We bring life-saving relief in emergencies and use food assistance to build peace stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict disasters and the impact of climate change bringing life-saving assistance in emergencies and supporting sustainable and resilient livelihoods to achieve a world with zero hunger We work in over 120 countries and territories combining emergency assistance with long-term development while adapting our activities to the context and challenges of each location and its people There is a variety of ways in which people can support WFP’s mission to eliminate hunger from making a donation to bringing your expertise to our work on the frontlines The World Food Programme welcomes the agreed ceasefire announced Wednesday (15 January) But a ceasefire is only the start – not the end – of what’s needed to reach desperate and hungry families in Gaza WFP needs US$300 million to meet urgent needs in the enclave over the next six months. WFP has enough food pre-positioned along the borders and on its way to Gaza to feed over a million people for three months UNRWA has enough supplies to support another million To make a meaningful impact on the food security of people in Gaza WFP needs the international community to scale up funding If commercial supplies of food and other goods are in place we will also provide cash to families so they can buy food and other essentials Around 80,000 tons of food is waiting outside Gaza or on its way into Gaza (Jordan Egypt and Ashdod) – enough to feed over a million people for three months You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Paleontologists have described a new species of the extant bee genus Leioproctus from a fossil specimen found in southern New Zealand the new species lived during the Middle Miocene epoch The ancient insect belongs to Leioproctus, a large genus within the plasterer bee family Colletidae They are found in Australasia and South America and include the most common native bees in New Zealand “The biota of New Zealand is a mosaic of ancient lineages interspersed among arrays of relative newcomers that have diversified since the Oligocene-Miocene,” said Dr Michael Engel from the American Museum of Natural History and Dr Uwe Kaulfuss from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in many respects the fauna is typical of an island biota reflective of lineages dispersing to the landmass at various times since its breakup from Gondwana c 80 million years ago and then speciating.” “Some insect lineages have clearly thrived and evolved unique features within New Zealand but many are conspicuously and enigmatically depauperate given the complexity and scale of the landscape seemingly reflecting their late arrival to the islands,” they added some prominent and complex biological interactions are poorly represented within the modern New Zealand fauna such as specialized insect pollinators which are few in New Zealand and generalist flies are the dominant pollinators.” although bees are the preeminent pollinators worldwide with only 42 species of which a mere 28 are endemic.” “This has led to a perception that bees are comparative newcomers to New Zealand and in the absence of any fossil record it has been challenging to determine the antiquity of the melittofauna.” Leioproctus barrydonovani is represented by an impression of a nearly complete bee in dorsal view The specimen (total length of the body is 6.4 mm) was recovered from the Middle Miocene deposits of the Hindon Maar in Otago articulated fossil bee preserved as part and counterpart in dark gray organic mudstone,” the paleontologists said The presence of Leioproctus barrydonovani in the Middle Miocene fauna of New Zealand poses some interesting ideas regarding the bee fauna of these islands “If the genus had invaded New Zealand before 14.6 million years ago then it should have been sufficient time for the group to have more extensively diversified or to develop floral specializations with the endemic flora,” the researchers said that there are merely 18 species of endemic Leioproctus indicating that either there was a diversification that was subsequently winnowed considerably through extinction and driven by factors unknown that some complex biotic processes or interactions prevented the lineage from more extensive speciation or that the modern Leioproctus of New Zealand are unrelated to the fossil and represent one or more later reintroductions between the mid-Miocene and Pleistocene.” there are currently no data to indicate that the three groups of Leioproctus in New Zealand form a monophyletic group and they themselves could represent multiple “If the fossil is representative of an early invasion of Leioproctus into New Zealand during or before the Middle Miocene then one would hypothesize that a greater number of species would have developed across the complex landscape and climates of the islands.” Leioproctus barrydonovani inhabited broadleaf forests and may have visited flowers of the genus Pseudopanax is known to collect pollen from flowers of Pseudopanax a genus of small trees and shrubs common throughout New Zealand,” the scientists said “Among 48 fossilized flowers collected at the Hindon Maar Complex all but two are Araliaceae flowers of an undescribed species of Pseudopanax.” “Although there is no direct evidence of the host plant(s) of Leioproctus barrydonovani (no pollen was found attached to the fossil) the abundance of flowers of Pseudopanax in the same deposit might indicate that this Miocene bee species visited Pseudopanax sp. the potential to recover in situ pollen is great should additional and more complete bees be uncovered in future excavations.” “Direct evidence of such floral associations has been recorded from other important Lagerstätten and the Hindon Maar Complex and nearby Foulden Maar have considerable potential for glimpses into insect-plant interactions during the Miocene of Zealandia.” The discovery of Leioproctus barrydonovani is reported in a paper in the journal Zoosystema A bee from the middle Miocene Hindon Maar of southern New Zealand (Hymenoptera Zoosystema 47 (3): 43-49; doi: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a3 Star explosions called novas are happening twice as often near a gargantuan black hole jet as they are in the rest of the galaxy Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a gigantic "blowtorch-like" jet blasting out of a black hole — and it seems to be causing nearby stars to explode The 3,000-light-year-long trail of flaming plasma is beaming out from a supermassive black hole with a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun in the center of the galaxy M87 Getting caught in this beam would be deadly for any cosmic object even being in its vicinity can be devastating The superheated energy beam appears to be causing nearby star systems to erupt in explosions called novas Yet exactly why this is happening remains a mystery "This means there's something missing from our understanding of how black hole jets interact with their surroundings." The researchers published their findings Aug. 14 on the pre-print server arXiv Related: Biggest black hole jets ever seen are as long as 140 Milky Ways Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox how these jets affect their surroundings is largely unknown the researchers found that twice as many novas were erupting in star systems near the jet than in the wider galaxy Novas typically occur in binary star systems after a white dwarf — the smoldering husk of a dead star — steals hydrogen fuel from its normal star partner, causing the white dwarf to explode like a giant nuclear bomb It seems the black hole jet is causing the same thing to happen to these nova systems but the exact mechanism has not been observed "There's something that the jet is doing to the star systems that wander into the surrounding neighborhood," Lessing said "Maybe the jet somehow snowplows hydrogen fuel onto the white dwarfs —James Webb telescope discovers the oldest, most distant black hole in the universe —Black holes may be swallowing invisible matter that slows the movement of stars —What's the biggest black hole in the universe? "But it's not clear that it's a physical pushing," he added "It could be the effect of the pressure of the light emanating from the jet Something might be doubling the mass transfer rate onto the white dwarfs near the jet." is that the jet material was somehow being captured by the regular companion stars causing them to spill onto their white dwarf counterparts astronomers will need to look for direct observations of star eruptions occurring around cosmic jets but given that one nova erupts in M87 every day Ben TurnerSocial Links NavigationSenior Staff WriterBen Turner is a U.K among other topics like tech and climate change He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess Physicists create 'black hole bomb' for first time on Earth James Webb Space Telescope finds a wild black hole growth spurt in galaxies at 'cosmic noon' Dáil members call for investigation after far-right leader gave false country of birth to Canada’s immigration officers Irish parliamentarians have called on their government to investigate how an Irish passport was obtained by Tommy Robinson, who has been accused of inciting riots from abroad. The Luton-born far-right leader travels on an Irish passport in his real name – Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – and was believed to have qualified for it via his mother, an Irish immigrant to Britain. However, questions have been raised about the validity of the passport after an official form issued to Robinson when he was detained by Canadian immigration authorities in June stated that his place of birth was “Ireland”. a former justice minister who chairs the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee said: “Any questions over the integrity of the Irish passport system must be taken most seriously “Eligibility for Irish citizenship and grounds for holding an Irish passport are clearly defined in law Any alleged violation must not only be taken seriously but acted upon and subject to formal investigation by the appropriate authorities.” Two other members of the Irish parliament also expressed concern said: “If there are any question marks over the integrity of someone’s passport then that must be investigated Accurate country of birth information is integral to any passport application.” He called on the UK Foreign Office and Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs to liaise in relation to the accuracy of information given “We must take on all far-right activism when we see it If someone is travelling on an Irish passport and fomenting far-right hate then we have a responsibility to explore all methods of pressure to stop it,” Smith added “It is concerning that someone who is inciting racist violence across Britain and Ireland appears to be travelling on an Irish passport,” said Paul Murphy “It is doubly concerning that the Canadian documentation suggests that his place of birth was falsely given as Ireland his passport would have been issued on a fraudulent basis and could be revoked.” It is unclear why Robinson has chosen to travel on the Irish passport. One reason may be to avoid post-Brexit queues at airports, an irony given that the far-right leader was a committed supporter of leaving the European Union However, he also has a number of criminal convictions, ranging from assaulting an off-duty police officer to stalking he was jailed for 10 months for using someone else’s passport to travel to the US He was arrested in June in Canada on suspicion of committing an immigration offence The image of the immigration authority form was tweeted by Robinson after he was detained having been ordered to stay in the country and hand over his passport Robinson has been cultivating links with the emerging Irish far right and visited the country in February last year telling followers on social media that he had come to “report” on anti-immigrant sentiment While his presence was welcomed by some among the Irish far right others were more