1967 when I had my instant conversion to atheism. You can read about it here (archived):
President Trump on Wednesday signed a travel ban on 12 countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East, reviving an effort from his first term to prevent large numbers of immigrants and visitors from entering the United States.
The ban, which goes into effect on Monday, bars travel to the United States by citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Mr. Trump also imposed restrictions, but stopped short of a full ban, on travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. People from those countries cannot come to the United States permanently or get tourist or student visas.
The decision resurrects a policy from Mr. Trump’s first term, which caused chaos at airports and led to legal challenges. It is the latest move in Mr. Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, after he blocked asylum at the southern border, barred international students from Harvard University and ordered immigration raids across the country.
The decision came days after an Egyptian man in Colorado was arrested and charged with carrying out an attack on a group honoring hostages being held in Gaza. Trump administration officials had warned that there would be a crackdown after that attack.
“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colo., has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas,” Mr. Trump said in a video message announcing the travel ban. “We don’t want them.”
Egypt was not on the list of banned countries.
The current version of the travel ban is more likely to withstand legal scrutiny than Mr. Trump’s initial efforts during his first term, legal experts said.
Here’s the NYT map of countries from which travel is banned (red) or from which visas are restricted (orange).
I can see the reasons for restrictions on some but not all of these countries. But damn, I want to go to Cuba, and Americans can’t go there unless they’re part of a formal exchange, have special permission, or are doing group travel.
The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and the resumption of full-scale humanitarian aid deliveries to the enclave.
Ten nonpermanent members of the 15-seat Council had put forth the resolution for a vote. It was the first time since President Trump took office that the Council had considered a cease-fire resolution on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The United States was the only member to vote against the measure; the other 14 members of the Council, including Russia, voted in favor, once again highlighting Washington’s isolation on the global stage over its policy of unconditional support of Israel.
“We believe this text reflects the consensus shared by all Council members that the war in Gaza has to come to an immediate halt, all hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released, and civilians in Gaza must not starve and must have full and unimpeded access to aid,” said a joint statement from the 10 nonpermanent members, which was read by Slovenia’s ambassador to the U.N., Samuel Zbogar, at the Council meeting ahead of the vote.
Dorothy Camille Shea, the interim U.S. representative at the U.N., repeated Washington’s message that Israel had the right to defend itself, and she blamed Hamas for the suffering of Palestinians, saying the war would end if the group surrendered.
“Any product that undermines our close ally Israel’s security is a nonstarter,” Ms. Shea said, explaining the “no” vote.
The NYT then repeats a story that, as I’ve explained before, has been debunked:
The countries voting for a ceasefire include the four other permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, the UK and the Russian Federation), and the nonpermanent members (Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Somalia). Shame on these countries: do they have a solution to the problem of Hamas? And aid is being distributed in Israel, with the “starvation” problem reflecting not an Israeli-imposed dearth of food (there was enough food in Gaza to last 6-8 months before the temporary blockade) but the wholesale theft of food by Hamas, which either sequesters it or sells it on the open market. Further, there is no way that Hamas would even obey this UN resolution, for if it releases all the hostages, it loses its only bargaining chip.
* The James Webb telescope has discovered, the most distant galaxy ever found and therefore one of the earliest galaxies formed. Remember that the Big Bang occurred about 13.8 billion years ago, and this galaxy was formed about 0.003 billion years after that (it would have been nice had they done the calculation):
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) excels at a lot of things, but there are two things it does better than any other scientific instrument in human history: spotting early galaxies and breaking its own records!
Now, the $10 billion NASA space telescope has done both things again, detecting a galaxy that existed just 280 million years after the Big Bang, a feat that the team behind this research has dubbed a “cosmic miracle.”
Currently, as the earliest and most distant galaxy ever detected, this “the mother of all early galaxies,” this new JWST discovery has been fittingly designated “MoM z14.”
“First and foremost, at the moment, this is the most distant object known to humanity. That title changes every so often, but I find it is always cause for pause and reflection,” team member and Yale University professor of Astronomy and Physics Pieter van Dokkum told Space.com. “MoM z14 existed when the universe was about 280 million years old – we’re getting quite close to the Big Bang.
“Just to put that in context, sharks have been around on Earth for a longer timespan!”
