Category: Science

A catastrophic landslide in an Alaskan fjord last summer generated what scientists now confirm was the second-tallest tsunami in recorded history, with waves soaring to an astounding 1,578 feet – exceeding the height of New York’s Empire State Building.

The massive wave struck Tracy Arm Fjord in southeastern Alaska on August 10, 2025, at 5:30 a.m., according to new research published Wednesday in the journal Science. The remote waterway, located within the Tongass National Forest about 50 miles south of Juneau, is known for its dramatic landscape of granite cliffs, cascading waterfalls, and glaciers.

Fortunately, the early morning timing meant no cruise ships or recreational vessels were present in the popular tourist destination, preventing any injuries or fatalities.

University of Calgary geomorphologist Dan Shugar, who led the research team, emphasized the fortunate timing of the disaster. “The fact that the landslide occurred this early in the morning was unbelievably lucky. Next time – and there will be a next time – we may not be so lucky,” Shugar stated.

The research team attributes the landslide directly to climate change impacts. Rising temperatures caused a glacier that had been supporting the mountainside to retreat, ultimately leaving the rock formation without adequate support.

Without any photographic or video evidence of the event, scientists pieced together what happened using post-disaster aerial photography, satellite imagery, seismic readings, on-site investigations, and witness accounts from people in the vicinity.

The fjord measures approximately 25 miles in length and just over half a mile in width, flanked by towering cliffs that rise more than 3,280 feet. Researchers calculated the wave’s extraordinary height by examining where vegetation had been completely stripped away, creating stark scars on the rocky walls.

“The clearcut vegetation, like a bathtub ring around the fjord, is probably the most striking difference in how the fjord looks now versus last year, unless you were scuba diving and could see the massive deposit (of rock) on the ocean floor,” Shugar explained.

He described the aftermath as resembling “two different worlds,” with “a very sharp line, below which there is only rock and sediment and some tree stumps, and above which is virgin forest, standing as it did on August 9 before the tsunami.”

The scale of the collapse was enormous – approximately 83 million cubic yards of rock tumbled down in roughly one minute. University College London geophysicist Stephen Hicks, a study co-author, noted this volume equals 24 times that of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

“This collapse triggered a seismic wave observed around the globe,” Hicks reported.

The confined space of the fjord trapped some waves, creating a phenomenon called a seiche – essentially water sloshing back and forth that continued for several days and produced distinctive seismic signatures. A comparable landslide tsunami at Greenland’s Dickson Fjord in 2023 generated a 650-foot wave and similar sloshing effects.

Giant waves known as tsunamis typically result from underwater earthquakes, volcanic activity, or landslides. The record-holding tsunami – reaching about 1,700 feet – also occurred in Alaska at Lituya Bay in 1958 following a landslide.

While localized tsunamis like these can reach extreme heights, open-ocean tsunamis pose greater threats to human life despite being shorter. The devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed approximately 230,000 lives, reached 167 feet in Sumatra. Japan’s 2011 tsunami, responsible for over 15,000 deaths, peaked at about 131 feet.

“Tsunamis due to large earthquakes occur because a fault in the crust ruptures the seafloor, causing the vertical displacement of water above it. In the case of landslide events, it is the collapse of material from above the water and into the water that creates the wave,” Hicks explained.

The research revealed promising developments for future disaster prevention. Seismic data showed approximately one week of minor earthquakes preceded the Tracy Arm landslide, indicating fracturing within the eventual slide zone.

“With the benefit of hindsight, we have found that the landslide was preceded by about a week of tiny earthquakes indicating fracturing in the eventual landslide mass. This gives us possible hope of developing warning and forecasting systems, in tandem with other observations,” Hicks said.

CALHOUN, Ga. — Beginning in the 1970s, textile manufacturers in northwest Georgia used chemicals called PFAS to make carpets stain-resistant. The chemicals that weren’t absorbed were discharged through the multibillion-dollar industry’s wastewater into municipal sewer systems and ultimately into area rivers.

Years later, these invisible, odorless chemicals have contaminated the entire region, including people’s bloodstreams. Researchers have issued warnings about potential health dangers to both humans and animals.

Although federal authorities haven’t established mandatory PFAS limits, states possess the power to safeguard public health and environmental quality. However, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division failed to address the contamination problem despite being aware of it for many years, according to a joint investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS).

Here are the main findings from this continuing investigation into the harmful environmental impact of the South’s carpet manufacturing industry.

Residents throughout northwest Georgia know individuals suffering from health issues, including specific cancers, potentially linked to PFAS exposure. This public health emergency could have been prevented.

University of Georgia research conducted in 2008 warned both industry leaders and state officials that the local Conasauga River, which provides the area’s drinking water, contained “staggeringly high” concentrations of PFAS — short for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, nicknamed forever chemicals due to their persistence in human bodies and their ability to remain in the environment for decades or longer. Georgia’s own laboratory results from 2012 and 2016 validated the university’s findings. Federal monitoring continued to detect PFAS in 2019, the same year major carpet producers claimed they discontinued using these chemicals.

PFAS contaminate household tap water because municipal water systems lack the sophisticated and expensive equipment needed to filter them from river water sources.

Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division never issued fish consumption warnings or water safety alerts to residents, even as scientists and federal officials expressed growing alarm about PFAS health risks. Currently, Georgia still has no PFAS regulations, unlike other states that have spent tens of millions on environmental cleanup and filed lawsuits against polluting companies to recover expenses.

Anna Truszczynski, Deputy Director of Georgia’s EPD, explained that her department relied on federal guidance and waited for researchers to develop better understanding of PFAS dangers. She noted that her agency assisted contamination-affected cities by providing laboratory testing, connecting them with potential funding opportunities, and recommending filtration systems.

“We believe that there can be a good balance between environment and economy,” Truszczynski said. “We don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.”

Jake Murphy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stated in an email that federal officials are working to provide technical assistance and financial support to the affected region.

During 2008, Georgia’s EPD director held a closed-door meeting with carpet industry executives and representatives from their trade organization, the Carpet and Rug Institute, based on testimony records from company lawsuits.

Werner Braun, who served as the carpet institute’s director at that time, subsequently briefed his board about the discussion with then-Director Carol Couch, reporting that EPD “has no plans to initiate regulatory action” regarding PFAS, according to court deposition documents. Braun informed his board that Couch also suggested EPD “would probably look at the issue again in five years.”

The meeting with Couch was so successful that one carpet company executive expressed gratitude to participants for “gaining this good outcome,” the transcripts show.

When contacted for comment via text message, Couch stated that PFAS were merely an “emerging concern” during that period and EPA had not yet established drinking water standards. EPA’s initial PFAS guidance was released in 2009.

“To the Carpet and Rug Institute I offered no respite from state regulation of PFAS,” Couch wrote to the AJC and AP. She explained that the five-year timeline was standard for new water regulations and that in 2008, EPD “had neither the sufficient science, expertise nor resources to undertake action independent of USEPA.”

A carpet institute spokesperson declined to provide comments. Braun did not respond to interview requests.

The nation’s two largest carpet manufacturers, Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries Inc., both headquartered in the area, attribute the contamination to their chemical suppliers, claiming these companies concealed PFAS dangers for years. The carpet manufacturers said they complied with regulatory guidance and emphasized that no mandatory chemical limits currently exist.

In legal documents, chemical suppliers 3M and DuPont argued that carpet companies, not chemical manufacturers, were responsible for releasing PFAS into northwest Georgia’s waterways.

All four companies declined to comment for this investigation.

When PFAS appeared in Alabama’s drinking water during 2016, local water authority officials contacted Georgia seeking explanations.

Eastern Alabama and northwest Georgia share a river network that begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains and flows through both states toward Mobile Bay. This watershed supplies the area’s carpet factories, which consume enormous quantities of water, particularly during fabric dyeing operations. It also serves as the drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of downstream residents.

Following tests that revealed PFAS concentrations above EPA’s voluntary health recommendations at that time, Alabama’s environmental authorities notified federal officials and requested Georgia’s EPD assistance in locating the contamination source.

Georgia had been aware for years that waters flowing from Dalton, the center of the state’s major carpet industry located more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) upstream, contained elevated PFAS levels.

Despite Alabama’s emergency request, Georgia’s environmental officials failed to respond appropriately, according to interviews and internal agency documents.