hostile towards cooperation with British equivalents such as Robinson who was a member of the British National party in the 2000s Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information A pair of Swarovski jewel-encrusted sneakers at a Golden Goose SpA store in the Mayfair district of London Golden Goose may indicate its intention to float as soon as this week following positive feedback from prospective investors, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Reporting by Nicolás Misculin and Jorge Otaola; Editing by Marguerita Choy Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved An aerial view of the house shows the locations of the coins as well as other artifacts The coins were found beneath a home and were likely hidden by mercenaries Archaeologists have discovered a pot of buried treasure overflowing with ancient Greek coins in Turkey located 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Notion according to a statement from the University of Michigan Researchers think the mercenaries used the hoard as payment the project that led to the discovery the coins So only the gravest misfortune can explain the preservation of such a treasure." Related: 32 stunning centuries-old hoards unearthed by metal detectorists A few stylistic clues indicate that the coins were struck sometime during the fifth century B.C — a time stamp archaeologists are using to help uncover the sequence of events that led to the treasure's burial "This hoard will provide a firm date that can serve as an anchor to help fix the chronology of the (entire sequence of coins)," Ratté said "According to the Greek historian Xenophon a single daric was equivalent to a soldier's pay for one month." the site has been a hotbed for artifact finds hidden "in earlier walls incorporated into the foundations of the house," which dates to the Hellenistic period —1,700-year-old 'emergency hoard' of coins dates to last revolt of Jews against Roman rule —Buried treasure of 44 Byzantine gold coins found in nature reserve in Israel —17th-century hoard brimming with 1,000 coins discovered in Poland and lasted until the conquest of the final Hellenistic kingdom by Rome in 31 B.C Notion was incorporated into the Persian Empire along with other Greek cities only to be reintegrated into the empire during the fourth century B.C. as well as Greek and "barbarian" mercenaries the Athenian general Paches killed pro-Persian mercenaries prompting Persian sympathizers to be expelled from the city as the Athenians took control Ratté said that these events could have led to the burial and eventual loss of the hoard Jennifer Nalewicki is former Live Science staff writer and Salt Lake City-based journalist whose work has been featured in The New York Times She covers several science topics from planet Earth to paleontology and archaeology to health and culture Jennifer has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin Hårby Valkyrie: A 1,200-year-old gold Viking Age woman sporting a sword Archaeologists discover hundreds of metal objects up to 3,400 years old on mysterious volcanic hilltop in Hungary 1,800-year-old warhorse cemetery held remains of a beloved horse — and a man considered an 'outsider' to Roman society Protesters hold slogans to mark the 6th anniversary of the issuance of the 2016 decision by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N Convention of the Law of the Sea after the Philippines complained against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed sea during a rally outside the Chinese consulate in Makati Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed a call to China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington is obligated to defend treaty ally Philippines if its armed forces public vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters Protesters shout slogans to mark the 6th anniversary of the issuance of the 2016 decision by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington is obligated to defend treaty ally Philippines if its forces vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters China did not participate in the arbitration rejected its ruling as a sham and continues to defy it bringing it into territorial spats with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian claimant states in recent years “We call again on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law and cease its provocative behavior,” Blinken said “We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S mutual defense commitments” under the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty There was no immediate reaction from Beijing But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference in Malaysia’s administrative capital of Putrajaya that China is speeding up talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations which includes the Philippines and three other claimant states to come up with a nonaggression pact called a “code of conduct” to turn the South China Sea “into a sea of peace and cooperation.” “We will oppose bloc confrontation and Cold War mentality,” Wang told journalists after meeting his counterpart in Malaysia the last stop in his five-nation swing through Southeast Asia Taiwan and Brunei have had overlapping claims in the busy waterway where an estimated $5 trillion in goods passes each year and which is believed to be rich in undersea gas and oil deposits The potential flashpoint has become a key front of U.S.-China rivalry Washington lays no claim to the disputed waters but has deployed Navy ships and Air Force jets to patrol the waterway for decades and says freedom of navigation and overflight is in the U.S That has provoked angry reactions from China of meddling in a purely Asian dispute and warned it to stay away Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said Tuesday that the arbitration ruling will be a pillar of his new government’s policy and actions in the disputed region and rejected attempts to undermine the “indisputable” decision “These findings are no longer within the reach of denial and rebuttal and are conclusive as they are indisputable The award is final,” Manalo said in a statement “We firmly reject attempts to undermine it … even erase it from law history and our collective memories,” said Manalo put the arbitration ruling on the backburner for years after taking office in 2016 and nurtured cozy ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping while criticizing U.S Duterte said he finally asked Xi to comply with the ruling but was flatly told has upheld the arbitration ruling and said he would not allow even one “square millimeter” of Philippine waters to be trampled upon But he said in January before winning the presidency that since China has refused to recognize the ruling Duterte’s policy of diplomatic engagement is “really our only option.” Dozens of left-wing activists and workers protested in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila’s Makati financial district on Tuesday asking Beijing to respect the arbitration ruling and for Marcos Jr to defend the country’s territory and sovereign rights in the South China Sea Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur A model based on Earth’s oceans and atmosphere explains how Mars could have been cold and wet 3 billion years ago By Alex Wilkins with frozen ice sheets and glaciers flowing into the northern ocean Mars may have had a liquid water ocean 3 billion years ago even if the temperature at the surface was below freezing Now, Frédéric Schmidt at the University of Paris-Saclay in France and his colleagues have found that a liquid ocean could have existed with an above water temperature of just below freezing the ocean is kept warm enough to remain liquid by water circulation that could give it a temperature of around 4.5°C Schmidt and his team used a model that simulates how Earth’s oceans and atmosphere interact but changed the parameters to match Mars’s ancient environment such as its atmospheric gas makeup and a lower sun power the model also suggests there may have been moderate rainfall along the ocean shores and a largely frozen southern region The ancient climate features that the model produced were similar to Earth’s billions of years ago, and would have contained some of the key ingredients for microbial life “If we could travel in time to 3 billion years ago we could live on this ancient Mars with just a spacesuit for oxygen,” says Schmidt snow and glaciers: all of them were very similar to Earth today The study shows that an ocean at this stage in Mars’s past is plausible, says Sanjeev Gupta at Imperial College London “The authors pull together observations from other studies with evidence for an ocean to tie into their results but proof of an ocean does not come from the modelling We would need stronger geological evidence for an ocean,” he says PNAS DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2112930119 Sign up to our free Launchpad newsletter for a voyage across the galaxy and beyond Chinese President Xi Jinping looks as he arrives at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Xi said on Saturday reunification with Taiwan must happen and will happen peacefully despite a ratcheting-up of China’s threats to attack the island and his Premier Li Keqiang arrive at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Journalists film Chinese President Xi Jinping as he delivers a speech at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing delivers a speech next to his Premier Li Keqiang at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing delivers a speech at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Delegates applaud as Chinese President Xi Jinping Taiwan (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping said on Saturday that a “peaceful” reunification of Taiwan with China’s mainland was in Beijing’s interests despite ratcheted up military threats against the self-governing island Xi spoke at an official celebration in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People that focused largely on the need for the ruling Communist Party to continue to lead China as the country rises in power and influence “Reunification of the nation must be realized and will definitely be realized,” Xi vowed before an audience of politicians military personnel and others gathered in the hulking chamber that serves as the seat of China’s ceremonial legislature “Reunification through a peaceful manner is the most in line with the overall interest of the Chinese nation including Taiwan compatriots,” the leader added Taiwan and China split in 1949 amid a civil war with the then-ruling Nationalist Party fleeing to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland Saturday’s ceremony in Beijing was in honor of the 110th anniversary of the Chinese revolution that led to the overthrow of the Qing emperors and the establishment of the Republic of China under Sun Yat-sen 10 as National Day and Xi’s address touched on common aspirations for a unified future despite the stark differences between China’s authoritarian one-party system and Taiwan’s vibrant multi-party democracy Taiwan’s National Day celebrations this year will feature a rare display of military equipment including missiles and a performance by fighter jets to be held Sunday in front of the Presidential Office Building in the center of the capital That marks the first inclusion of military hardware in Taipei’s official celebrations in years and the first since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016 Local media coverage of rehearsals for the celebration showed large missile launch vehicles driving on Taipei’s streets although the missiles themselves were not directly visible the Taiwanese government has kept its missile capabilities out of the public eye to avoid appearing provocative a defense studies expert at the Institute for National Policy Research in Taiwan Kuo added that Taipei feels it “must demonstrate that Taiwan has the ability to deter China’s threat” as Beijing becomes “overly assertive.” the national day celebration has featured choreographed performances