Since it began sending data back to Earth in the summer of 2022, the JWST has excelled in detecting galaxies at so-called “high redshifts.”
Redshift refers to the phenomenon of the wavelength of light from distant and thus early sources being stretched and shifted toward the “red end” of the electromagnetic spectrum as it traverses expanding space.
The earlier and thus further away an object is, the greater the redshift.
But we know even more: we know what elements are in those stars!
The presence of carbon and nitrogen in MoM z14 indicates that there are earlier galaxies to be discovered than this 13.52 billion-year-old example.
That is because the very earliest galaxies in the universe and their stars were filled with the simplest elements in the cosmos, hydrogen and helium.
Later galaxies would be populated by these heavier elements, which astronomers somewhat confusingly call “metal,” as their stars forged them and then dispersed them in supernova explosions.
“MoM z14 is not one of the very first objects that formed in the universe, as the stars in those galaxies are composed of hydrogen and helium only – we would not see carbon or nitrogen,” van Dokkum said. “It could be part of the first wave of formation of ‘normal’ galaxies, that is, the first galaxies that have elements like nitrogen and carbon – but we’ve thought that before!”
Here’s the galaxy with the caption, “1 × 1′′ NIRCam RGB images (F090W, F115W, F277W) spanning 0.90-2.77 μm show a red compact source that is visible at ≳2 μm, but absent in short-wavelength bands.”
licensed under the CC Attribution 4.0 International license.
That James Webb Space Telescope is fricking amazing! It always stuns me when I realize that we can find out these truths about the universe, and do so using only stuff made from what we can wrest from our own soil and atmosphere and then make into various instruments.
*The WSJ proclaims that the Houthis are not only remarkably successful is hitting ships going through the Red Sea, but have in fact brought the U.S. to a stalemate:
Officials are now dissecting how a scrappy adversary was able to test the world’s most capable surface fleet. The Houthis proved to be a surprisingly difficult foe, engaging the Navy in its fiercest battles since World War II despite fighting from primitive quarters and caves in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The Houthis benefited from the proliferation of cheap missile and drone technology from Iran. They fired antiship ballistic missiles, the first-ever combat use of the Cold War-era weapon, and they innovated how they deployed their weaponry. The latest technologies have transformed maritime warfare, much the way they have rewritten the script for land wars in Ukraine—forcing militaries to adapt in real time. The U.S. is developing fresh ways to intercept the newest drones and missiles but still relies largely on expensive defense systems.
. . .Some 30 vessels participated in combat operations in the Red Sea from late 2023 through this year, around 10% of the Navy’s total commissioned fleet. In that time, the U.S. rained down at least $1.5 billion worth of munitions on the Houthis, a U.S. official said.
The Navy was able to destroy much of the Houthis’ arsenal—but it has yet to achieve the strategic goal of restoring shipping through the Red Sea, and the Houthis continue to regularly fire missiles at Israel.
Military and congressional leaders who have begun scrutinizing the campaign for lessons worry about the strain of such grueling deployments on overall force readiness. The Pentagon is also investigating the lost planes and a separate at-sea collision—incidents that all involved the Truman strike group—with results expected in the coming months.
Central Command—also known as Centcom, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East—declined to comment on ongoing investigations or on the campaign’s performance and impact.
The effects of the deployment will be felt for years. It drew resources from efforts in Asia to deter China and pushed back maintenance schedules for carriers. That could create critical gaps in the second half of the decade, when the giant warships will have no choice but to dock for service.
Despite the wear and tear, Navy officials said the fight with the Houthis offered invaluable combat experience, and the Red Sea conflict is viewed inside the Pentagon as a warm-up for a potential “high-end” conflict with China.
I presume the last sentence refers to U.S. involvement in a potential invasion of Taiwan by China, something that may be happening sooner than 2027, when China hinted it would invade the island nation.
Each night around sundown, cockatoos in western Sydney gather for a ritual: After waiting in line on a fence, they take turns at a drinking fountain, gripping the handle with their feet and leaning forward to release a bubbling stream of cool water.
The complex maneuver requires strength, fine motor skills and a healthy dose of innovation. It has been documented for the first time in what researchers say constitutes a new “urban-adapted local tradition” — providing an insight into how the birds change their behavior in response to their environment.
