A.M. Links: Obama Defends Prisoner Swap, New NSA Chief Doubts Snowden a Spy, NASA Releases Picture of Universe
(NASA)
NASA While in Poland, President Obama defended his decision to trade prisoners with the Taliban in order to secure the release of a soldier captured in Afghanistan, saying that it's what happens when wars wind down. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, however, was never listed as a prisoner of war. Obama will also meet with Ukraine's president elect, Petro Poroshenko, while in Poland.
- Adm. Michael Rogers, the new head of the National Security Agency, says whistleblower Edward Snowden is probably not a Russian spy.
- According to contract documents, the Secret Service is purchasing software that can detect sarcasm on the Internet. Great idea guys!
- The results of the Mississippi Republican Senate primary, between the six-term senator Thad Cochrane and Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party challenger, remain too close to call.
- Former Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi won the presidential election with 96 percent of the vote, according to the country's electoral authority.
- NASA released a new panorama composite photo of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that includes ultraviolet light for the first time.
- The pharmacologist who helped popularize MDMA, Alexander Shulgin, is dead at 88.
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