by motorcycle-riding military police and overflights by the island’s air force “I think this is to raise Taiwan’s people’s morale,” said Fan Shih-ping a professor of political science at National Taiwan Normal University Taiwan’s leader Tsai has placed a higher premium on national defense than her predecessor from the more China-friendly Nationalist Party launching a revitalization of the island’s shipbuilding industry and commissioning a program to build submarines domestically She has also instituted reforms in the military including improving benefits for military personnel and even increasing the quality of food served in the messes Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told legislators Wednesday that the situation with China “is the most severe in the 40 years since I’ve enlisted.” Chiu later told reporters that he believed China would have “comprehensive” capabilities to invade Taiwan by 2025 which has refused to renounce the option of using force to bring the island under its control Beijing has also sought to isolate Taiwan internationally by barring it from the United Nations and other international organizations and opposing official contacts between its government and nations that recognize China which is legally bound to consider threats against Taipei a matter of “grave concern.” and Japanese officials have warned that China’s growing capabilities pose a rising threat to Taiwan’s security and that of the region “The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair which tolerates no external interference,” Xi said on Saturday “No one should underestimate the Chinese people’s strong determination will and capability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” A view of the Sun from Chang'e 5 at Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1. China's Chang'e 5 spacecraft completed a historic delivery of moon rocks to Earth late last year but the mission is still continuing with experiments in deep space In December the Chang'e 5 orbiter delivered a return capsule to Earth packed with about 4.4 lbs (2 kilograms) of lunar material — the first such delivery in decades., Related: The latest news about China's space program After the delivery, the orbiter module fired its engines to head for a point in space known as Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 which is about 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth in the direction of the sun From orbit around this gravitationally balanced area the spacecraft has returned a unique image of the Earth and moon together Chang'e 5 is now carrying out a range of tests related to orbit control and Earth and solar observations which would help inform future missions The current Chang'e 5 operations are bonus work for an already hugely successful mission so its imagers are not optimized for detailed observations from deep space. Meanwhile NASA's DSCOVR deep-space observatory has been working in this same region of space since 2015 taking advantage of unhindered views of our planet to study the Earth's climate Chinese scientists have said that Chang'e 5 may head to new targets after completing its tests at Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. 'Falcon' flies on Star Wars Day: SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Florida (photos) NASA's Artemis 2 moon rocket gets 2nd stage even as Trump tries to scrap Space Launch System (photos) either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Astronomers have discovered that a small satellite galaxy falling towards the Milky Way is home to an unusually massive black hole The black hole at the heart of the dwarf galaxy Leo I, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, is nearly as massive as the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal doctoral graduate from the University of Texas and co-author of the study on the findings said in a statement: "there is no explanation for this kind of black hole in dwarf spheroidal galaxies." Bustamante told Newsweek: "There are several things that are remarkable about this discovery It's the second-closest known supermassive black hole the first one being the one at the center of our galaxy And it lives inside a dwarf spheroidal galaxy which are galaxies that shouldn't have supermassive black holes inside them is this galaxy special or are other dwarf spheroidals likely to have supermassive black holes inside them?" The research could not only shake up astrophysical models of how galaxies evolve but could also help scientists better understand how the mysterious substance dark matter—which accounts for the majority of a galaxy's mass content—is distributed throughout galactic structures Researchers chose to study Leo I because it is a dwarf galaxy that seems to have very little dark matter unlike other galaxies orbiting the Milky Way The team of astronomers reached their discovery by studying the dark matter profile of Leo I, which is how the density of dark matter changes from the dwarf galaxy's outer edge through to its center. This is achieved by measuring the gravitational influence of Leo I's dark matter content on its stars Dark matter differs from the everyday matter we see all around us because it interacts weakly with other matter and also with light The only interaction dark matter displays that is measurable is with gravity That means it can be inferred by its effect on stars and other cosmic bodies the more matter there is enclosed in their orbits This allowed the team to measure if Leo I's dark matter density increases toward the dwarf galaxy's center This central region has been somewhat overlooked in previous studies of Leo I which focused more on the velocities of individual stars What the team found was in the measurements previously taken there was a bias towards low-velocity stars This had the effect of reducing the amount of matter that seemed to be enclosed within the star's orbits the astronomers found that the amount of mass contained at the center of Leo I ballooned tremendously This suggested the presence of a compact and truly massive object about 3.3 million times as heavy as the sun the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is 4.4 million times as massive as our star The team believes that the presence of this massive black hole in such a small galaxy represents a new way for black holes to merge. The astronomers suggest that over time, as small galaxies like Leo I fall into larger galaxies, the smaller galaxy's black hole merges with that of the larger galaxy "If the mass of Leo I's black hole is high that may explain how black holes grow in massive galaxies," Gebhardt said This could give gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo an entirely new source of gravitational wave sources to investigate. And because astronomers use these dwarf galaxies to study dark matter the findings made by the team could shake up the search for answers regarding one of physics' most pressing mysteries "There is a really big black hole in a galaxy not so far away lurking in those fluffy old galaxies that orbit us," Bustamante concludes "If this discovery is confirmed and I ever get a chance to name it I would call it 'Yacana,' the shadow of the llama "Yacana is one of the dark constellations of the Incas in my home country of Peru which are formed from the dark patches of the Milky Way." Article updated to include comments from researcher María José Bustamante Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all U.S. special operators could help Taiwan bolster its defenses against a potential Chinese invasion, the nominee to oversee special operations told lawmakers Thursday the nominee to be assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S "should be considering strongly" an effort to help Taiwan strengthen its ability to conduct irregular warfare "I do think that is something that we should be considering strongly as we think about competition across the span of different capabilities we can apply [special operations forces] being a key contributor to that," Maier said Read Next: The Air Force's New PT Test Is Coming This July. Here's What We Know floated the idea of special operations forces assisting Taiwan in a manner similar to how American special forces help Baltic nations strengthen their ability to resist Russian aggression Maier said that special operators could help Taiwanese troops hone their skills and mentioned resistance networks and counteracting potential enemy amphibious landings as examples Information operations is a key area where special operators can help conventional forces deter Chinese aggression special forces conduct information operations will be one of his top priorities If the Afghanistan government in Kabul falls the U.S.'s ability to gather intelligence and conduct "over-the-horizon" counterterrorism operations would become "immensely more challenging." The military is looking at options for basing locations outside of Afghanistan but said a collapse of Afghan security forces would make that much harder Maier said he thinks the military will be able to work with regional and local stakeholders to get the job done and we have more capability that we can apply against the problem," he explained When asked whether special operations forces should help maintain relationships with local leaders -- similar to how special forces worked with the Northern Alliance in the early days of the war -- if Kabul were to fall "I think it's fair to say that SOF was first into Afghanistan and this is definitely an option that I would look at if confirmed," he said Maier added that increasing the diversity in special operations and ensuring female troops have equipment that fits them would be some of his top priorities if confirmed Opening all jobs in the military to women was the first step and the military has seen an evolution since then such as when the Air Force moved to ensure women have body armor and flight suits that fit them "This is indicative of the ongoing effort to build both the ability for women to operate on equal footing and having the acceptance and the equipment that's required," Maier said we're going to need both genders in the fight And we're going to need people with other expertise that we might not have had as much of in the force." -- Stephen Losey can be reached at stephen.losey@military.com. 