WASHINGTON — Humanity got its first glimpse Wednesday of the cosmic place of no return: a black hole.

And it’s as hot, as violent and as beautiful as science fiction imagined.

In a breakthrough that thrilled the world of astrophysics and stirred talk of a Nobel Prize, scientists released the first image ever made of a black hole, revealing a fiery doughnut-shaped object in a galaxy 53 million light-years from Earth.

“Science fiction has become science fact,” University of Waterloo theoretical physicist Avery Broderick, one of the leaders of the research team of about 200 scientists from 20 countries, declared as the colorized orange-and-black picture was unveiled.

The image, assembled from data gathered by eight radio telescopes around the world, shows light and gas swirling around the lip of a supermassive black hole, a monster of the universe whose existence was theorized by Einstein more than a century ago but confirmed only indirectly over the decades.

 

Barr: ‘I think spying did occur’ against Trump campaign

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr declared Wednesday he thinks “spying did occur” against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, suggesting the origins of the Russia investigation may have been mishandled in remarks that aligned him with the president at a time when Barr’s independence is under scrutiny.

Barr, appearing before a Senate panel, did not say what “spying” may have taken place but seemed to be alluding to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained on a Trump aide. He later said he wasn’t sure there had been improper surveillance but wanted to make sure proper procedures were followed.

Still, his remarks give a boost to Trump and his supporters who insist his 2016 campaign was unfairly targeted by the FBI.

Barr was testifying for a second day at congressional budget hearings that were dominated by questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation. The attorney general said he expects to release a redacted version of Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the campaign next week.

Democrats have expressed concern that his version will conceal wrongdoing by the president and are frustrated by the four-page summary letter he released last month that they say paints Mueller’s findings in an overly favorable way for the president.

 

Ribbon cutting a last act for ousted Trump DHS officials

WASHINGTON — Kirstjen Nielsen and other longtime civil servants stood outside the Department of Homeland Security’s new headquarters Wednesday in the breezy sunshine — a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a building they’d never work in.

Nielsen, homeland security secretary for a few more hours, stood smiling next to her replacement. Both held giant gold scissors, and on a count of three, they sliced through the blue ribbon together. If there were bad feelings or awkwardness, they weren’t on display. The event felt more like a graduation than the bloodbath orchestrated by the White House this week to axe the agency’s leadership.

Nielsen, for her part, seemed relaxed as she stepped to the podium to address her employees one last time. She spoke of their accomplishments together, and cracked a joke about how construction took so long she almost didn’t see the new headquarters, erected at the site of an old federal psychiatric hospital.

Nielsen resigned Sunday, ending a tumultuous tenure at the helm of a sprawling department of 240,000 people responsible for border security, disaster relief, cyber security, counterterrorism and other missions.