“EPD was very defensive,” said Jim Giattina, former director of EPA’s Water Protection Division who facilitated a conference call between both states for coordination purposes. “There was certainly no commitment on their part to do any more monitoring.”

EPD’s Truszczynski, who joined the department in 2016, said she could find no documentation of Georgia’s response.

“We’re always very happy to work with our friends in Alabama,” she said.

Alabama’s Department of Environmental Management did not respond to repeated interview and comment requests.

Across the United States, PFAS have been produced and incorporated into numerous products, including non-stick cookware, waterproof sunscreen, firefighting foam, dental floss and microwave popcorn packaging.

This widespread use has created contamination hotspots in other locations.

Several other states are implementing much more aggressive strategies than Georgia.

Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine have each allocated millions of dollars for environmental cleanup, established comprehensive testing programs and filed lawsuits to hold polluters and manufacturers responsible.

A bipartisan coalition of Wisconsin legislators approved $133 million for PFAS cleanup earlier this year. This decision concluded a lengthy effort by Jill Billings, a Democratic state assembly member. In 2019, a community in her district discovered contaminated drinking water. Residents have relied on state-provided bottled water since 2021.

Billings emphasized that state-level action becomes increasingly crucial as federal environmental regulations, including PFAS oversight, face rollbacks. While EPA has not yet implemented enforceable forever chemical limits, the agency’s proposed restrictions include the two chemicals most commonly used by carpet manufacturers. These limits are scheduled to take effect in 2031.

“I think it’s up to us to solve the problems of regular folks because the federal government seems to be struggling,” Billings said in an interview. “That’s fine. We’re ready.”

A comprehensive new research study reveals that urban forests are offsetting approximately half of the temperature increases caused by concrete and buildings in metropolitan areas worldwide, yet the communities most in need of cooling relief aren’t receiving adequate benefits.

Published Wednesday in Nature Communications, the research shows that tree coverage provides an average temperature reduction of 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit (0.15 degrees Celsius) across global urban areas through shade provision and water vapor release.

Cities would experience an additional 0.56 degrees Fahrenheit (0.31 degrees Celsius) of warming without existing tree coverage due to urban heat islands, where dark surfaces and pavement trap thermal energy. This warming process operates independently from greenhouse gas-driven climate change.

The research team analyzed temperature data from nearly 9,000 major cities worldwide, examining areas equivalent to roughly 150 city blocks each. This detailed approach enabled scientists to measure localized cooling impacts, ensuring that parks in one neighborhood weren’t incorrectly credited with cooling distant urban areas.

While 185 million residents across 31 major metropolitan areas currently experience at least 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit of tree-based cooling, lead researcher Rob McDonald from the Nature Conservancy noted that economically disadvantaged and hotter urban centers receive insufficient protection from dangerous heat levels that can cause brain dysfunction, organ failure, and cardiac stress.

The research methodology combined weather station readings, satellite imagery, and computational modeling to quantify tree-based cooling effects, measuring temperature differences between city centers and surrounding rural regions.

Twenty cities housing at least 3 million people each provide residents with less than one-tenth of a degree of tree-based cooling. Four metropolitan areas—Dakar, Senegal; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City; and Amman, Jordan—have such limited tree coverage that their combined 15 million inhabitants receive virtually no natural cooling benefits.

Cities achieving cooling effects of at least 0.45 degrees Fahrenheit show stark economic disparities. Nearly 40% of wealthy nations’ cities reach this cooling threshold, compared to fewer than 9% of cities in the world’s poorest countries.

Berlin leads the list of most effectively cooled cities, joined by Atlanta, Moscow, Washington, Seattle, and Sydney, all featuring extensive tree coverage. Atlanta maintains tree canopy over 64% of its land area, McDonald reported. Wealthier North American communities benefit from larger property sizes, individual ownership patterns, and residents with greater political influence, all contributing to expanded tree growth and coverage, according to Chris Greene from the University of Dalhousie in Canada, who wasn’t involved in the research.

“There’s this inequality,” McDonald explained. “When you look at cities globally, there are many, many cities, especially in developing countries, that have very low tree cover, and so I think the air temperature cooling number was a little less than we expected.”

Thomas Crowther, an ecological researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, emphasized that incremental improvements matter significantly. His regional cities receive minimal tree-based cooling, often due to water scarcity constraints.

“As up to 75% of the human population shifts towards living in urban environments, these buffering effects of urban vegetation are going to be vital,” Crowther stated. “But we have to overturn the devastating inequities in the distribution of urban trees, so that their benefits can be experienced by the low- and middle-income communities that are often most vulnerable to the effects of extreme temperatures.”

Study authors emphasized that municipalities, particularly those in hotter and economically challenged areas, should prioritize expanding tree coverage. However, constraints including water availability, suitable land, appropriate species selection, and intensifying climate change limit potential future urban heat reduction to approximately 20%, McDonald noted.

“Trees won’t save us from climate change,” McDonald cautioned. “The climate scenarios are showing a much warmer world and there’s only so much of that that tree cover can help with.”

Tree planting offers additional environmental benefits beyond temperature reduction. Crowther and Jean-Francois Bastin proposed in a 2019 Science journal study that planting one trillion additional trees—supplementing Earth’s existing 3 trillion trees—could capture significant carbon dioxide.

“Planting trees does help fight climate change in multiple ways, but this strategy is not nearly enough to slow climate change to a significant degree,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn’t involved in the current research. “Only by transitioning away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy and battery storage can we hope to halt the climate change that is wreaking havoc around the planet.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — The world’s most remote continent is experiencing an unprecedented surge in visitors as travelers rush to witness Antarctica’s pristine wilderness before climate change potentially transforms it forever. However, this dramatic increase in tourism is raising serious concerns among researchers and environmental advocates about potential contamination, disease outbreaks, and ecological harm.

Though visitor numbers remain relatively modest due to expensive costs and lengthy travel times, the rapid growth rate has prompted warnings from the scientific community.

Recent attention has focused on this trend following a fatal hantavirus outbreak that occurred on the Dutch vessel MV Hondius during an extended polar expedition.

The majority of Antarctic expeditions visit the Antarctic Peninsula, recognized as among the globe’s most rapidly warming regions. NASA data shows that between 2002 and 2020, approximately 149 billion metric tons of Antarctic ice disappeared annually.

A typical journey involves sailing southward from Argentina to Antarctica before traveling northward along Africa’s coastline — the identical path followed by the cruise vessel MV Hondius.

“The sites you will see in Antarctica are extremely unique and not replicable anywhere else on the planet — the whales, the seals, the penguins, the icebergs — it’s all really stunning and it makes a huge impression on people,” said Claire Christian, executive director of the environmental group Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

Data from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators reveals that in 2024, more than 80,000 visitors actually set foot on the ice-covered landmass, while an additional 36,000 observed the scenery from aboard vessels.

The International Union of Concerned Scientists calculates that Antarctic tourism has expanded by ten times over the previous three decades.

These figures may climb even higher in the coming decade as expenses decrease with additional ice-resistant vessels entering service and technological improvements, according to Hanne Nielsen, a senior lecturer of Antarctic law at the University of Tasmania. Her university colleagues project that annual visitor numbers could increase three or four times to exceed 400,000 within that timeframe.

Nielsen explained that some travelers participate in “last chance tourism,” understanding that the melting environment is undergoing rapid transformation.

Authorities have not reported any contamination evidence related to the MV Hondius incident.

Nevertheless, migrating bird populations have transported avian influenza from South America to Antarctica in recent years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

This disease outbreak led the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators and other organizations to strengthen regulations governing tourist behavior and sanitation practices to safeguard visitors from contamination. To preserve the delicate ecosystem from invasive organisms both large and microscopic, tourists receive instructions to maintain distance from wildlife and avoid ground contact except with their feet.

“There are rules that people are bound by when they’re heading south,” Nielsen explained, drawing from her experience as a former guide on five expeditions. Staff and passengers employ vacuum cleaners, disinfecting agents, and brushes to thoroughly clean footwear and gear, removing insects, feathers, seeds, and dirt that may harbor microorganisms.

“Between the tongues and the laces of the boots you can find a lot of things,” she noted.

Cruise vessels have experienced outbreaks of illnesses such as norovirus, which can rapidly spread within a ship’s confined environment. In 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the Diamond Princess transformed the cruise liner into a breeding ground for the then-unknown virus.