That’s according to a study published Wednesday in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters focused on sulphur-crested cockatoos — large sociable parrots with white bodies and yellow crests that are commonly found in Sydney.
The “drinking-fountain innovation” is the second time researchers have found the birds adapting their behavior to suit their environment, following a “bin-opening innovation” recorded by the same team in the city’s south, where birds were found to open the lids of household trash cans to access food waste.
Lucy Aplin, an associate professor at the Australian National University and University of Zurich, said the study was carried out as part of the Clever Cockie project, aimed at understanding how city living can drive behavioral change and social sharing. She said cockatoos are an excellent case study, as they are “opportunistic and successful” in human environments, while Australia’s relatively short history of urbanization means that evolutionary changes can be effectively ruled out.
Of course you’ll be wanting to see this behavior, and here it is (the paper will give you more information; the birds are successful only about half the time):
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is supervising another job: the fixing of the well by Mariusz, who, married to Paulina, lives upstairs:
A: What are you doing here?
Hili: I’m giving advice to Mariusz about the well repairs.
Masih is back again with a new post, and another sad one—another Iranian woman killed by the regime.
The Islamic Republic Just Let Another Woman Get Killed
Elahe Hosseinnejad young Iranian woman brutally murdered and this tragic news out of Iran has sparked outrage across social media and fueled growing anger among Iranians already fed up with their oppressive regime.
From Luana, a crazy courtroom moment (there are others in the thread). This moron, who appeared on video in the courtroom while driving his car (and with a suspended license), is promptly sent to jail:
The craziest courtroom moments.
A thread 🧵
A man with a suspended license joins a court Zoom call while driving in his car.
Judge Cedric Simpson can be seen looking surprised after defendant Corey Harris dialed into the meeting from his car. pic.twitter.com/vH3gIzZ6GZ
Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, about Crick’s notorious parties; clicking will take you to a short clip in which historian Lisa Jardine (daughter of Jacob Bronowski), implies that Crick’s parties were wild, though I”m sure they weren’t the same as Diddy’s “freak offs”:
There isn't much in my CRICK biography (out in November) about the Cricks' notorious Cambridge parties, but this 2011 clip of historian Lisa Jardine will give you some idea of what went on. (And yes, there is a lot of striking new material about Rosalind Franklin and her friendship with the Cricks).
And Colossal Biosciences is now going after its critics (the video at issue is about 90 minutes long!):
A representative of an anonymous client is trying to get me to remove this video conversation with @devoevomed.bsky.social about Colossal Biosciences "dire" wolvesSounds like Dr Lynch's critique of their poor science communication struck a nerve. Check it out herewww.youtube.com/live/C9_gJ6_…
News is not only slow, but what news we have is depressing. Plus I had to sit by the pond this morning while they cleaned out the algae, which scares the ducks, making them flee and hide. And they hide so well that you can’t find them or even see them. Fortunately, after a two-hour absence, they just returned (11 a.m.) and so I’m much relieved. This is why the presence of a mother duck is essential: the ducklings don’t know what to do. She herds them to a secluded spot and somehow makes them lie down and be quiet.
But nos let’s read about a colossal squid—a rarity just spotted, in a juvenile form, in the depths near the South Sandwich Islands. No, this is not an ancient squid “de-extincted” by Colossal Biosciences, nor is it what most of us thinks of as the “giant squid“, which is in another family. But this species is, as you’ll below, perhaps the biggest squid we know of in terms of mass. It also happens to be the heaviest invertebrate on Earth.
The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is a species of very large squid belonging to the family Cranchiidae, that of the cockatoo squids or glass squids. It is sometimes called the Antarctic cranch squid or giant squid (not to be confused with the giant squid in genusArchiteuthis) and is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass. It is the only recognized member of the genus Mesonychoteuthis.
The species is confirmed to reach a mass of at least 495 kilograms (1,091 lb), though the largest specimens—known only from beaks found in sperm whale stomachs—may perhaps weigh as much as 600–700 kilograms (1,300–1,500 lb),making it the largest extant invertebrate. Maximum total length is ~4.2 metres (14 ft). Larger estimates exist, however these include the feeding tentacles measured on dead specimens as in life the squid’s tentacles are hidden, only released when capturing prey. If tentacles are considered, lengths of 10 metres (33 ft) and 14 metres (46 ft) exist, but the former estimate is more likely. The colossal squid has the largest eyes of any known creature ever to exist, with an estimated diameter of 27–30 cm (11–12 in) to 40 cm (16 in) for the largest collected specimen.