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Visit our Customer Support center for solutions or to contact us Protesters gather at a memorial for George Floyd where he died outside Cup Foods on East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue Protests continued following the death of Floyd who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25 Pedestrians pass the burnt ruins of the Minnehaha Liquor store near the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct Protests continued following the death of George Floyd EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - A police vehicle passes a building on East Lake Street that was destroyed during protests two days prior The protests were part of a demonstration against police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25 FILE - This undated file photo provided by Christopher Harris shows George Floyd after he was pinned to the pavement by a police officer who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing Andrea Drost of the Minnesota Army National Guard joins protesters in a moment of prayer at the State Capitol in St during protests over the death of George Floyd who died May 25 after being restrained by Minneapolis police Tim Walz pauses during a news conference Friday as he talked about the unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd while he was in custody of Minneapolis police MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The state of Minnesota on Tuesday launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department in hopes of forcing widespread changes following the death of George Floyd a black man who died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced the filing of the formal complaint at a news conference Tuesday afternoon The governor and Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said they hope to reach agreement with the city to identify short-term ways to address the police department’s history of racial discrimination and use the investigation to find long-term solutions for systemic change “We know that deeply seated issues exist,” the governor said “And the reason I know it is we saw the casual nature of the erasing of George Floyd’s life and humanity We also know by the reaction of the community and the reason is because nothing did happen for so many times.” Walz said the investigation into the police department’s policies procedures and practices over the past 10 years will determine if the force has engaged in systemic discrimination toward people of color All 12 members of the Minneapolis City Council endorsed a statement read by Council President Lisa Bender at a news conference later Tuesday in support of the investigation “We urge the state to use its full weight to hold the Minneapolis Police Department accountable for any and all abuses of power and harms to our community and stand ready to aid in this process as full partners,” the council said Mayor Jacob Frey said the state’s intervention will help break what he called a stalemate on reform police chiefs and elected officials committed to change have been thwarted by police union protections and laws that severely limit accountability among police departments,” Frey said in a statement “I welcome today’s announcement because breaking through those persistent barriers and addressing systemic racism will require all of us working hand in hand.” A police department spokesman and the president of the officers’ union didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment The FBI is also investigating whether police willfully deprived Floyd of his civil rights The Minnesota Department of Human Rights enforces the state’s human rights act particularly as it applies to discrimination in employment Mediation is one of its first-choice tools but the cases it files can lead to fuller investigations and sometimes end up in litigation The Minneapolis Police Department has faced decades of allegations of brutality and other discrimination against African Americans and other minorities despite the elevation of Medaria Arradondo as its first black police chief in 2017 Arradondo himself was among five black officers who sued the police department in 2007 over alleged discrimination in promotions They said in their lawsuit that the department had a history of tolerating racism and discrimination State Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said good officers should welcome the investigation He co-chaired a working group with Attorney General Keith Ellison that reported back in February on ways to reduce police-involved deadly force encounters I have lived in this system that they’re talking about reforming the cops I’ve worked with since 1977 to date will tell you “They don’t want to work in a flawed system They don’t want to have to be wearing gas masks They don’t want to have to be on riot control duty.” an attorney for Floyd’s family again decried the official autopsy that found his death was caused by cardiac arrest as police restrained him and compressed his neck The medical examiner also listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use “The cause of death was that he was starving for air And so everything else is a red herring to try to throw us off,” family attorney Ben Crump said He said the Hennepin County medical examiner went to great lengths to try to convince the public that what was shown on bystander video didn’t cause Floyd to die Ellison told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that prosecutors are working as fast as they can to determine whether more charges will be filed In this undated photo released by the Greek Culture Ministry clay figurines of boys and girls found during an excavation on the Greek island of Kythonos Archaeologists excavating a hilltop sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos have discovered “countless” pottery offerings left there by ancient worshippers over the centuries In this photo released by the Greek Culture Ministry on Wednesday an ancient clay figurine of a woman among fragments of vases excavated from the remains of an ancient sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos Greece’s Culture Ministry said Wednesday Several ceremonial pottery vessels were also unearthed which are linked with the worship of Demeter to which the building complex was dedicated (Alexandros Mazarakis Ainian/Greek Culture Ministry via AP) excavation staff work on the remains of an ancient sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos the excavated remains of an ancient sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos an ancient clay figurine of the god Hermes found in the remains of an ancient sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos Greece (AP) — Archaeologists excavating a hilltop sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos have discovered “countless” pottery offerings left by ancient worshippers over the centuries A ministry statement said the finds from work this year included more than 2,000 intact or almost complete clay figurines mostly of women and children but also some of male actors Several ceremonial pottery vessels that were unearthed are linked with the worship of Demeter to whom the excavated sanctuary complex was dedicated The seaside site of Vryokastro on Kythnos was the ancient capital of the island inhabited without break between the 12th century B.C when it was abandoned for a stronger position during a period of pirate raids The artifacts came from the scant ruins of the two small temples a long building close by that may have served as a temple storeroom and a nearby pit where older offerings were buried to make space for new ones The sanctuary was in use for about a thousand years The excavation by Greece’s University of Thessaly and the Culture Ministry also found luxury pottery imported from other parts of Greece ornate lamps and fragments of ritual vases used in the worship of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis It is unclear to what extent the site on Kythnos was associated with Eleusis — one of the most important religious centers in ancient Greece where the goddesses were worshipped during secret rites that were only open to initiates forbidden to speak of what they saw The sanctuary at Eleusis is known to have owned land on the island was first inhabited about 10,000 years ago Its copper deposits were mined from the 3rd millennium B.C. and in Roman times it was a place of political exile The excavations are set to continue through 2025 An illustration of the proposed rings that may have dictated the architecture of our solar system Those rings of dust may have prevented Earth from growing into a "super-Earth." Before Earth and the other planets in our solar system existed the sun may have been surrounded by giant rings of dust similar to Saturn's Related: 7 ways the Earth changes in the blink of an eye Their simulations suggested that pressure "bumps," or high-pressure regions of gas and dust, would have surrounded the infant sun These areas of high pressure likely resulted when particles moved toward the sun under its strong gravitational pull heated up and released large amounts of vaporized gas The simulations showed that there were likely three distinct areas where solid particles vaporized into gas called "sublimation lines." In the line closest to the sun solid silicate turned into gas; in the middle line ice would have heated up enough to turn into gas; and in the farthest line Solid particles like dust sort of rammed into these "bumps" and began to accumulate "The effect of the pressure bump is that it collects dust particles and that's why we see rings," co-author Andrea Isella an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University the sun would have quickly gobbled up the particles not leaving any seeds for the planets to grow "One needs something to stop them in order to give them time to grow into planets," Isella said With age, the gas and dust surrounding the sun cooled down and the sublimation lines inched closer to the sun. This process allowed the dust to accumulate into planetesimals, or asteroid-size seeds of planets which could then come together to form planets "Our model shows pressure bumps can concentrate dust and moving pressure bumps can act as planetesimal factories," Izidoro said The pressure bumps regulated how much material was available to form planets in the inner solar system the nearest ring to the sun formed the planets of the inner solar system — Mercury The middle ring would ultimately become the planets of the outer solar system while the outermost ring formed the comets asteroids and other small bodies in the Kuiper Belt the region beyond the orbit of Neptune. the researchers found that if they simulated the delayed formation of the middle ring super-Earths may have formed in the solar system "By the time the pressure bump formed in those cases a lot of mass had already invaded the inner system and was available to make super-Earths," Izidoro said "So the time when this middle pressure bump formed might be a key aspect of the solar system." James Webb Space Telescope captures thousands of galaxies in a cosmic 'feast' (image) Astronomers gaze into 'dark nebula' 60 times the size of the solar system (video) Forget Darth Vader and the Emperor: The Empire has never been scarier than in 'Andor' season 2 file photo are some of the weapons that include handguns collected in a Los Angeles Gun Buyback event displayed during a news conference at the LAPD headquarters in Los Angeles A federal judge has overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled Friday that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states look on at a news conference in San Francisco was killed in 1993 in the high-rise shooting at a San Francisco law firm that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the U.S calling it “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians Gavin Newsom listens to questions during a news conference outside a restaurant in San Francisco overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons a custom-made semi-automatic hunting rifle with a high-capacity detachable magazine is displayed at TDS Guns in Rocklin police crime photos of assault rifles and handguns are displayed during a news conference near the site of a mass shooting in San Bernardino dressed for battle and carrying assault rifles and handguns opened fire on a holiday banquet for his co-workers killing at least 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others in a precision assault has overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons (AP) — A federal judge has overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons calling it a “failed experiment” that violates people’s constitutional right to bear arms “Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive,” Benitez said He issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law but stayed it for 30 days to give state Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal the judge spoke favorably of modern weapons and said they were overwhelmingly used for legal reasons the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment Good for both home and battle,” the judge said in his ruling’s introduction That comparison “completely undermines the credibility of this decision and is a slap in the face to the families who’ve lost loved ones to this weapon,” Newsom said in a statement and we’ll continue pushing for common sense gun laws that will save lives.” Bonta called the ruling flawed and said it will be appealed California first restricted assault weapons in 1989 with multiple updates to the law since then Assault weapons as defined by the law are more dangerous than other firearms and are disproportionately used in crimes mass shootings and against law enforcement the state attorney general’s office