Hantavirus typically spreads through inhalation of contaminated rodent waste particles.

The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and traveled to Antarctica and multiple remote islands.

WHO officials are examining potential person-to-person transmission aboard the cruise vessel, stated Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness. Authorities believe the initial infected individual likely acquired the virus prior to embarkation, she explained, and officials have been informed that no rats are present on the ship.

The Antarctic Treaty governs Antarctica, establishing the region in 1959 as a scientific sanctuary designated solely for peaceful activities. Subsequent regulations “aim to ensure that all visits, regardless of location, do not adversely impact the Antarctic environment or its scientific and aesthetic values,” the treaty’s secretariat states.

Tourism companies and research organizations voluntarily follow biosecurity protocols and provide environmental impact evaluations for Antarctic activities.

Christian pointed out that the treaty was created when tourist numbers were significantly smaller.

“Activity needs to be regulated appropriately, as you would with any of the world’s sensitive and precious ecological sites,” Christian stated from Hiroshima, Japan, where she was attending an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. At the gathering, she planned to support efforts to enhance protections for Antarctica’s penguins, whales, seabirds, seals and krill — small organisms that form the foundation of the food web.

Currently, the appeal of the frozen wilderness continues attracting travelers.

“You can put a footprint in Antarctica and it’s still there 50 years later,” Christian observed.

Crowds of approximately 50 individuals recently assembled outside a Chinese mobile internet company’s headquarters in Beijing, seeking assistance with setting up an artificial intelligence assistant on their devices.

Similar gatherings occurred repeatedly across multiple events in Beijing and the technology center of Shenzhen during March, where technical staff assisted people installing the widely-used AI “agent” called OpenClaw on their computers.

“I’m worried about falling behind in technological developments,” expressed Sun Lei, a 41-year-old human resources manager attending the Cheetah event. She explained her hope that the technology could assist her in finding and evaluating resumes from different hiring platforms.

Following more than a year since OpenAI’s Chinese competitor DeepSeek amazed the global community with its sophisticated AI system, China has transformed into a massive laboratory for widespread AI tool implementation. While AI systems developed in America continue to lead in pure computational strength, Chinese citizens and companies have quickly adopted the technology, enabling rapid and extensive integration across virtually all sectors.

With worldwide AI usage expanding rapidly in workplaces and personal activities, everyday Chinese citizens employ AI for numerous purposes including travel booking and planning, food ordering, and ride-hailing services. Government data from the China Internet Network Information Center shows that over 600 million people from the nation’s 1.4 billion population were utilizing generative AI by December, marking a 142% jump from the previous year.

The recent increase in “agentic” AI usage like OpenClaw, particularly among Chinese enterprises, has also elevated AI model data consumption. Using measurements called tokens – data units representing portions of words – Chinese AI models’ weekly usage has recently exceeded that of U.S. models, according to OpenRouter, an AI “gateway platform” that monitors data and manages security across various AI systems.

Jason Tong, a 64-year-old retired IT engineer from Shanghai, has utilized AI chatbots including Doubao and Kimi for daily inquiries since their introduction several years ago.

After becoming more health-conscious, he enrolled in March with a Shanghai company’s blood glucose monitoring program that employs an AI system to create customized health recommendations. The personalized and quick responses have proven valuable to him.

Tong believes widespread AI application adoption in everyday activities is unavoidable, stating “Just as carriages were eventually replaced by trains, this is bound to happen.”

Chinese AI-integrated products including vehicles and robots are achieving significant progress, ranging from humanoid robots with sophisticated thinking abilities to AI systems enabling drivers to handle complex tasks such as restaurant bookings.

“The (AI) competition is clearly shifting from models to ecosystems,” noted Lizzi Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis who focuses on economics and technology. “Chinese users are basically acting as real-time testers at scale.”

Chinese technology corporations including Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu are competing to bring AI to market. Tencent incorporated OpenClaw into WeChat, China’s comprehensive “super-app” that functions primarily as messaging software but also enables activities like food ordering and payment processing. Alibaba is incorporating “agentic” AI throughout its business operations.

OpenClaw, initially developed by Austrian software creator Peter Steinberger in the previous year, gained rapid and enthusiastic adoption due to its capability to utilize multiple tools for completing complex assignments.

Zhao Yikang, a Chinese university student in Macao, employs OpenClaw for both academic work and personal tasks.

He was impressed by its affordability and effectiveness, using it to automatically create marketing videos and handle social media accounts during his internship with a real estate company in Zhuhai, a southern Chinese city.

“AI can understand things in a second,” Zhao explained. “You just need to act as a commander and tell it what to do.”

While preparing to launch a photography services company after graduation, Zhao requested AI assistance in building a business website. Within 10 minutes, it produced a completely operational site for under 5 yuan (70 cents).

Despite Chinese officials issuing multiple warnings about potential security concerns regarding OpenClaw AI “agents” such as data breaches as installations increased dramatically, widespread interest has persisted.

Chinese businesses are increasingly establishing internal goals for expanding AI usage to enhance productivity, according to Janet Tang, a partner and managing director specializing in technology at consulting firm AlixPartners.

There are “a lot of application scenarios,” stated Wang Xiaogang, co-founder of Chinese AI software company SenseTime and chairman of ACE Robotics. “The industry is developing very fast and the people, they are very open and they’re eager to try the AI in a lot of scenarios.”

China has worked to position itself advantageously by investing substantially in talent development and securing access to plentiful, cost-effective electricity for energy-intensive AI developments and innovations.

To accomplish technological breakthroughs including AI advances, Chinese leadership has committed to an annual average increase of at least 7% in national research and development expenditure through the country’s five-year plan extending to 2030. An “AI plus” national strategy details measures to incorporate AI into numerous life areas, from medical care to education. Courts in Shenzhen handled 50% more cases last year, officials reported, partially through an AI tool supporting legal procedures.

Nevertheless, restricted access to some of the world’s most sophisticated computer chips due to U.S. limitations continues to hinder China’s AI progress.

“Export controls on tools have slowed China’s chipmaking capabilities, and are the Achilles’ heel of many AI labs that need advanced AI chips,” explained Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at New America who specializes in Chinese technology policies.

However, the restrictions have also resulted in better coordination of design, production and implementation throughout China’s technology supply network. “Over time this dynamic could fuel, not foil, China’s ambitions,” Sacks stated.

When China’s DeepSeek unveiled its highly anticipated V4 AI model preview last month, one significant modification was its partial support by computer chips manufactured by Chinese technology giant Huawei. This represents reduced reliance on leading U.S. chip producers like Nvidia.

A recent Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered AI report indicates the U.S.-China performance gap in leading AI models has “effectively closed.”

U.S. government officials and major AI companies including Anthropic and OpenAI have claimed Chinese AI startups are appropriating U.S. AI technologies. China maintains such accusations lack foundation.

Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at research and advisory firm Omdia, expects any AI gap between America and China will continue shrinking, despite U.S. export restrictions and China’s Great Firewall, the ruling Communist Party’s extensive internet filtering and censorship apparatus.

Analysts including Su believe obstacles like the Great Firewall will probably affect China’s AI usage in restricted ways, considering the technology is already undergoing testing, integration and expansion within China’s controlled internet system.

“It won’t be long before China moves from fast follower to parallel innovator,” he concluded.

Pennsylvania state authorities have initiated legal action against Character.AI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of allowing a chatbot to impersonate a medical professional.

According to state officials, the AI chatbot falsely represented itself as a licensed psychiatrist and went so far as to provide users with a counterfeit state medical license number during interactions.

The lawsuit highlights growing concerns about AI chatbots overstepping boundaries and potentially misleading users who may seek legitimate medical guidance through digital platforms.

Character.AI operates a platform where users can interact with various AI-powered characters and chatbots designed for different purposes and conversations.

The legal action represents one of the first major state-level challenges to AI companies over chatbots that allegedly misrepresent professional credentials and qualifications to users.

SAN FRANCISCO — Wildlife researchers were left amazed when a solitary coyote made an extraordinary journey through the dangerous waters of San Francisco Bay to reach Alcatraz Island, the infamous former prison known for its escape-proof location surrounded by turbulent currents.

Initially, scientists believed the animal had swum from San Francisco’s shoreline, which sits just over a mile from the historic fortress. However, DNA testing has revealed the male coyote actually completed a much more challenging 2-mile journey from Angel Island.