Voilà: an 82-second video.
Wikipedia gives a size comparison of an adult squid with a human:
A faintly fluttering specter, at first hardly visible among bits of marine snow falling in slow motion, emerged from the deep-sapphire void. The pilot of the underwater robot brought the creature to the center of the frame, giving scientists on a ship at the ocean’s surface a good view of the strange life-form. Its mostly transparent, speckled dome was topped with fins that busily flapped like tiny wings, and its tentacles were drawn up underneath it, toward its glowing red undercarriage.
There was little fanfare—just a few minutes of quiet, almost reverent observation. But the encounter, 100 years in the making, marked the first time a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) had ever been caught on film in its natural habitat.
“This is one of the planet’s true giants, living in one of our most pristine marine ecosystems,” says Kat Bolstad, an associate professor at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, who helped independently identify the creature from the footage. “It’s a source of fascination and wonder, and it also plays a huge role in Antarctic food webs.”
. . . . “We filmed it because it was beautiful and unusual, and then we kind of descended back all the way down to the seafloor to do the exploration that the rest of that dive was focused on,” the expedition’s chief scientist, Michelle Taylor of the University of Essex in England, said during a press conference. It wasn’t until a few days later, after the team heard from some glass squid experts, that the researchers fully realized the observation’s significance.
. . . “To get footage of a juvenile is so wonderful,” said Aaron Evans, an independent glass squid expert, at the press conference. Scientists know colossal squid are born tiny, and some adult specimens are preserved in collections, but their time between those stages isn’t well understood. “So for us to see this kind of midrange size, in between a hatchling and an adult, is really exciting because it gives us the opportunity to fill in some of those missing puzzle pieces to the life history of this very mysterious and enigmatic animal.”
Susan Harrison, an ecologist at UC Davis and a regular contributor, sends us a narrative about how she became a Swiftie. Her notes and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
A miraculous waterfall and its avian inhabitants
or “How I became a Swiftie”
“The eighth wonder of the world,” Theodore Roosevelt once called Burney Falls in Shasta County, California. Amid a dry forested landscape, a massive cascade of water not only spills over a cliff in normal waterfall fashion, but also bursts through layered crevices in the rock to form sheets, veils and braids spanning hundreds of feet in width. The flow remains remarkably constant year-round and even in drought years.
Burney Falls:
These falls are one of the most important homes for the Black Swift, (Cypseloides niger), a rare and mysterious bird that nests behind waterfalls and on sea cliffs at only about 80 known locations.
State Park sign announcing the waterfall’s statistics and its celebrated inhabitant:
Swifts fly with rapid stiff wingbeats and make dizzying swoops as they catch insects and visit their well-hidden nests. They weren’t named for standing still, and indeed can’t stand at all since their legs are tiny and weak. (Their family name is Apodidae, meaning “no feet”.)
Black Swifts swooping around Burney Falls; these photos are the best my camera and I could do with a fast and faraway subject:
These two may be the co-occurring and more common Vaux’s Swift (Chaetura vauxi), based on their pale heads, but please feel free to weigh in if you’re an expert (= a Swiftie?): \
Why Burney Falls is so copious and constant:
Burney Mountain, source of the mighty underground river that feeds the falls:
Unassuming little Burney Creek less than a mile above the falls:
FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps built the trails and stonemasonry that give access to Burney Falls and so many other natural wonders. My hat is perennially off to those hardworking survivors of the Great Depression.
Welcome to Thursday, June 5, 2020, and National Gingerbread Day. I love the stuff, but it’s best when served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or, in a pinch, applesauce. Here are some gingerbread angels at a fair I photographed in Katowice, Poland on December 7 of last year:
Former White House cost-cutting czar Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending package a “disgusting abomination,” stepping up his criticism just as the Senate is trying to quickly pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.
Musk’s comments are his latest sharp words about the package, which includes tax cuts as well as reductions to spending on Medicaid and food assistance. Last month, he gave new fuel to GOP critics of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar agenda, saying that the current measure failed to reduce the federal deficit.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.” He issued a warning on the midterm elections: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
“This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” he wrote in an overnight post.