argued and barring them “furthers the state’s important public safety interests.” A surge in sales of more than 1.16 million other types of pistols rifles and shotguns in the last year — more than a third of them to likely first-time buyers — show that the assault weapons ban “has not prevented law-abiding citizens in the state from acquiring a range of firearms for lawful purposes including self-defense,” the state contended in a court filing in March Similar assault weapon restrictions have previously been upheld by six other federal district and appeals courts Overturning the ban would allow not only assault rifles but things like assault shotguns and assault pistols “This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection The banned ‘assault weapons’ are not bazookas Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes,” his ruling said the firearms deemed ‘assault weapons’ are fairly ordinary there currently are an estimated 185,569 assault weapons registered with the state They were grandfathered in before California’s evolving definition of an assault weapon “This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes,” the ruling said “One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle,” he added He also called the ban “a continuing failed experiment which does not achieve its objectives of preventing mass shootings or attacks on law enforcement officers.” Benitez said California’s complicated legal definition of assault weapons can ensnare otherwise law-abiding gun owners with criminal penalties that among other things can strip them of their Second Amendment right to own firearms “The burden on the core Second Amendment right because the weapons can still be used — just not with the modifications that turn them into assault weapons Modifications like a shorter barrel or collapsible stock make them more concealable while things like a pistol grip or thumbhole grip make them more lethal by improving their accuracy as they are fired rapidly The lawsuit filed by the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition is among several by gun advocacy groups challenging California’s firearms laws which are among the strictest in the nation It was filed on behalf of gun owners who want to use high-capacity magazines in their legal rifles or pistols but said they can’t because doing so would turn them into illegal assault weapons under California law the semi-automatic rifles fire one bullet each time the trigger is pulled and the plaintiffs say they are legal in 41 states The lawsuit said California is “one of only a small handful states to ban many of the most popular semiautomatic firearms in the nation because they possess one or more common characteristics such as pistol grips and threaded barrels,” frequently but not exclusively along with detachable ammunition magazines the president of the Firearms Policy Coalition said in a statement that the ruling “held what millions of Americans already know to be true: Bans on so-called ‘assault weapons’ are unconstitutional and cannot stand.” A gun control advocacy group called the judge’s ruling alarming and “especially insulting” because it was handed down on National Gun Violence Awareness Day “Too many families across the nation have lost loved ones in shootings carried out with assault weapons They can attest to the reality that these weapons are not like ‘Swiss Army knives’ nor are mass shootings only a ‘very small’ problem,” said Robyn Thomas executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence the former congresswoman from Arizona who was shot and wounded in a mass shooting 10 years ago The state is appealing Benitez’s 2017 ruling against the state’s nearly two-decade-old ban on the sales and purchases of magazines holding more than 10 bullets That decision triggered a weeklong buying spree before the judge halted sales during the appeal It was upheld in August by a three-judge appellate panel Circuit Court of Appeals said in March that an 11-member panel will rehear the case The state also is appealing Benitez’s decision in April 2020 blocking a 2019 California law requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition Both of those measures were championed by Newsom when he was lieutenant governor and they were backed by voters in a 2016 ballot measure A new technique for determining the ages of stars in the Milky Way has given us tighter constraints for an ancient galactic collision By closely examining the internal oscillations and chemical composition of 95 red giant stars, a team of astronomers led by the University of Birmingham in the UK has determined that the Milky Way's biff with a mysterious small galaxy known as Gaia-Enceladus They also found that many of the stars in the Milky Way had already formed prior to this merger; now these original stars can mostly be found in the thick disk of the galaxy the larger of the Milky Way's two disk structures "The chemical composition, location and motion of the stars we can observe today in the Milky Way contain precious information about their origin," explained astronomer Josefina Montalbán of the University of Birmingham in the UK "As we increase our knowledge of how and when these stars were formed we can start to better understand how the merger of Gaia-Enceladus with the Milky Way affected the evolution of our galaxy." The Milky Way has had a pretty violent time over the 13.6 billion years or so since it formed. It has repeatedly gobbled up smaller galaxies has revealed these collisions in the motions of the stars; and the biggest of the galaxies slurped up by the Milky Way was the Gaia Sausage For more granular detail about this incident you need more than the motions of the stars Knowing the ages and chemical compositions can help too since they can help determine where the stars were born These compositions are determined using spectroscopy looking for changes in specific wavelengths that indicate certain elements are present Spectroscopy is a pretty great tool; but for even higher accuracy the research team turned to asteroseismology Asteroseismology is the study of the oscillation frequencies of stars or pulsations in their light intensity driven by internal acoustic waves These oscillations are closely linked to the properties of the star's interior such as its density and acoustic profile; in turn these are related to the star's mass and age Now-retired planet-hunting telescope Kepler was optimized to search for changes in star brightness since that is one way we can detect exoplanets orbiting them It collected asteroseismological data on a whole bunch of stars; from these Montalbán and her team picked a bunch of red giant stars with low metallicity since these are long-lived and intrinsically bright which makes them excellent for mapping star ages They then conducted an asteroseismological analysis of 95 of them focusing on the individual stars instead of averaging out their properties The spectroscopy revealed that some of the stars originated in the Gaia Sausage and the asteroseismology revealed these were all around the same age than the stars that formed right here in the Milky Way This suggests the Milky Way had already formed a good number of its stars This supports previous findings that the Milky Way-Gaia Sausage infall took place around 10 billion years ago "We have shown the huge potential of asteroseismology in combination with spectroscopy to deliver precise, accurate relative ages for individual, very old, stars," said astronomer Andrea Miglio these measurements contribute to sharpen our view on the early years of our Galaxy and promise a bright future for Galactic archeoastronomy." The research has been published in Nature Astronomy created by minerals precipitating out of hydrothermal fluid Sometimes the mineral deposits create long tall structures like chimneys wherein with hydrothermal fluid pools underneath it The ROV photographed this pink bacterial mat and Peinaleopolynoe orphanae scale worm at a depth of nearly 12,000 feet (3,656 m) The scientists explored the newfound hydrothermal vents using an underwater robot lies a mysterious world where searing hot water spews out of 80-foot-tall (24 meters) mounds and iridescent worms inch along the seafloor Scientists recently discovered this hydrothermal wonderland they also found at least six potential new animal species that haven't been seen before the team deployed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to collect samples of hydrothermal vent fluid rocks and marine life and to take ultra-high definition videos the team mapped out regions of the seafloor that will be explored more closely on future cruises chief scientist of the expedition and the principal engineer for seafloor mapping at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) the same expedition team used an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) — a yellow torpedo-shaped robot with a propeller on one end — to map out the seafloor using sonar. Related: In photos: Sea life thrives at otherworldly hydrothermal vent system you make out the overall features of hydrothermal vents you don't know that it's currently active," Caress told Live Science the team probed these features more closely with an ROV and discovered a large number of active vents that spewed water reaching temperatures up to 549 degrees Fahrenheit (287 degrees Celsius). At most hydrothermal vents, the fluid exiting the vent runs black, because on its way to the surface, the water comes into contact with dark, basaltic rocks formed from cooled magma and it picks up metals, like iron "Most of the hydrothermal venting that has been discovered and studied takes the form of these 'black smokers,'" referring to the nickname for these vents a depression located at the southern end of the Gulf of California This likely occurs because a tremendous amount of sediment from the Mexican mainland ends up in the Gulf of California and this sediment alters the fluids as they make their way to the surface "The hydrothermal fluids start out interacting with the basalts … but then they have to percolate up through the sediment," Caress said This process strips the fluid of basalts and metals and replaces them with carbonates giving the fluid its unusual appearance. This process also makes the fluid less acidic than that from black smokers and causes the resulting vents to take on unique structures Instead of forming chimney-like structures that stand dozens of feet tall vents in the Pescadero Basin tend to form ledge-like structures called flanges The hydrothermal fluid pools beneath the flange and spills over its lip And when the flanges accumulate too much limestone some of the mounds reached roughly 164 feet (50 m) across and 82 feet (25 m) tall Related: Marine marvels: Spectacular photos of sea creatures some of the researchers will now work to better understand the geological and chemical properties of these unique vents Others will create computer models of the larger underground system that fuels all the vents from below "I like to compare it to the plumbing of the system," said Raquel Negrete-Aranda co-chief scientist of the expedition and a marine geophysicist and geologist with the Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education in Baja California Negrete-Aranda and her colleagues measured temperature gradients on the seafloor and also collected data about the heat conductivity of the sediment will help scientists understand how and where the vent fields get their superheated water supply There are two neighboring vent fields in the Pescadero Basin and "I have a strong feeling that they are connected somehow," meaning they link up beneath Earth's crust "But … it's kind of early to say," as her lab is still crunching all the numbers While some scientists focused on the geology and chemistry of the vents others focused on the diverse organisms living nearby Blue scale worms (Peinaleopolynoe orphanae) The team named this particular vent 'Melsuu which means "blue" in the Kiliwa dialect of the indigenous Yuman people of Baja California the team spotted 10 known animal species that had not previously