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Article written by Avalon Stewart, Feb 4th 2026
A Brighter Look
NASA Telescope Finds Distant Galaxy
NASA’s James Webb Space telescope, launched on Dec. 25th 2021, has yet again widened our view of the ever expansive universe with its newest discovery. The Webb Telescope does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope, it orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.
The James Webb has broken past its own farthest reach and has the most distant galaxy we’ve ever been able to capture. With this discovery we are closer than we ever have been to understanding the cosmic dawn, which is the period from about 50 million years to one billion years after the Big Bang when the first stars, black holes, and galaxies in the Universe formed. This new galaxy has been named MoM-z14, and its light has traveled a whopping 13.5 billion years in order to reach Earth.
Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, astronomers confirmed that MoM-z14 has a cosmological redshift of 14.44, meaning that its light has been travelling through (expanding) space, being stretched and “shifted” to longer, redder wavelengths, for about 13.5 of the universe’s estimated 13.8 billion years of existence. This is a very exciting discovery for the scientific community.
IRF Summit Address
On February second, in Washington D.C, the International Religious Freedom Summit held their 6th annual conference, made up of a broad coalition of religious and human rights groups that advocate for religious freedom for all people across the globe.
Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit and president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights, speaks during the opening session of the IRF Summit at the Washington Hilton in Washington, Monday, Feb. 2. Christian Daily International
On February second, in Washington D.C, the International Religious Freedom Summit held their 6th annual conference, made up of a broad coalition of religious and human rights groups that advocate for religious freedom for all people across the globe.
According to the IRF website, “The IRF Summit brings together a broad coalition of partners that passionately supports religious freedom around the globe for an annual two-day in-person event in Washington, D.C. These 90+ organizations represent over 30 distinct faith traditions and are the core of the civil society movement to advance international religious freedom around the globe”.
Statements were made by two co-chairs, Katrina Lantos Swett and Sam Brownback. Swett in a statement said, “...over 80% of the world’s population live in countries where there is some degree of repression, persecution, and societal and legal imposition on this fundamental human right”. She also named what she claims to be the countries that are the biggest actors in this religious persecution; Russia, Iran, Nigeria, India, and at the very top, China. In agreement with Swett on China, Brownback stated, “...they oppress their people, but then they also produce the technology that goes out to, we think, nearly 80 countries for oppression”. One country seems to have been left off of this list however, with the Pew Research Center reporting that Most American adults (82%) say Muslims are subject to at least some discrimination in the U.S. today, and roughly two-thirds of Americans (64%) also say Jews face at least some discrimination.
Trump Withdraw 700 Ice Agents
Earlier today it was reported that the Trump administration will be withdrawing 700 federal immigration (ICE) agents from Minnesota, with Minneapolis having had over 3,000 federal agents funnel in throughout the last two months. Comparing this to the fact that Minneapolis as a city only has about 600 police officers in duty. Before the sudden expansion of ICE agents, Minneapolis only had 150 federal immigration enforcements officers; that’s a 1900% increase in number.
White House border czar Tom Homan speaks Wednesday at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis.Charly Tribablleau / AFP via Getty Images
Douglas Homan, whom in November 2024, Donald Trump designated Homan as "border czar" for Trump's second presidency stated, “Let me be clear, President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country”.
All of this comes with Kristi Noem’s announcement on Monday that body cameras would go to immigration agents in Minneapolis, where there have been calls for accountability after two deadly shootings. This move will not be immediate nationwide and will only come when “funding is available”, but Noem has stated that this move was in “the interest of transparency". Whether this will lead to any positive change is yet to be seen.
Avalon Stewart
Avalon Stewart
Avalon is from Mount Vernon, Washington. She is a Freshman at Whitman College and plans to major in Psychology and Politics. In high school she competed in Speech and Debate all four years and even was state champ in Congressional Debate. She is passionate about politics and the process of delivering news that people can trust.
Lead editor for The Lamplight
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