Here’s his tweet (or “X emission”):
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
The bill narrowly passed the House last month by one vote. It is now in the hands of the Senate, where some fiscal hawks, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, have demanded deeper cuts.
The Senate is aiming to make changes to the bill and then send it back to the House. Backers can afford to lose no more than a handful of GOP votes in either chamber, with all Democrats expected to be opposed. Still, the White House and GOP leaders said that Musk’s statements didn’t shake their confidence in passing the measure.
Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”
I don’t know what’s going to happen to this bill, but I for one would prefer that they don’t lower taxes on the very rich and ensure that those who need Medicaid get it.
*At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ll give a few excerpts from Colin Wright’s newest post, “Imane Khelif is male—and the evidence was always clear.” As I wrote recently, a test a few years ago revealed that Khelif had XY chromosomes, and thus was a biological male, though he was raised as a female. He won the welterweight gold medal in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics. Despite his indubitable maleness, he Khelif still has his defenders. Wright:
Rather than accept the biological reality, Khelif and his team launched a carefully staged PR campaign after the Olympics, designed to portray him as hyper-feminine. Social media was flooded with images of Khelif in flowery dresses and heavy makeup, striking exaggeratedly feminine poses. It was a cringe-worthy attempt to sway public opinion with aesthetics rather than facts. But no amount of eyeliner can alter your chromosomes. Womanhood is not achieved through hairspray and posturing; it is a matter of biology.
Despite what should have been a straightforward matter, the media played a central role in confusing the public. Outlets like NPR referred to Khelif as a “female athlete.” The Associated Press described him as someone “assigned female at birth.” GLAAD called him a “cisgender woman,” and The Economic Times chalked up Khelif’s hormonal profile to “endogenous testosterone that is naturally produced.”
Let’s be clear: Khelif is not female. That’s the one fact that actually matters in a women’s sporting category. The other descriptors might be technically accurate within the bizarre framework of gender ideology, but they fail entirely to describe objective reality. If someone is born with XY chromosomes and internal testes due to a DSD like 5-ARD, then the sex recorded on their birth certificate is a clerical error—not a truth that must shape our sporting policies. Calling Khelif “cisgender” because he was misidentified at birth and identifies with that incorrect label is linguistic gymnastics that ignores the fundamental biological truth: Khelif is male.
Of all the distractions thrown up to obscure this reality, none were more absurd than the idea that Khelif’s disqualification in 2023 was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The theory went something like this: because IBA President Umar Kremlev has ties to Vladimir Putin, and because Khelif once beat a prized Russian boxer, the Kremlin retaliated by fabricating Khelif’s DNA test results. This theory ignores several inconvenient facts. First, the IBA allowed Khelif to appeal the ruling, and even offered to cover the costs. Second, the easiest way to discredit Russia would have been to publicly release new, independently verified test results. Instead, Khelif withdrew the appeal, and Algeria sent a legal threat demanding the results be sealed. That doesn’t sound like someone who was confident the test was wrong. It sounds like someone who knew the test was right.
Even more bizarrely, Khelif threatened lawsuits against J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk for spreading what he claimed were lies about his sex. But if those statements were truly false, the path to vindication was simple: release the medical records. Instead, Khelif’s team has fought to keep them hidden while trying to convince the public through press releases and staged photo ops. Meanwhile, everyone with an understanding of basic biology, or frankly just common sense, could already see the truth.
. . . . The lesson here is simple. Had we put truth before ideology from the beginning, this wouldn’t have been a controversy at all. The facts were always there. The science was always clear. If you understood how human sex works and followed the evidence, then this revelation was no revelation at all. It was merely the inevitable emergence of the truth, which has a funny way of eventually surfacing no matter how deep it’s buried.
Blame ideology and the media. After all, if he thinks of himself as a woman (and he well might have, as he was raised as a female) doesn’t that make him a woman? Here’s the document at issue:
As Richard Feynman said about the Challenger accident, ““For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”
*Mohamed Sabry Soliman, accused of committing the Boulder firebomb attacks on Jews peacefully calling attention to the hostages in Gaza (at least a dozen people were injured), has been taken into custody by ICE—along with his entire family.