been observed in the Pescadero Basin They also found at least six potential new species of crustaceans —Photos: See creatures of the deepest deep-sea vents —Gallery: Life of the Costa Rica Margin hydrothermal seep —Dark waters: The most mysterious places on the seas These creatures have been designated as "potential" new species until more thorough examinations of the animals' genetics and morphology back in the lab can confirm that they haven't been characterized before this species identification work really began on the ship after the ROV hauled up a load of mud from the seafloor a researcher who specializes in the study of invertebrates and animal biodiversity would sift through the sediment in search of tiny worms and pinpoint all those that might be new to scientists to better understand the environmental conditions each species needs to survive the data collected on the journey will keep the team busy for years to come the researchers will return to the Gulf of California to continue exploring hydrothermal vents in the relatively obscure regions to the north of Pescadero Nicoletta LaneseSocial Links NavigationChannel Editor HealthNicoletta Lanese is the health channel editor at Live Science and was previously a news editor and staff writer at the site She holds a graduate certificate in science communication from UC Santa Cruz and degrees in neuroscience and dance from the University of Florida she also remains heavily involved in dance and performs in local choreographers' work El Cono: The mysterious sacred 'pyramid' hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest Yellowstone holds potentially untapped cache of 'carbon-free' helium for rockets Digital 'resurrection' of the Titanic sheds light on fateful night the ship tore apart Astronomers have created highly detailed images of 42 of the solar system's largest asteroid belt objects including Ceres which has a diameter twice as long as the Grand Canyon The team used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Atacama Desert to image the objects that exist in the solar system's main asteroid belt Because asteroids are composed of unspoiled material that existed when the solar system was first formed the detailed images could help astronomers better understand how planets like Earth evolve Of the 42 main asteroid belt objects, only three of the largest, the dwarf planet Ceres, and the asteroids Vesta and Lutetia, have been detailed so precisely before, when they were visited by the space missions Dawn and Rosetta, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) respectively "Our ESO large program has provided resolved images for an order of magnitude more targets allowing the characterization of the 3D shape and density of a sample that is representative of the compositional diversity of the asteroid belt," scientist at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille "Such data wasn't available before and that is what motivated us." Most of the objects imaged by the team were over 62 miles in diameter The survey also managed to image almost all of the objects in the asteroid belt that are larger than 125 miles in diameter Of these objects, Ceres is the largest, and Vesta is the second-largest asteroid belt object possessing a diameter of just over 320 miles five times the width of the English Channel The smallest asteroids imaged by the team were Urania and Ausonia Vernazza, the lead author of an Astronomy & Astrophysics paper detailing the findings delivered unexpected revelations regarding some of the objects in the main asteroid belt "There were many surprises including the spherical shape of Hygiea and the heavily cratered surface of Pallas this research has changed our view concerning many objects," said the researcher In addition to imaging almost perfectly spherical asteroids like Hygiea and Ceres, the team also detailed objects with elongated shapes. These included the unusually shaped asteroid Kleopatra By combining details on the objects' masses the teams were also able to determine the densities of many of the main-belt asteroids They found that these densities ranged from that of coal for light asteroids like Lamberta and Sylvia to asteroids that are even denser than diamond Finding such a wide range of densities in main-belt asteroids indicates some of these objects may have radically different compositions something that could have implications for our understanding of the early solar system "We now have a better understanding of the compositional variety of the asteroid belt of the effect of large impacts on asteroid shapes and of the overall dynamical evolution of the Solar System," said Vernazza Such detailed images of asteroid belt objects have only been made possible thanks to the sensitivity of the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument mounted on VLT "The angular resolution of the SPHERE instrument is about three times better than that of the Hubble Space telescope," Vernazza said "We knew that the improved capabilities of SPHERE along with the fact that little was known regarding the shape of the largest main-belt asteroids would allow us to make substantial progress in this field." To obtain even more detailed images of these main asteroid belt objects astronomers may have to wait until the completion of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) which is currently under construction in Chile and is set to begin operations later this decade "We will have to wait for the next big step namely the ELT's first light," Vernazza concluded we will continue to use the SPHERE instrument on targets of interest that were not covered by our observing program." The findings could shed light on how solar systems evolve through chaotic and violent events an international team of astronomers reported the first-ever sightings of the aftermath of two giant planets colliding around a sun-like star in another planetary system Such clashes among planets are not uncommon in our own solar system's history so these latest findings shed light on how cosmic neighborhoods similar to our own evolve across eons through chaotic and violent events Follow-up observations in visible light wavelengths revealed the dimming was due to some sort of eclipse that lasted about 500 days This eclipse began 2.5 years after infrared observations indicate a brightening event occurred suggesting that whatever was eclipsing the star and causing it to dim had an orbital period of at least 2.5 years "I knew then this was an unusual event," Matthew Kenworthy, an associate professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands and lead author of the new work, said in a statement Related: A giant moon collision may have given rise to Saturn's iconic rings, study suggests Based on the temperature and size of the eclipsing material (gleaned from computer model data) the team also concluded that debris must have formed after the two giant planets collided it's possible that the remnant material happened to line up in front of the star from our viewpoint reducing its brightness in visible wavelengths and leading to what scientists perceived as a mysterious eclipse — Bam! Scientists watch distant exoplanet collision — Dwarf planet collision may have sent strange ultra-hard diamonds to Earth — Elusive exoplanet is 'cosmic sculptor' that carved spiral arms of its star The star itself is an otherwise common object suspected to be roughly 300 million years old which is a lot younger than our own 4.6 billion-year-old sun Multiple large impacts were a common occurrence among all planets and moons early in our solar system's history Previous research shows such collisions ceased about 3.9 billion years ago making way for the relatively peaceful system we see today Findings from the latest study, however, suggest it is possible mature planets also collide. Future observations with NASA's mighty James Webb Space Telescope can observe how this dust cloud diffuses over the next few years the mass of material around the remnant may condense to form a retinue of moons that will orbit around this new planet," Zoe Leinhardt an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Bristol and co-author of the new study Elliot Page's book will "delve into" his "relationship with his body," Flatiron Books shared in an announcement 2016 12:32 PM EDTImagine this: You’re just getting home from a long day at work But instead of flipping a light switch or blasting the air conditioning This is how Apple wants us to live in the not-too-distant future. The Cupertino, Calif. company took its first significant step in this direction in 2014 with the introduction of HomeKit, which lets users control Internet-connected appliances with their iPhones. But HomeKit has a significant drawback: It lacks a central hub for users with lots of different kinds of that equipment That will change when Apple releases iOS 10 this fall Included in the new iPhone software will be an app called Home which will function as a control center for smart home gear from lightbulbs to thermostats This will be a welcome change from the current process of setting up HomeKit devices which involves installing a new and often hard-to-use companion app for each individual product which has been mostly the domain of tech-savvy early adopters it’s clear that Apple wants the app to be dead simple to use with drag-and-drop functionality reminiscent of rearranging apps on your iPhone or iPad’s home screen The Home app is broken down into three tabs: Home The Home tab provides a general overview of your HomeKit setup It offers a compilation of your most frequently used accessories and “scenes,” a collection of settings you can pre-program for specific events (A scene called “I’m Home” might turn on the outside lights open your garage door and start blasting the A/C sorts your smart appliances by where they’re located in your house The Automation tab is where things get really interesting you can build automatic triggers for certain events Because the software is “talking” to your iPhone’s GPS and it could open your garage door without any manual input (One caveat: You’ll need either the newest model of Apple TV or an iPad for these features to work as they act as a hub for accessing your HomeKit devices when you’re out of the house.) Apple is seeking to creating a smart home platform that knows what we want when we want it Having the lights and ceiling fan automatically turn on when you enter a room may sound like a minor advancement getting the most out of smart home software like Home will mean potentially expensive appliance upgrades relying on outside partners to make and market the hardware that Home controls But Apple has a knack for popularizing emerging technologies as the iPod did for MP3 players and the iPad did for tablets Some of the company’s trademark simplification may be just what the smart home world needs to really take off Contact us at letters@time.com The mean temperature of gas across the Universe has increased more than 10 times over the last 10 billion years and reached about 2 million Kelvin today, according to new research published in the Astrophysical Journal matter concentrations are surrounded by gas halos getting hotter and bigger “Our new measurement provides a direct confirmation of the seminal work by Jim Peebles, who laid out the theory of how the large-scale structure forms in the Universe,” said lead author Dr a researcher in the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics at the Ohio State University The large-scale structure of the Universe refers to the global patterns of galaxies and galaxy clusters on scales beyond individual galaxies It is formed by the gravitational collapse of dark matter and gas gravity pulls dark matter and gas in space together into galaxies and clusters of galaxies The drag is violent — so violent that more and more gas is shocked and heated up,” Dr “The findings showed scientists how to clock the progress of cosmic structure formation by ‘checking the temperature’ of the Universe.” Chiang and colleagues used a new method that allowed them to estimate the temperature of gas