“Our working assumption was that the coyote made the swim from San Francisco because it is a significantly shorter distance. We couldn’t help being impressed by his accomplishment in making it to Alcatraz,” National Park Service wildlife ecologist Bill Merkle stated in a Monday announcement titled “Alcatraz Coyote Wasn’t a City Boy After All.”

“Coyotes are known to be resilient and adaptable, and he certainly demonstrated those qualities,” Merkle added.

According to Camilla Fox, who founded and leads the nonprofit Project Coyote, the animal was likely seeking either a breeding partner or fresh territory to claim. Fox explained that while coyotes can swim like their wolf relatives, witnessing such behavior is extremely uncommon.

“We have never, ever heard such a story of a coyote making such a long journey in a pretty challenging ocean current,” Fox remarked.

Footage captured in early January documented the coyote navigating the frigid bay waters before attempting to climb onto the island’s rocky shores. A visitor later photographed the animal on January 24th.

Scientists discovered fresh tracks and droppings, which they submitted to UC Davis for genetic testing. The results shocked officials when they confirmed the swimmer belonged to Angel Island’s coyote community.

Park officials had planned to trap and move the coyote due to Alcatraz serving as crucial nesting grounds for seabirds. However, the animal has disappeared from both visual sightings and camera equipment, with no indication it remains on the island.

The notorious Alcatraz prison opened during the 1930s to hold America’s most dangerous criminals before shutting down in the 1960s due to its expensive isolated operations.

Throughout its history, 36 inmates made 14 different escape attempts from Alcatraz. Almost all were recaptured or perished in the freezing, rapid currents. The site became a public park in 1973.

Angel Island operates as a state park that historically functioned as an immigration processing facility where Chinese and other immigrants were detained anywhere from days to months, sometimes up to two years.

Fox noted that coyotes faced significant challenges establishing themselves on Angel Island but managed to succeed. She encourages visitors to both islands and similar natural areas to respect coyote families and their dens during the current pup-rearing season.

A Netherlands-based quantum computing company has successfully secured $178 million in new investment capital, with Intel Capital leading the funding round, the firm announced Tuesday. The investment comes as European nations work to compete with technology leaders in the United States and China.

According to consulting giant McKinsey, quantum computing technology promises to revolutionize data processing speeds compared to traditional computers, with the industry potentially reaching trillions of dollars in value over the coming decade.

QuantWare, which operates from its headquarters in Delft, Netherlands, plans to use the new capital to expand its manufacturing capabilities for quantum processors.

The funding round included participation from several investment firms beyond Intel Capital, including IQT, ETF Partners, FORWARD.one, and the Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund.

Company CEO and co-founder Matt Rijlaarsdam emphasized the importance of scaling production in a prepared statement. “The promise of quantum computing, capable of solving humanity’s intractable challenges, can only happen once it can be manufactured and deployed at scale. That is exactly what we are building,” Rijlaarsdam said.

European leadership has made significant investments in quantum technology development, with the European Commission and member nations contributing over 11 billion euros (approximately $12.88 billion) in public funding over the past five years.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Rising gold values have sparked a fresh wave of illegal mining operations throughout Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, rapidly destroying protected forest areas and creating dangerous mercury pollution levels, according to government officials and environmental researchers.

Research published Tuesday by Amazon Conservation, working alongside Brazilian nonprofit Instituto Socioambiental, revealed that unlawful mining operations caused extensive forest clearing within three protected conservation zones in the Xingu region. This area represents one of Earth’s most expansive protected forest systems, covering territory in Para and Mato Grosso states. The findings combined satellite data with field investigations.

The Terra do Meio Ecological Station experienced its initial illegal mining incidents in September 2024. By late 2025, mining operations had destroyed 30 hectares (74 acres) of forest in that location. At Altamira National Forest, unauthorized mining caused 832 hectares (2,056 acres) of forest destruction from 2016 through September 2025. A newly established mining operation that began in 2024 expanded to cover 36 hectares (89 acres) by October 2025, representing nearly half of that year’s mining-related forest loss in the area.

Satellite surveillance also identified a hidden airstrip constructed by illegal miners within the Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve during the previous year. Unauthorized mining activity in this reserve expanded from 2 hectares (5 acres) to at least 26.8 hectares (66 acres) throughout 2025.

Amazon Conservation collaborated with Earth Genome and the Pulitzer Center in 2023 to create the Amazon Mining Watch, a monitoring system utilizing satellite technology to observe mining operations throughout the Amazon region starting in 2018. Approximately 496,000 hectares (1,225,640 acres) of rainforest have been destroyed for mining purposes since that time, with roughly 223,000 hectares (551,045 acres) located within Brazil’s Amazon territory. Amazon Conservation calculates that 80% of mining-related forest destruction in Brazil likely occurs illegally.

Mining contributes a relatively minor portion of Brazil’s total deforestation, as agricultural expansion remains the primary cause of forest loss. Official records show that approximately 579,600 hectares (1,432 acres) of Brazilian Amazon forest were cleared in 2025. Mining operations accounted for about 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of this destruction, based on Mining Watch data.

“What makes mining particularly problematic is that it targets protected areas and Indigenous territories,” said Matt Finer, director of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon program.

Safeguarding Indigenous lands is recognized as a highly effective strategy for preventing Amazon deforestation. The Amazon serves as the planet’s largest rainforest and plays a crucial role in regulating global climate patterns. Scientists caution that ongoing forest destruction could worsen global warming trends.

Brazilian officials initiated a comprehensive campaign against illegal gold mining within the Yanomami Indigenous territory in Roraima state during 2023, following a dramatic increase that created humanitarian and health emergencies. Amazon Conservation data shows that annual expansion of new mining areas declined significantly after that intervention. While mining activities continue, approximately 5,500 hectares (13,590 acres) of forest destruction within Yanomami territory had occurred by 2023.

However, targeted enforcement actions have failed to eliminate illegal mining throughout the broader Amazon region. When authorities destroy mining equipment and machinery in one location, operators frequently move to different areas or restart operations after officials depart. Federal prosecutor André Luiz Porreca, who investigates unauthorized mining in western Brazilian Amazon, characterized enforcement efforts as a “cat-and-mouse game.”

“Last year, I took part in an operation that destroyed more than 500 dredges on an Indigenous land,” Porreca said. “The following week, Indigenous people showed me photos proving the miners had already returned.”

According to Porreca, Brazil’s major criminal organizations, including the Red Command and First Capital Command (PCC), provide financial backing for illegal gold mining operations. These groups maintain presence in approximately one-third of Brazilian Amazon cities. “They have the money to bankroll these operations. Some dredges cost as much as 15 million reais.”

While enforcement reduced mining pressure in Yanomami territory, illegal operations have grown more intense in other locations, especially throughout Indigenous territories in the Xingu River basin. The most severe situation exists on Kayapo Indigenous land, where approximately 7,940 hectares (19,620 acres) of rainforest have been cleared through illegal mining, representing the largest such area in Brazil’s Amazon.

Historic gold prices, primarily driven by investor demand for secure investments amid increasing global uncertainties, have created powerful incentives for illegal mining activities.

“It’s basic market logic. With more buyers, there are more people exploiting gold,” Porreca said. He noted that Brazil’s mineral export oversight system remains inadequate, enabling money laundering operations that make illegal gold appear legitimate.

Environmental harm extends far beyond forest destruction. Illegal mining operations release mercury into river systems, polluting waterways and building up in fish that riverine and Indigenous communities rely on for food.

Porreca presented a report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in April detailing extensive mercury contamination throughout the Amazon. The document referenced research by Fiocruz, a government research organization, which discovered that 21.3% of fish sold in Amazon public markets contained mercury levels exceeding World Health Organization safety standards. Children between ages 2 and 4 were consuming mercury at concentrations up to 31 times above recommended maximum levels.

Brazilian law forbids mining activities on Indigenous territories. The Ministry of Indigenous peoples stated that combating illegal mining on Indigenous lands represents a key priority for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government. The ministry explained that mining invasions are supported by criminal networks, and addressing them requires dismantling these economic and logistical systems.

The Ministry of Environment acknowledged that mercury contamination from illegal gold mining continues as an ongoing Amazon problem, noting expanded scientific monitoring efforts while supporting enforcement activities.

Brazil’s Federal Police did not provide responses to Associated Press requests for comment.