Federal authorities said Tuesday that they had taken into custody the family of the man accused of injuring at least a dozen people at a Colorado demonstration to support Israeli hostages in Gaza and that they are expediting their deportation from the United States.
The White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said on social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s wife and five children two days after he allegedly used molotov cocktails to attack marchers in Boulder. Noem said the agency was investigating “to what extent his family knew about the heinous attack” and “if they provided support.”
On its X account, the White House wrote that the family had been placed in expedited removal proceedings and that “THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.”
Immigration and criminal defense lawyers struggled Tuesday to recall similar examples of entire families being detained for deportation proceedings immediately after a relative was charged with a crime. And some immigration experts questioned the legality of deporting Soliman’s family members under expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process created in 1996 that does not allow immigrants to have a hearing before an immigration judge. They are also not entitled to a lawyer.
“It’s not normal,” said Derege Demissie, who has been practicing law for nearly 30 years and is a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “I don’t remember a situation where family members who are not connected with any criminal activity are targeted by ICE because a close or related family member is charged in connection with a crime.”
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said Tuesday that the State Department had revoked the family’s visitor visas.
There are two questions here. First, if the guy committed terrorism and attempted murder, why are they deporting him rather than putting him on trial? There’s little doubt of his guilt: there are videos and he was apprehended on the spot. Second, why are they deporting his family? If they entered illegally, well, yes, they can do that because they violated the law, but if they don’t have any evidence that the family was complicit in the attack—and how could they be with five children?—then they can get in line after the deported convicted criminals. The lack of a trial for an accused attempted murderer baffles me.
Patricia Krenwinkel, a onetime follower of the cult leader Charles Manson who was convicted in the murders of seven people in the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles, should be released on parole, a panel of the California parole board recommended on Friday.
Ms. Krenwinkel, 77, the state’s longest-serving female inmate, is one of two Manson followers connected with the August 1969 murder spree who remain in prison.
She was sent to death row in 1971. After the state’s highest court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, Ms. Krenwinkel’s sentence was reduced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, as it was for all those convicted in the Manson group’s murders.
Ms. Krenwinkel, who has spent the last 54 years in the California Institution for Women in Chino, first became eligible for parole in 1976. This was her 16th appearance before the parole suitability panel.=
The provisional decision has to be reviewed by the legal division of the Board of Parole Hearings. That process can take up to four months, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
If the full board agrees with the panel’s recommendation, Gov. Gavin Newsom has 30 days to review its decision. He could reject it, or send it back for further review.
In 2022, the parole board panel recommended that Ms. Krenwinkel be paroled but Mr. Newsom reversed its decision, according to state records. Mr. Newsom wrote at the time that Ms. Krenwinkel “still poses an unreasonable danger to society if paroled at this time.”
And what she is in for (from Wikipedia):
Krenwinkel was a participant in the murders on August 9, 1969, at 10050 Cielo Drive, home of actress Sharon Tate and four others. After stabbing Abigail Folger, Krenwinkel went back inside and summoned Tex Watson, who also stabbed Folger. During her trial, Krenwinkel said, “I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her.” When asked how it felt, Krenwinkel replied: “Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right.”
Krenwinkel participated willingly in more murders the following night. She recounted during her December 29, 2016, parole hearing the events of the night of August 10, 1969.[9] Along with Manson, Watson, Atkins, Clem Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian, she went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca where she, Watson, and Van Houten murdered the couple.
Here’s a photo of Krenwinkel from 1973:
Fitzgerald Whitney, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Well, if she’s no longer a danger to society, I think 50 years in jail is a sufficient deterrent to let her go. I suspect she isn’t going to kill any more people.
*The whole world is baying for Israel’s blood after Hamas leveled an accusation that the IDF killed 30 Gazans as they approached a distribution center for humanitarian aid. That is most likely false, a confection of the liars at Hamas, yet both the BBC and Washington Post bought the story. Now they have both retracted their stories. First, about the WaPo:
The Washington Post on Tuesday filed a correction to a recent article claiming the IDF killed over 30 people near an aid site in Gaza, naming the source as “health officials.”
The article, published Sunday and viewed over two million times before the correction, was changed because the Washington Post claimed it “didn’t meet Post fairness standards.”