farther away from Earth — which means further back in time — and compare them to gases closer to Earth and near the present time Using data collected by ESA’s Planck satellite and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, they estimated the redshift of gas concentrations seen in images of microwave light going back in time all the way to 10 billion years ago They found that the gases in the present-day Universe reach temperatures of about 2 million Kelvin around objects closer to Earth That is about 10 times the temperature of the gases around objects farther away and further back in time This trend is also predicted by numerical simulations showing how dark matter and the atoms present in the gas evolve with time “The Universe is warming because of the natural process of galaxy and structure formation,” Dr These phenomena are happening on very different scales “We have measured temperatures throughout the history of the Universe,” said co-author Professor Brice Ménard a researcher in the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe and the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University all those clusters of galaxies are getting hotter and hotter because their gravity pulls more and more gas toward them.” The Cosmic Thermal History Probed by Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect Tomography Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times Aristos is a Newsweek science and health reporter with the London He is particularly focused on archaeology and paleontology although he has covered a wide variety of topics ranging from astronomy and mental health Aristos joined Newsweek in 2018 from IBTimes UK and had previously worked at The World Weekly He is a graduate of the University of Nottingham and City University You can get in touch with Aristos by emailing a.georgiou@newsweek.com. Languages: English potentially measuring more than two-and-a-half miles in diameter is set to sail safely past the Earth toward the end of next month—and astronomers have captured an image of it as it approaches our planet The giant space rock—known as (52768) 1998 OR2—is the biggest asteroid to make a close approach to Earth in 2020, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS.) Data from the CNEOS indicates that the object could measure anywhere between 1.1 and just over 2.6 miles in diameter The asteroid will make its close approach on April 29 at 9:56 a.m ET) passing within around four million miles of our planet—or about 16 times the Earth-Moon distance—while traveling at a speed of nearly 20,000 miles per hour The orbit of this asteroid is well known and there is no chance of a collision for at least the next two centuries or so according to projections of its trajectory it is classed as "Potentially Hazardous" because it will come within 0.05 astronomical units (around 4.6 million miles) of Earth and is estimated to measure more than 460 feet in diameter According to data from the CNEOS, the asteroid will make its closest approach of the century in 2079, when it will come within around a million miles of Earth. This is the largest near-Earth object to pass within five times the Earth-moon distance in the next two hundred years, EarthSky reported A near-Earth object (NEO) is any asteroid or comet whose path around the sun takes it within 121 million miles of the star and 30 million miles of our own planet's orbit astronomer Gianluca Masi from the Virtual Telescope Project managed to snap a photo of (52768) 1998 OR2 using a robotic telescope known as "Elena"—based in Ceccano Masi was able to take an image of the sky—a single 30-second-long exposure—which shows the huge asteroid in the center as a tiny dot of white light The space rock was located around 22 million miles from Earth when the photo was captured During the asteroid's fly-by of our planet professional astronomers at facilities such as the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico will observe the asteroid in order to learn more about it the object is so big that it will be visible with small telescopes If you don't have any astronomy equipment, the Virtual Telescope Project will be tracking the object during its close approach and providing a live stream which can be viewed here military says chemical weapons expert killed in airstrike near Mosul last week Officials: Iraqi forces fend off ISIS fighters in Ramadi Militants have taken over an area southwest of the city of Kirkuk '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" Air Force B-1B Lancer from Ellsworth Air Force Base with a statement from Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force general in charge of managing the service’s bomber inventory slammed the Army’s new plan to base long-range missiles in the Pacific “Why in the world would we entertain a brutally expensive idea when we don’t, as the [Defense] Department, have the money to go do that?” Gen. Timothy Ray said during the Mitchell Institute’s Aerospace Advantage podcast recorded March 31 “I just think it’s a stupid idea to go and invest that kind of money that recreates something that the service has mastered and that we’re doing already right now I try to make sure that my language isn’t a little more colorful than it is the Army unveiled a new strategy paper laying out its plan to function as an “inside force” that would forward-deploy troops and ground-based missiles in the Pacific capable of destroying Chinese defenses Developing strategic counterfire and hypersonic weapons is “hugely important” for the Army to be able to neutralize ships and anti-access/area denial capabilities that could suppress the service’s maneuverability James McConville said during a March 25 event at the Brookings Institute “When you take a look at what some of our competitors have done with anti-access/area denial they put up very elaborate air and missile defense systems they’ve put up very elaborate anti-ship capabilities and they’re basically trying to expand themselves,” he said “The argument that we have is that you want to have multiple options to do that.” That position has rankled some air power advocates who believe the Air Force’s bomber fleet presents a more effective option for penetrating enemy airspace and destroying missile defenses but Air Force leaders have largely stayed silent on their concerns about how the Army’s plans could eat away at the defense budget Ray argued that the Army hasn’t proved it can get allies and partners in the Western Pacific to sign on to host the weapon systems the service hopes to develop “There are a lot of countries that have to agree to this I could see some of them probably agreeing in the European theater but I don’t see it coming together with any credibility in the Pacific any time real soon,” he said understands how we could do things around the globe so quickly knows how to integrate the kill chains,” he said It remains to be seen whether Ray’s comments are the first strike in what will become a larger conflict between the Army and Air Force or simply the frustrations of a single general officer vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said that the Joint Warfighting Concept calls for all the services to be able to conduct the long-range strike mission During a joint appearance earlier this week with McConville, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown noted that the services must work together despite having “a different perspective of how we look at the battlefield or a strategic environment.” After the publication of this story, an Air Force official told Defense News that Brown and McConville had spoken to each other on April 2 about Ray’s remarks. “They know the Air Force and the Army need to continue to work together in defense of the nation and look forward to making further progress toward that end,” the source said. Valerie Insinna is Defense News' air warfare reporter. She previously worked the Navy/congressional beats for Defense Daily, which followed almost three years as a staff writer for National Defense Magazine. Prior to that, she worked as an editorial assistant for the Tokyo Shimbun’s Washington bureau. Facebook pageTwitter feed RSS feedDefense News © 2025 UK financial regulator highlights concerns over consumer protection and privacy Facebook’s plans for a global cryptocurrency will warrant close scrutiny by governments across the world according to one of the UK’s most senior financial regulators Christopher Woolard, the executive director of strategy and competition at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted a series of potential issues with the digital currency from consumer protection and privacy concerns to financial market stability Facebook hopes to roll out Libra in June 2020, allowing more than 2bn monthly users worldwide to carry out financial transactions using the platform for the first time in a direct threat to the existing banking system. Read moreSpeaking at a conference in Cambridge Woolard said: “Its size and scale will pose questions for society and government more generally about what is acceptable and desirable in this space.” last week said that more widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies would require the attention of the global regulatory body The threat to financial stability posed by Libra will probably come under particular scrutiny because of the high volatility in the prices of other cryptocurrencies the original cryptocurrency that popularised decentralised ledger technology has fluctuated wildly in recent weeks after Facebook’s Libra announcement The price of one bitcoin fell below $10,000 (£7,900) at points on Tuesday The FCA and other regulators have met Facebook representatives to discuss the plans but analysts still have a wide variety of questions about the legal and practical details of Libra Woolard said the regulator would look at whether Libra and other cryptoassets functioned in similar ways to other regulated investment vehicles He suggested that tech firms could expect a high level of scrutiny when entering the financial sector this may have been a sector that has lived by the mantra of ‘move fast and break things’ but the issues raised here require deep thought and detail,” he said “There is a finite amount of learning through failing fast that can be tolerated when consumers are at risk of harm.” That warning echoed comments made last month by the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, who said he would not allow a payments network that became a haven for criminals and terrorists A new genus and species of mosasaur has been identified from a 1-m- (3.3-foot-) long skull and isolated bones found in a phosphate mine in Morocco Life reconstruction of Gavialimimus almaghribensis hunting a school of teleosts The new mosasaur species swam in the oceans between 72 and 66 million years ago (Cretaceous period) Scientifically named Gavialimimus almaghribensis narrow snout and interlocking teeth — similar to gharials “This discovery adds a layer of clarity to a diverse picture seemingly overcrowded with mega-predators all competing for food, space and resources,” said lead author Catie Strong a student in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta “Its long snout reflects that this mosasaur was likely adapted to a specific form of predation There is evidence that each mosasaur species shows adaptations for different prey items or styles of predation The fossilized skull of Gavialimimus almaghribensis such as the extremely long snout and the interlocking teeth in Gavialimimus almaghribensis which we hypothesized as helping it to catch rapidly moving prey,” Strong said “Another distinctive species would be Globidens simplex globular teeth adapted for crushing hard prey like shelled animals.” “Not all of the adaptations in these dozen or so species are this dramatic and in some cases there may have been some overlap in prey items but overall there is evidence that there’s been diversification of these species into different niches,” she said the main contrasting hypothesis would be a scenario of more direct competition among species “Given the