Three technology giants have reached an agreement with federal officials to provide advance access to their artificial intelligence systems for security evaluations before public launch.

The Department of Commerce’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation revealed the arrangement on Tuesday, which involves Microsoft, Google (owned by Alphabet), and Elon Musk’s xAI company. Under the deal announced May 5, these firms will allow government officials to examine their newest AI technologies prior to release.

According to the Commerce Department center, the partnership will enable officials to perform evaluations before deployment and conduct focused research aimed at better understanding AI capabilities while improving AI safety measures.

None of the three technology companies provided immediate responses when asked for comment about the new arrangement.

The entrepreneur who brought the Roomba vacuum into millions of homes is now working on his next breakthrough: an artificial intelligence-powered robotic companion that could serve as an alternative to traditional pets.

Colin Angle introduced his four-legged prototype, named the Familiar, during a presentation on Monday. The device resembles a bulldog-sized creature featuring gentle eyes and bear-like ears and paws, designed with touch-responsive synthetic fur that encourages interaction through petting and hugging.

“We chose a form factor that’s not a human, not a dog, not a cat, because we wanted to steer away from all of those preconceptions,” explained Angle, who now heads Familiar Machines & Magic after serving as the long-time chief executive of iRobot, the company behind Roomba.

This type of realistic robotic companion would have been impossible when Angle helped establish iRobot in 1990 or when the original Roomba debuted in 2002, thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence technology.

While other companies have attempted similar projects – including Sony’s Aibo robotic dog from the late 1990s that was revived in 2018 – Angle believes his creation offers capabilities that “simply hasn’t existed before.”

“The challenge is to make something that’s not a watch-me toy,” Angle explained during an Associated Press interview. “This is about having something that you want to hug, you want to pet. When it’s happy, that makes you happy. And it is large enough or mobile enough to follow you to the kitchen or drag you off the couch and take a walk.”

The robotic companion produces emotional, animal-like vocalizations without speaking words. However, it features audio sensors that function as “ears” and an AI system capable of understanding and learning from human speech. The technology leverages recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence similar to ChatGPT, allowing the robot to modify its responses based on interactions with its human companions.

“I couldn’t have done this six months ago,” Angle noted.

Angle guided iRobot for twenty-five years, transforming Roomba into the first mainstream household robot. However, fierce competition, particularly from Chinese manufacturers, eventually challenged the company’s market position. Angle resigned from his leadership roles in 2024 following Amazon’s decision to abandon its acquisition plans for the struggling Massachusetts-based company.

Familiar Machines emerged shortly afterward and operated secretly in Woburn, Massachusetts until Monday, when Angle demonstrated one of his Familiar prototypes in New York at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference.

While commercial availability remains distant, Angle sees retired individuals as a primary market, particularly those who have moved beyond the typical pet-owning years.

“Not because people suddenly stop enjoying pets, but the fear and obligation of caring for them are such that people are very reluctant to get new pets at older ages,” Angle observed.

Unlike most robotics engineers who draw inspiration from science fiction, Angle’s concept stems from folklore traditions, including witches’ cats, wizards’ owls, and the animal companions featured in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” book series.

“It’s an archaic, ancient word,” Angle said. Surprisingly, he discovered he could also secure trademark protection for the name.

Angle has assembled a team of distinguished robotics experts, including Marc Raibert, who pioneered robot movement and established Boston Dynamics, creator of the four-legged Spot robot, and Cynthia Breazeal, who developed the robot head Kismet and later the desktop speaker robot Jibo, early experiments in giving robots social capabilities.

Many of these collaborators studied together at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and share doubts about the current trend toward sleek humanoid robots designed to walk and move like people but currently lack practical physical capabilities.

Among these advisers is Maja Matarić, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California who helped establish the field of socially assistive robotics twenty-five years ago, focusing on robots that could provide social and emotional support to people.

Upon first encountering Angle’s prototype, she reported that she “immediately got down on the ground near it and had to hug it and pet it, then started to play with it to see what it would do.”

The robot’s ability to appear endearing rather than unsettling will be crucial. Matarić explained that decades of human-robot interaction research demonstrate that a robot that is “cute, personalized and vulnerable is much more appealing and lovable than the alternative.” She suggested it could prove especially valuable in nursing facilities or for mental health emotional support.

Matarić added that AI developments have made it more feasible to expand the technology’s reach to general consumers.

“Before generative AI, robots could not readily understand what people were saying,” she explained.

PORTLAND, Maine — The Trump administration has announced its strong support for legislation that would postpone new federal safeguards for North Atlantic right whales until 2035, prioritizing the interests of commercial fishing operations over immediate conservation measures.

With approximately 380 of these massive marine mammals remaining in North Atlantic waters, the species faces critical threats from entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes. These whales can weigh as much as a medium-sized bulldozer and are among the most endangered whale species on the planet.

The legislation, introduced by Maine Democratic Representative Jared Golden, aims to provide additional time for developing regulations that would be less restrictive to fishing operations. In a Friday memorandum, the White House indicated President Trump’s senior advisors would recommend signing the measure if Congress approves it.

Golden defended his proposal, stating that Maine’s renowned lobster fishing industry would have faced devastating impacts from the previously planned regulations, which he described as “based on flawed science and hypothetical scenarios rather than the reality on the water.”

“A longer delay would give the government time to get the science right” regarding whale threats, Golden explained in his Friday statement.

The timing is significant as federal authorities had already suspended new right whale regulations until 2028. The proposed extension would add seven more years to that timeline.

These endangered whales follow a predictable migration pattern, traveling from birthing waters near Florida and Georgia northward to feeding areas around New England and Canadian waters. However, warming ocean temperatures have caused the whales to venture outside traditional protected zones while searching for food sources.

Commercial lobster and crab fishing operations generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually at American ports.

“This legislation is critical to ensuring the long-term stability of American fisheries for generations to come,” stated John Drouin, vice president of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association.

Conservation organizations, including California-based In Defense of Animals, have strongly opposed efforts to weaken whale protection measures. They point to alarming population statistics showing the species declined by approximately 25% between 2010 and 2020, with recovery efforts progressing slowly in recent years.

However, some recent developments offer hope for the species. The New England Aquarium reported that this year’s calving season resulted in 23 mother-calf pairs, representing the highest count since 2009.

Despite this positive news, the aquarium emphasized that right whales remain critically endangered after more than five decades of federal protection. These whales were once plentiful along the Eastern seaboard before commercial whaling operations nearly drove them to extinction.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists report discovering what appears to be a fragile atmosphere surrounding a small, frozen celestial body located in the outer reaches of our solar system past Pluto, possibly formed through volcanic activity or an impact from a comet.

Measuring approximately 300 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter, this distant mini-world may represent the smallest celestial object in our solar system confirmed to possess a gravity-bound global atmosphere, according to lead study author Ko Arimatsu from Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory.

“This is an amazing development, but it sorely needs independent verification. The implications are profound if verified,” stated Alan Stern from the Southwest Research Institute, who headed NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and wasn’t part of this research.

The discovery provides new understanding about the most distant, frigid objects inhabiting the Kuiper Belt region of our solar system. Scientists employed three Japanese telescopes to study the object during 2024 when it crossed between Earth and a distant star, causing temporary dimming of the starlight.

“It changes our view of small worlds in the solar system, not only beyond Neptune,” Arimatsu explained via email. He described discovering an atmosphere around such a diminutive object as “genuinely surprising” and noted it contradicts “the conventional view that atmospheres are limited to large planets, dwarf planets and some large moons.”

The minor planet, officially designated (612533) 2002 XV93, belongs to a class called plutinos, completing two solar orbits during Neptune’s three-orbit cycle. When observed, it sat more than 3.4 billion miles (5.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, positioned even farther than Pluto, which remains the only other Kuiper Belt object known to possess an atmosphere.

This frozen world’s atmosphere appears to be between 5 million and 10 million times less dense than Earth’s protective atmospheric layer, based on research published Monday in Nature Astronomy journal.

The atmosphere measures 50 to 100 times thinner than Pluto’s already sparse atmospheric envelope. Arimatsu suggests the most probable atmospheric components include methane, nitrogen or carbon monoxide, any of which could explain the observed starlight dimming during the object’s transit.

Additional observations, particularly using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, might confirm the atmosphere’s composition, Arimatsu noted.