According to a social media post on X/Twitter, the article “failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post.”
Although the original article included statements from Israel, including an initial inquiry indicating IDF soldiers did not fire at civilians at the aid centers, the newspaper admitted it didn’t “give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings.”
. . .The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center in Rafah denied on Sunday claims that the IDF attacked a food distribution point near Rafah, contradicting widely circulated Hamas reports.
Security camera footage from Sunday’s aid distribution site shows calm civilian activity, with no incidents reported. Aid was delivered without disruption, and the available evidence does not support claims of injuries or fatalities. While some media outlets have reported these allegations, others have contacted the organization to verify the facts, the GHF stated.
The WaPo’s tweet:
Correction: We’ve deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.
The background: Early versions of the article on Sunday stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, with the… pic.twitter.com/KseRXgJn6A
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 3, 2025
And the BBC (which denies that it changed its story):
On June 1, the BBC issued a breaking update claiming that “Israeli tanks” opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at an aid site, killing 26. The allegation was presented without confirmation, based solely on anonymous sources: “residents and medics” and a “local Palestinian journalist.” The details, according to the BBC’s own Middle East Editor Sebastian Usher, included bodies carted away by donkey, and “thousands” of civilians gathered near the U.S.-backed aid center in Rafah.
The story appeared as a major headline update to an already misleading and sympathetic headline about Hamas’ ceasefire rejection: “Hamas pledges to free 10 living hostages but seeks permanent ceasefire in response to US plan.”
That headline stayed live for much of the day. The claim of 26 dead later became 31, courtesy of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. And despite a firm denial from the GHF — stating unequivocally that reports of deaths and injuries were “false and fabricated” and warning that the lies were being “actively fomented by Hamas” — the BBC did not retract the story.
The headline:
The IDF denies firing at any civilians, and the retractions of two organizations that it did, along with the assurance of the Gaza Humanitarian foundation above, makes it nearly certain that the claims of Israel attacking Gazan civilians trying to get humanitarian aid was false. (And ask yourself: what would be the IDF’s interest in doing that?) Here’s the IDF’s tweet:
False reports have been spread In recent hours, including serious allegations against the IDF regarding fire toward Gazan residents in the area of the humanitarian aid distribution site in Gaza.
Findings from an initial inquiry indicate that 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗗𝗙 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲…
But it’s too late: the world has laid another blood libel at the doorstep of Israel. Media like the WaPo and BBC will believe any lie from Hamas that demonizes Israel. It’s infuriating.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron want to rest:
Hili: He wants to make the bed.
Szaron: Tell him that we are still asleep.
In Polish:
Hili: On chce posłać łóżko.
Szaron: Powiedz mu, że jeszcze śpimy.
*******************
From Jesus of the Day via Adam Ziemann at Art is Art. Jesus is recharging at night:
From Meow, mother and children (again, I hope this is real!):
Masih’s still recuperating, I guess, but here’s JKR responding to a nasty person. She loves to do this stuff.
He’s asleep on the sofa beside me with a West Highland Terrier lying on his chest, but I’ll pass on your sympathy when he wakes up👍 pic.twitter.com/ysV9VznUxT
Greta Thunberg and a handful of other privileged activists are sailing to Gaza on a tiny boat to “deliver aid.”
At best, they’ve got enough supplies for maybe a dozen people. It’s not humanitarian—it’s the most pathetic, performative stunt imaginable.pic.twitter.com/D7fWeIcR9K
Natasha fights for the truth on the Piers Morgan show.
For too long comedians, influencers and conspiracy theorists have perpetuated the conflict with circus act “entertainment” that means innocent people continue to suffer. pic.twitter.com/7WZqwBodBy
— Natasha Hausdorff (@HausdorffMedia) June 4, 2025
One from the Auschwitz Memorial that I reposted:
A Dutch Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was nine.
A female Western Gull was recorded riding 150km in a garbage truck from San Francisco to a compost facility in Central CA, probably to forage. TWICE. An innovator, an icon, a genius.This is one of my favorite @waterbirdsociety.bsky.social papers I've ever handled as managing editor #ornithology
I’ve been meaning to post this for some time; it’s a letter from a petulant Wall Street Journal reader who’s respondong to my op-ed about the KerFFRFle: my clash with the Freedom from Religion Foundation about whether, as one of its fellows wrote, “A woman is whoever she says she is.” The reader thinks that this self-identification is a perfectly good definition of “woman” as opposed to the gamete-based definition that most biologists hold.