anatomical differences among these mosasaurs the idea of niche partitioning seems more consistent with the anatomy of these various species,” Strong said “This does help give another dimension to that diversity and shows how all of these animals living at the same time in the same place were able to branch off and take their own paths through evolution to be able to coexist like that.” The discovery of Gavialimimus almaghribensis is described in a paper in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology A new species of longirostrine plioplatecarpine mosasaur (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco with a re-evaluation of the problematic taxon ‘Platecarpus’ ptychodon This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page India's Parliament approves amendments to the country's juvenile law after release of youngest convicted rapist Indian law allows a maximum of three years in reform homes for juvenile convicts India has actually toughened up its laws governing serious crimes such as rape (Left) the Earth-sun system (Right) the system of the newly discovered exoplanet LHS 3154 b and its star "This discovery really drives home the point of just how little we know about the universe We wouldn’t expect a planet this heavy around such a low-mass star to exist." Astronomers have discovered a massive extrasolar planet or "exoplanet," orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that is way too small to host such a world challenging scientists' models of how planets and planetary systems are born. This means the ratio between the Neptune-like world and its parent star — LHS 3154, which is located around 51 light-years away — is 100 times greater than the mass ratio between Earth and the sun something researchers didn’t think was possible This is the first time a planet with such a great mass has been found around one of the universe’s more diminutive stars. "We wouldn’t expect a planet this heavy around such a low-mass star to exist." Related: This rare exoplanet system has 6 ‘sub-Neptunes’ with mathematically perfect orbits Stars are formed when vast clouds of gas and dust accumulate overly dense patches that grow until they ultimately collapse under their own gravity This leaves an infant star surrounded by a disk of leftover material called a "protoplanetary disk." it is from this leftover disk of material that scientists believe planets eventually emerge The amount of material left over from the formation of the star sets a limit on how big these potential planets can be. This is because the ratios of the dust-to-mass and dust-to-gas content of LHS 3154's original protoplanetary disk would have had to be ten times higher than predictions in order to birth a Neptune-like world as massive as LHS 3154 b "The planet-forming disk around the low-mass star LHS 3154 is not expected to have enough solid mass to make this planet," Mahadevan explained so now we need to reexamine our understanding of how planets and stars form." The particular focus of the instrument, which Mahadevan actually helped build alongside a team, is on planets neither too close nor too far from their stars to host liquid water, a key requirement of life. These would be planets that sit in the so-called habitable zone around their stars. Such planets are not easy to spot, partly because the habitable zone of cool stars is much closer to those stars than the zone is in our solar system This means these worlds are often obscured by light from their relatively small parent stars. these planets are expected to be small themselves "Think about it like the star is a campfire the closer you'll need to get to that fire to stay warm," Mahadevan said then a planet will need to be closer to that star if it is going to be warm enough to contain liquid water "If a planet has a close enough orbit to its ultracool star we can detect it by seeing a very subtle change in the color of the star’s spectra or light as it is tugged on by an orbiting planet." — The 10 most Earth-like exoplanets — Two potentially habitable Earth-like worlds orbit a star in our cosmic backyard — 2 'super-Earth' exoplanets spotted in habitable zone of nearby star The detection of LHS 3154 b is important for the HPF as it shows the instrument's potential to deliver important exoplanet results, with team member and NASA Sagan Fellow in Astrophysics at Princeton University saying that this result has exceeded all expectations for the instrument. "What we have discovered provides an extreme test case for all existing planet formation theories," Mahadevan concluded to discover how the most common stars in our galaxy form planets — and to find those planets." The team’s research was published on Nov. 30 in the journal Science Robert LeaSocial Links NavigationSenior WriterRobert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K whose articles have been published in Physics World He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University This iconic 'Star Wars' Rebel pilot helmet from the Battle of Hoth could fetch $400K at auction pleads guilty to lying to FBI agents as Paul Manafort is charged with money laundering and fraud A former campaign aide to Donald Trump who sought to secure a meeting between the future US president and Vladimir Putin has pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents working for special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Read moreGeorge Papadopoulos’s plea was unsealed on Monday – the same day Trump’s former campaign manager fraud and failing to register as agents of foreign interests Papadopoulos is the first person to face criminal charges that cite interactions between Trump campaign associates and people claiming to be Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign It is unclear if these are the emails the professor was referring to Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on 5 October to one count of lying to FBI agents about the timing and nature of his interactions with “foreign nationals” who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials The document released by Mueller’s team also shows that unnamed campaign officials told Papadopoulos “great work” when he said he was trying to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin and encouraged him to make a trip to meet Russian officials in lieu of Trump himself has also been under investigation for his ties to Russia Trump aides have said Papadopoulos played a limited role in the campaign and had no access to Trump even dismissed Trump’s praise for the foreign policy adviser Asked if the president still believed Papadopoulos was an excellent guy he was going through a list of names through the Washington Post and nothing more than that and complimentary of the people volunteering on behalf of the campaign.” Around the time Papadopoulos’s guilty plea became public Trump tweeted to renew his claims that there had been no collusion between his campaign and Russian attempts to sway the election and attempt to shift the spotlight to his former rival Hillary Clinton “Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign,” the president wrote “But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus???? Papadopoulos has agreed to provide information in the criminal investigation, according to the indictment unveiled on Monday And he admitted to making false statements to the FBI in its investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin Papadopoulos revealed new details of his own involvement in attempts to forge connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials A “statement of the offense” document released by the special counsel’s office – which Papadopoulos agrees is accurate as part of his guilty plea – states that “on or about March 31 Papadopoulos attended a national security meeting with Trump and other advisers at which Papadopoulos stated that he “could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin” This article includes content provided by Instagram We ask for your permission before anything is loaded as they may be using cookies and other technologies Papadopoulos told investigators as part of the plea that he befriended an unnamed London-based professor he believed had “substantial connections” to Russian government officials after he became an adviser to the campaign Papadopoulos had initially told investigators that he met the professor before joining the Trump campaign – one of the lies he pleaded guilty to telling investigators The professor was not named in court documents but is described as a person who claimed to have close connections to the Kremlin and who told Papadopoulos that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails” The court records state that the professor claimed to have met with officials in Moscow immediately before telling Papadopoulos about the emails This article includes content provided by Scribd The professor also introduced the Trump adviser to an unnamed female Russian national who Papadopoulos falsely believed was Putin’s niece “He sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials,” according to the indictment Papadopoulos was living in London when he learned – in March 2016 – that he would be joining the Trump campaign as an adviser Papadopoulos struck the plea bargain to avoid a potential five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $250,000 The deal outlined to him suggests that he would be more likely to get a prison sentence of between zero and six months and a fine ranging from $500 to $9,500 taking into account his admission of guilt and his previously clean criminal record Investigation found 1,280 hectares of natural forest illegally razed endangering homes of more than 30% of world’s pandas Illegal loggers are ransacking sanctuaries in southwest China that are home to more than 30% of the world’s pandas The two-year study found that more than 1,800 football pitches of natural forest in a Unesco world natural heritage site had been illegally razed According to the environmental group, nearly 1,280 hectares (3,200 acres) of natural forest in the Sichuan giant panda sanctuaries have been illegally felled, putting endangered plant and animal species, including the giant panda, at risk. Read moreLocal businesses and authorities have been exploiting a legal loophole in forest regulations to log with impunity in the wildlife-rich area between the Chengdu plateau and the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, Greenpeace claimed in its report “The extent of illegal logging in this precious area is shocking,” said Pan Wenjing deputy head of the forest and ocean unit of Greenpeace’s East Asia branch “These findings seriously undermine the Chinese government’s efforts to preserve its and the world’s natural heritage.” The investigation showed that Chinese regulations, introduced in 1998 and strengthened in 2012, to prevent the felling of natural forests for profit had failed to stop the logging The Sichuan giant panda sanctuaries are home to more than 30% of the world’s pandas as well as other globally endangered animals such as the red panda Greenpeace said a third of China’s natural forests were at risk of deforestation as a result of the loophole which allows “low yield” natural forest to be felled and turned into commercial plantations under the guise of forest regeneration The activists used remote sensing, field surveys and spatial analysis to uncover illegal logging activity, as they have done in previous investigations in Yunnan and Zhejiang province the most pressing and most serious problem facing China right now is deforestation of natural forest in the name of improving low-yield timber forest,” said Zhou Lijiang the deputy chief engineer at the Sichuan province forestry investigation and planning institute and a key forestry regulations advisor an investigation by China’s state forestry administration (SFA) found that by the end of 2013 China had 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild But the survey also showed that 223 of the endangered wild giant pandas are at high risk due to pressure from factors such as habitat loss