“That is why future monitoring is so important,” he explained. “If the atmosphere fades over the next several years, that would support an impact origin. If it persists, or varies seasonally, that would point more toward ongoing internal gas supply” from ice volcanoes.

During a March day in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest, an artificial intelligence system flagged what appeared to be smoke through a camera monitoring system. After human experts confirmed the sighting wasn’t dust or clouds, they immediately contacted Arizona’s forestry department and the state’s main power company.

The AI-powered camera, part of a network installed by Arizona Public Service, had identified the beginning stages of what would become the Diamond Fire. Emergency crews quickly responded and successfully limited the fire to just 7 acres before it could expand further.

With extreme temperatures breaking records and minimal snowfall creating dangerous dry conditions, western states vulnerable to wildfires are incorporating artificial intelligence into their fire prevention strategies, hoping the technology will protect both lives and property.

Arizona Public Service currently operates close to 40 AI-powered smoke detection cameras and expects to expand to 71 units before summer concludes, while the state’s fire department has put seven of their own systems into service. Colorado-based Xcel Energy has established 126 cameras and plans to extend coverage across seven of the eight states where it provides service by the end of this year.

“Spotting fires sooner allows us to deploy aircraft and crews immediately, helping us maintain smaller fire sizes,” explained John Truett, who serves as fire management officer for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

California operates ALERTCalifornia, a comprehensive network featuring approximately 1,240 AI-equipped cameras throughout the state that function similarly to Arizona’s approach.

Human oversight reduces incorrect alerts while simultaneously improving the system’s precision, according to Neal Driscoll, a geology and geophysics professor at the University of California, San Diego, who established ALERTCalifornia.

“The artificial intelligence running these cameras is actually outperforming 911 emergency calls,” Driscoll noted.

Throughout Arizona, California and other western regions, this technology primarily monitors high-risk zones that are sparsely inhabited, rural, or isolated, where fires might go unnoticed by people for extended periods.

“In locations where 911 calls might be delayed significantly, having AI continuously watching those cameras proves extremely valuable,” said Brent Pascua, battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. “We’ve frequently begun emergency responses before anyone called 911, and sometimes we’ve responded, extinguished fires, and never received any emergency calls at all.”

Pano AI, which integrates high-definition camera technology with satellite information and AI surveillance, has experienced increasing demand for its systems since beginning operations in 2020. Their equipment now operates across Australia, Canada, and 17 American states, including Oregon, Washington, and Texas. Clients range from forestry companies and government departments to utility providers like Arizona Public Service.

The company reports their technology identified 725 wildfires across the United States during the previous year.

“Stakeholders frequently tell us that this visual intelligence and the time advantage provides crucial early warning, preventing situations that could have escalated into hundreds or thousands of burned acres,” stated Arvind Satyam, the company’s co-founder and chief commercial officer.

Cindy Kobold, a meteorologist with Arizona Public Service, indicated the technology typically provides notifications approximately 45 minutes ahead of initial 911 reports.

Satyam explained that the technology emerged from the absence of robust solutions to address increasingly severe wildfires. Climate change, resulting from fossil fuel combustion, is raising global temperatures and creating arid conditions that intensify fires, causing them to burn more intensely, rapidly, and frequently. The technology enables firefighters to respond safely and effectively while safeguarding communities and critical infrastructure.

Implementation costs present a major challenge, with Pano AI charging roughly $50,000 per camera annually. This fee includes fire risk assessment and round-the-clock monitoring services.

Incorrect alerts create difficulties, consuming valuable time and resources, noted Patrick Roberts, a senior researcher with the nonprofit RAND organization who recently completed wildfire management innovation research.

Even when AI successfully identifies fires, it doesn’t provide guidance on appropriate responses.

“Should you dispatch help immediately? Should you monitor the situation? Is this cause for concern? Where should resources be sent? Should evacuations be considered? These decisions still require human judgment and support systems,” Roberts explained.

In densely populated regions, residents typically notice and report fires quickly, and the technology proves less beneficial during extreme weather conditions like hurricane-strength winds that rapidly intensify and redirect flames, as occurred in Los Angeles recently.

Pascua emphasizes that the technology enhances Cal Fire’s existing capabilities.

“When fires move and change direction, human expertise determines the most effective firefighting strategies. AI has limitations,” he said. “It simply provides real-time data that improves our decision-making during firefighting operations.”

AI can also help identify optimal locations for vegetation management and controlled burns, and monitor air quality for smoke detection, similar to home carbon monoxide detectors but “1,000 times more sensitive,” Roberts added.

At George Mason University in Virginia, professor Chaowei “Phil” Yang collaborates with researchers from California State University of Los Angeles, Los Angeles city officials, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop forecasting systems that predict fire spread patterns and identify communities most affected by smoke pollution.

The goal involves providing agencies with real-time mapping capabilities for rapid, life-saving decisions regarding evacuations, school and road closures, and early air quality alerts. Yang anticipates the technology will become operational within three years.

“AI applications in wildfire management have moved beyond theoretical concepts into practical implementation,” Roberts observed, predicting continued expansion.

“The future involves AI integration everywhere,” he concluded, “and distinctions between AI wildfire detection and traditional wildfire detection will disappear, just as they will in other aspects of our lives.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Emergency crews battled flames throughout Saturday night at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus, where a marine science laboratory building suffered what officials are calling potentially complete destruction.

The Saturday evening blaze forced evacuations as thick smoke clouds rose from the research facility. University President Moez Limayem confirmed in a statement to the campus community that no one was hurt in the incident and that no dangerous substances escaped during the fire.

Investigators have not yet determined what sparked the flames.

According to Limayem, teams are still evaluating the full scope of damage, though early assessments suggest widespread destruction throughout the facility.

“Our recovery teams are working with the College of Marine Science to prioritize key research material and equipment for salvage assessment when the building is cleared,” Limayem wrote.

University officials announced that any classes and testing sessions originally planned for the damaged laboratory will be moved to alternative locations.

Electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn announced Sunday that it successfully deployed two advanced satellites into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from California, representing the Taiwan-based company’s continued expansion into aerospace technology.

The satellites, designated PEARL-1A and PEARL-1B, have successfully reached their planned low-Earth orbits and are scheduled to carry out operational missions spanning five years, according to the company.

Foxconn explained that these next-generation satellites are mainly intended to test and validate advanced payload systems focused on telecommunications and space research applications.

SEOUL, May 3 – South Korea successfully deployed its second next-generation Earth observation satellite into orbit using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, according to Yonhap News Agency reports on Sunday.

Korea Aerospace Industries spearheaded the development of the 500-kilogram satellite, which is designed to enhance land management capabilities and improve disaster response operations while promoting advancement in private sector space technology, Yonhap reported.

PLANDISTE, Serbia (AP) — Cheerful bird songs ring out among tall trees in a small forest located in Serbia’s northeastern region. Below, footprints from various animals can be spotted pressed into the damp earth and moss covering.

This 5-acre tract of land, known as the Nightingale’s Forest, represents an unusual pocket of dense vegetation within Serbia’s predominantly flat agricultural landscape. Serbia’s Bird Protection and Study Society purchased this property in the previous year using online fundraising efforts to safeguard the woodland and demonstrate environmental stewardship.

“This woodland was privately owned, and we saw it was put up for sale,” society representative Uros Stojiljkovic told The Associated Press, noting that the trees likely would have been harvested if different buyers had acquired the property.

“The value of timber was higher than its (land) price,” Stojiljkovic said. “We protected it this way.”

The crowdfunding campaign’s success reflects increasing public concern for environmental conservation in Serbia, as the nation grapples with challenges including contaminated air and waterways, waste disposal issues, and development projects that endanger natural spaces, especially in urban centers.

Government officials have promised enhanced environmental oversight as part of Serbia’s bid to join the European Union, though conservation organizations caution that meaningful progress remains limited.

The Nightingale’s Forest supports diverse wildlife and bird populations that depend on its humid ecosystem, Stojiljkovic noted. The organization now intends to catalog the flora and fauna while maintaining the forest in its natural state.

The 8,000 euro ($9,500) purchase amount was raised in under 30 days, and hundreds of contributors continue providing donations for research activities and potential future land acquisitions, according to Natasa Jancic, who participated in the fundraising effort.

“Individually, we can’t do much, but as an active and stable community, we can achieve a lot,” Jancic said.