The psychologically-based definition implies that the objective reality of who you are is exactly who you think you are. I won’t go over that well-trodden ground except to say again that there are lots of people who claim to be things or people that are not objectively true, like all the religious people who claim to be prophets. But just check the Oxford English definition for “woman,” and you won’t find anything based on self-conception. Instead, you find this:
I guess the OED hasn’t caught up to progressive wordsmithing!
At any rate, David Opderbeck, a professor of law at Seton Hall University, had a rather confused response in the WSJ, which I’ve put below. I’ll have a few words about it after you read it:
What is the sweating professor trying to say? First, Dr. Opoderbeck doesn’t seem to realize that the conflict is about the biological definition of “woman”, and so he claims that there can be many definitions of woman, presumably including men who say they are women.
Now this part I don’t understand at all:
. . . . . when they otherwise vigorously deny that there is any objective reality to traditional ontological categories. A “human,” for dogmatic materialists such as Mr. Coyne, after all, is nothing but a random configuration of matter, without substance, intentionality, teleology, mind or being beyond the entirely contingent fact that matter happens to have configured itself in a certain way in this moment of evolutionary time.
How do we chop through this thicket of verbal weeds? Of course I accept that there is an objective reality to an individual human, and of course a human can be defined as a member of a group, Homo sapiens, having certain biological traits (note the similarity to “woman”). As for the claim that reality has to involve teleology about material objects that “happen to have configured themselves in a certain way at this moment of evolutionary time,” it’s opaque if not ludicrous. There is no teleology in evolution, and matter does not “configure itself.” If that were true, I’d configure myself into the young Robert Redford. But all this confusing verbiage, I detect a whiff of religion, And that supposition is supported by the observation that Opderbeck got his master’s degree at Fuller Theological Seminary, and has written some books with a theological bent:
His first two books, Law and Theology: Classic Questions and Contemporary Perspectives (Fortress Press 2019) and The End of the Law? Law, Theology, and Neuroscience (Wipf & Stock / Cascade 2021) received broad acclaim. His third book, Faithful Exchange: The Economy as It’s Meant to Be, a theological assessment of economic paradigms informed by rule of law principles, will be released by Fortress Press in 2025. In addition to his appointment at the Law School, he is Affiliated Faculty in Seton Hall’s Department of Religion.
Theology is, as Dan Barker observed, a subject without an object, and “theological assessments of economic paradigms” seems a very weird thing to do.
But never mind. In his second paragraph, Opderbeck supports the FFRF self-conception definition, meaning that he also supports whatever brain chemistry that makes some individuals objectively fat because, although they have anorexia and are skeletal, nevertheless think that they’re fat. Or whatever brain chemistry makes a person think that they are Jesus reincarnated. Yes, they must be Jesi.
Opderbeck’s ignorance is best revealed when he claims that the gamete-only doctrine is “arbitrary” and that I think it’s “best for society”. It’s not at all arbitrary, but comes from biologists observing animals and plants over more than two centuries, and observing that, yes, all species have only two types of reproductive systems. One evolved to make small mobile gametes (males) and the other large immobile ones (females). That’s hardly arbitrary. As for that definition being best for society, that’s like saying that recognizing that Saturn goes around the Sun is arbitrary, but recognizing that is good for society. These claims would be true only under the construal that recognizing the truth is good for society. But clearly that’s not what Opderbeck means.
In fact, I myself am not sure what Opderbeck means, except that he’s cooked up a hash of words that imply that reality is, objectively, what you think it is; that biology is driven by teleology; and that an objective recognition of gamete types that maps perfectly onto what biologists have recognized forever is nevertheless just “arbitrary.”
All I can say is, “Lawyer, stick to your courtroom.”
The latest Jesus and Mo strip, called, “trite,” is correctly captioned “The idiocy of theodicy.” Indeed, this is the kind of babble you encounter when you read “sophisticated theology”, as interpreted by folks like Alvin Plantinga or, now, Ross Douthat. I’m amazed that people actually get paid to make up this kinds of palaver.