Originally established three decades ago as a specialized group for experts only, the Bird Protection and Study Society has expanded into a broader community of environmental enthusiasts, further evidence of rising ecological awareness, Jancic explained.

“We have many families who are members, many nature lovers who may not be that active in the field but they want to contribute somehow,” Jancic added.

While protecting just 5 acres won’t create significant large-scale impact, it represents an important beginning, Stojiljkovic noted.

“Every village or town should have a Nightingale’s Forest of its own for a cumulative effect,” he said. “It is important to start somewhere.”

In a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb, Caitlin Deal has experienced a heartwarming annual tradition for the past four years. A mallard duck, affectionately named Martha by the family, returns each spring to build her nest behind a shrub near their front entrance in Eagan, Minnesota. This remarkable relationship has provided Deal’s young son with incredible wildlife viewing opportunities and valuable lessons about living alongside nature.

Each spring season, Martha spends approximately one month incubating her eggs in their tree-filled neighborhood. When the ducklings emerge around Mother’s Day, the entire family waddles away to continue their journey.

“It feels nice that she trusts that area, that she trusts us to be able to come back year after year,” said Deal, whose 4-year-old son Owen’s first word was “Duck.”

Springtime marks the breeding season for numerous wildlife species — from various birds to deer and even alligators — who frequently choose nesting locations that are more convenient for humans than ideal for animals. Wildlife specialists emphasize that with limited exceptions and proper preparation, sharing space with these creatures typically proves straightforward and often quite enjoyable.

“My two biggest things are: Stay away from the nest or the little family as much as possible, and stay curious,” said Brittney Yohannes, a spokesperson for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota.

When discovering a nest or young animal, wildlife professionals strongly recommend leaving them undisturbed.

Nest removal may violate federal regulations. When birds establish nests in unusual locations, property owners should contact their local wildlife authorities for guidance, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Beth Quillian.

Beyond avian species, homeowners frequently discover deer fawns resting in yard corners or near air conditioning equipment. Though these young deer may seem abandoned, Quillian explained that mother does typically hide their offspring while searching for food.

“That is to protect the fawn, to leave it there, sometimes hours at a time, but the doe will come back to that fawn, and that is natural and normal,” Quillian said.

Homeowners should avoid disturbing fawns unless obvious signs indicate they require assistance.

While these animals may seem adorable, people must remember that wildlife remains unpredictable and potentially dangerous.

Though ducks remain calm while nesting, Canada geese and swans display aggressive behavior, explained John Coluccy from the conservation organization Ducks Unlimited. Geese possess enough strength to knock people down and strike with bone-breaking force, he warned.

“They’re very, very aggressive. They’re long-lived and they protect their reproductive investment very vigorously,” Coluccy said.

Quillian highlighted that western regions may experience encounters with elk calves, typically in forest and coastal zones, though occasionally near residential areas. Adult elk can exceed 500 pounds, and mother elk demonstrate fierce protectiveness toward their young.

“It’s amazing to see wildlife, to get that opportunity, but we have to give them distance, respect their space, especially when they have young,” she said.

Throughout Florida, alligator breeding and nesting occurs between April and June. Female alligators construct nests resembling leaf piles near ponds, retention areas, and drainage ditches. These mothers fiercely defend their nesting sites, frequently while concealed in nearby water, according to North Florida Wildlife Center Animal Care Manager Darian Dowse.

The essential strategy involves maintaining distance from leaf mounds and keeping dogs on sidewalks, away from water edges.

Property owners with nesting concerns should contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Dowse recommended.

Occasionally, animals including raccoons, squirrels, or foxes establish dens with their offspring in problematic locations, such as covered boats.

One effective solution that avoids live trapping or professional pest services involves installing bright shop lighting to illuminate the area, suggested Tami Vogel, executive director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. Mother animals typically relocate their young within several days.

Property owners can also install metal screening to block access to sheds and deck areas, she noted.

Vogel explained that center staff focus on educating community members about available options.

“We want them to know we’re here as a safety net and what to look for if something goes wrong, and then the good news is, two weeks later, their neighbor may have a similar situation and they can pass along that information,” Vogel said.

Since dogs and cats function as natural predators, keeping them nearby and controlled remains crucial.

For Deal’s family in Minnesota, protecting Martha’s wellbeing primarily involved managing their dog Piper, who enjoys pursuing other animals.

Deal reported that her family consistently kept Piper leashed, and Martha appeared comfortable with this arrangement.

Rabbits reproduce extensively throughout the Midwest and generate numerous calls to the Minnesota rehabilitation center, largely because they nest in residential yards, Yohannes noted.

The facility suggests placing laundry baskets over nests during daylight hours to prevent dog interference, then removing them by evening to allow mothers to care for their babies.

“One of the best pieces of advice I can give is just understanding that that period of coexisting with this nest or this family will be temporary,” Yohannes said.

Skywatchers hoping to catch a spectacular celestial show this week may face disappointment as a luminous moon threatens to overshadow the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower created by remnants of Halley’s comet.

The astronomical event reaches its maximum intensity Tuesday evening through early Wednesday morning. Observers in southern regions typically witness up to 50 meteors hourly during peak activity, though this year’s interfering moonlight could reduce that count to 25. Northern viewers may spot fewer than 10 meteors per hour.

“For us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s not going to be as impressive,” said Teri Gee, manager of the Barlow Planetarium in Wisconsin. “The farther south you are, the better you’ll see it.”

These cosmic light shows occur when Earth travels through debris trails abandoned by comets or asteroids. The particles slam into our planet’s atmosphere at tremendous velocities, creating brilliant streaks commonly called shooting stars.

While random meteors appear nightly under dark conditions, organized showers provide more dramatic spectacles and occur annually at predictable intervals.

The Eta Aquarids originate from one of astronomy’s most famous comets. Halley’s comet completes its solar orbit approximately every 76 years, with its next Earth approach scheduled for 2061.

Optimal viewing requires venturing outdoors before sunrise. Escape urban lighting and tall structures for unobstructed sky views. Finding locations that block the brilliant waning gibbous moon, which will be 84% illuminated, may improve visibility.

Comfort items like blankets and lawn chairs enhance the experience. Resist checking phones and allow eyes to adjust to darkness. Focus eastward near the Aquarius constellation and the bright star Eta Aquarii.

“You’re looking for bright streaks that appear in the corner of your eye for a fraction of a second,” said astrophysicist Nico Adams with SSP International, a nonprofit that promotes STEM education.

Direct observation provides the ultimate viewing experience, according to Gee.

“It almost feels like you’re discovering it yourself,” she said.

BERLIN — Rescue workers successfully freed a humpback whale into North Sea waters on Saturday after the marine mammal had been trapped in shallow coastal areas near Germany for several weeks, according to witnesses.

German media gave the whale the nickname ‘Timmy’ after it was first observed swimming close to Germany’s Baltic Sea shoreline on March 3, hundreds of miles away from where it should naturally be found in Atlantic waters.

The creature’s condition worsened as it kept getting stuck in shallow areas near Wismar, a German coastal community, while worldwide audiences watched live broadcasts of failed attempts to guide it toward deeper ocean waters.

Despite concerns from some researchers that the rescue effort might prove too stressful for the animal, the environment minister for Germany’s Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region authorized the privately-organized rescue mission to proceed.

According to German news agency dpa, Jens Schwarck from the private rescue group reported that the whale was set free at approximately 9 a.m. local time. The release took place roughly 70 kilometers (45 miles) off the Danish coast near Skagen.

Video captured by drones showed a whale swimming and breathing near the rescue vessel, though officials could not immediately verify the footage showed Timmy.

The situation created controversy over whether the whale should be allowed to die naturally or receive human assistance to return to Atlantic waters. Protesters gathered on Wismar’s beach demanding the animal’s rescue, while others proposed alternative transportation methods.

Several scientists theorized the whale had deliberately sought shallow waters because it was weakened and required rest. However, veterinarians working with the private rescue team determined the animal was healthy enough for the transport operation.

Reports indicate a GPS tracking device was placed on the whale before its release to monitor its movements, according to dpa.

Federal regulators have given the green light for construction of a cutting-edge nuclear power facility in Wyoming, marking a significant milestone in what supporters are calling a nuclear energy revival across the United States.

The project, which has received backing from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, represents the first advanced nuclear reactor to gain federal approval in more than two decades. The facility is being developed with partial funding from the federal government.

Terra Power, the company spearheading the initiative, claims their technology has been thoroughly tested and validated. However, industry experts note that nuclear power development continues to face significant regulatory and technical challenges.

The Wyoming project is being hailed as a breakthrough in nuclear technology, featuring advanced safety systems and design elements that differ substantially from traditional nuclear power plants built in previous generations.

Construction activities have already begun at the Wyoming site, with officials expressing optimism about the project’s potential to demonstrate the viability of next-generation nuclear technology in the United States.

An endangered Mexican wolf has crossed into Mexico from New Mexico for the first time in decades, but wildlife experts worry it may be the last such crossing due to ongoing border wall construction.

The radio-collared male wolf entered Chihuahua, Mexico, from a remote section of the New Mexico Bootheel last week, confirmed Aislinn Maestas, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson. The agency monitors this smallest and most threatened subspecies of North American gray wolf, known in Spanish as “lobo.”

These wolves once thrived throughout the American Southwest and Mexico but nearly vanished in the 1970s after government agencies and ranchers systematically killed them, claiming the animals posed a threat to cattle and other livestock.

For thousands of years, these wolves have wandered the Bootheel’s varied landscape of grasslands, desert terrain, and forested mountains, using ancient migration paths to hunt for food and find mates across what is now the U.S.-Mexico border.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations constructed steel border barriers extending westward through New Mexico as part of efforts to combat human and drug smuggling.

The ongoing construction of walls measuring 18 to 30 feet tall in this region could make last week’s border crossing the final one ever recorded for this species, according to conservationist Michael Robinson.

Such isolation would worsen the wolves’ existing inbreeding crisis, which has already resulted in higher puppy mortality rates, cancer cases, and birth abnormalities.

“Sealing off the Bootheel would isolate wolves and other rare mammals like jaguars and ultimately make them all less likely to survive,” said Robinson, who serves as a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agencies overseeing border barrier construction, have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Environmental organizations and some federal wildlife officials have expressed concerns that expanding border walls will break up natural habitats and interrupt animal migration patterns in areas including Texas’s Big Bend region, Arizona’s San Rafael Valley, and California’s Otay Wilderness. Homeland Security has invoked special legal powers to bypass environmental regulations, prompting legal challenges to the barriers.

While administrations from both political parties have recognized environmental concerns, they maintain the barriers are essential for national security. Officials have added some protective measures, including ground-level openings designed for smaller creatures like reptiles and rodents.

For Mexican wolves specifically, breeding between animals from both sides of the border could help address critically low genetic diversity, explained Cyndi Tuell, who directs Arizona and New Mexico operations for Western Watersheds Project, a conservation organization.

Every Mexican wolf alive today descends from just seven wolves that were successfully bred after capture as part of a joint U.S.-Mexico breeding initiative launched in the late 1970s.

Current population estimates show at least 319 wild Mexican wolves living in the United States, approximately 36 in Mexico, and roughly 380 in captive breeding facilities, according to USFWS and conservation organizations.

Federal cybersecurity authorities are exploring dramatically reducing the time government agencies have to repair critical computer system vulnerabilities, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. The proposed changes come as officials grow increasingly worried about hackers leveraging advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to launch attacks.

The potential policy shift would reduce the current two-week timeframe for addressing actively exploited security weaknesses to just three days, sources revealed. This represents the first public disclosure of these deliberations.

Growing alarm surrounds the capabilities and widespread availability of AI systems like Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.4-Cyber. While cybercriminals have utilized AI technology since 2023, these latest iterations reportedly can rapidly discover unknown security gaps or quickly weaponize newly revealed vulnerabilities for sophisticated cyber operations. What previously required hackers months, weeks, or days to accomplish can now be done in hours in certain situations.

This acceleration is forcing cybersecurity professionals to dramatically increase their response speed, according to Stephen Boyer, who founded cybersecurity firm Bitsight and has previously assisted CISA in documenting vulnerabilities.

“If you’re going to protect civil agencies, you’re going to have to move faster,” Boyer explained. “We don’t have as much of a window as we used to have.”

Two informed sources indicated that Nick Andersen, who currently leads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Sean Cairncross, the national cyber director, are examining these deadline modifications. Reuters was unable to confirm whether officials have reached a final determination or establish a timeline for any decision. Both CISA and the Office of the National Cyber Director have not yet provided statements.

For several years, CISA has maintained a database of known and exploited vulnerabilities, commonly called KEVs, which receive priority status because they are publicly known and actively targeted by criminals or foreign intelligence operatives. Current policy typically allows civilian government departments two weeks to address such security flaws after they appear in the database. While deadlines are sometimes shortened for exceptionally severe threats, the new proposals would establish three days as the standard timeframe, sources indicated.

These CISA conversations occur as corporate executives and cybersecurity professionals wrestle with consequences from increasingly sophisticated AI releases. Banking sector leaders have been particularly affected as regulatory agencies rush to assess the potential dangers of this emerging technology.

Stricter CISA deadlines will probably influence standards for state and local governments, private companies, and other organizations, said Nitin Natarajan, who previously served as CISA’s deputy director during the Biden administration.

“This is a signal to others that says, ‘Hey you need to do this more quickly,’” he noted.

Natarajan, who currently operates cyber consulting firm NN Global, believes accelerating these deadlines makes sense given the rapid advancement of AI-enabled threats. However, he cautioned that CISA requires adequate resources to manage the pressure of compressed timelines, particularly after experiencing significant staff reductions and disruptions from government shutdowns during the Trump presidency.

“We’ve seen a reduction in their resources, both in funding and expertise,” Natarajan observed.

Kecia Hoyt, a vice president at threat intelligence company Flashpoint, emphasized that fixing software vulnerabilities often involves complex procedures requiring extensive testing before implementation. “Realistically, three days is simply impossible for some environments,” she stated.

John Hammond, senior principal security researcher at Maryland-based Huntress, described the potential shift from two weeks to three days as “quite a change.” Although he expressed cautious optimism about faster operations, he added that “only time will tell how well the industry keeps up.”

The Mexican capital is experiencing land subsidence at an alarming rate of almost 10 inches annually, new NASA satellite data shows, placing it among the globe’s most rapidly sinking major cities.

Home to approximately 22 million residents across 3,000 square miles, Mexico City and its surrounding metropolitan areas sit on what was once an ancient lake bed. Historic downtown canals have been transformed into modern streets, though waterways still exist in outlying rural areas.

Decades of intensive groundwater extraction combined with massive urban expansion have severely depleted the underground water supply, causing the capital to gradually descend for more than 100 years. This ongoing subsidence has left historic structures like the Metropolitan Cathedral, whose construction started in 1573, noticeably leaning. The shrinking aquifer has also worsened an ongoing water shortage that experts predict will continue to deteriorate.

“It damages part of the critical infrastructure of Mexico City, such as the subway, the drainage system, the water, the potable water system, housing and streets,” said Enrique Cabral, a researcher studying geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “It’s a very big problem.”

The rate of descent is so dramatic that it’s detectable from orbital observation platforms.

NASA’s latest findings indicate certain areas are dropping at an average of 0.78 inches monthly, including locations near the primary airport and the famous Angel of Independence monument.

This translates to an annual subsidence rate of roughly 9.5 inches. During the span of less than a century, the total drop has exceeded 39 feet, Cabral noted.

“We have one of the fastest velocities of land subsidence in the whole world,” he said.

The space agency’s calculations come from data collected between October 2025 and January 2026 using an advanced satellite called NISAR, which monitors real-time surface changes on Earth through a collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization.

NISAR scientist Paul Rosen explained that capturing Earth’s details from orbit “telling us something about what’s actually happening below the surface.”

“It’s basically documentation of all of these changes within a city,” Rosen said. He added: “You can see the full magnitude of the problem.”

The research team anticipates eventually achieving even greater precision, potentially measuring subsidence on individual structures.

Scientists plan to expand this technology globally to monitor natural disasters, seismic fault activity, climate change impacts in regions like Antarctica, and other environmental shifts.

Rosen suggested the system could enhance warning networks, enabling researchers to notify governments about necessary evacuations during volcanic eruptions, for instance.

For Mexico City, this technology represents a significant breakthrough in understanding and addressing the subsidence crisis, according to Cabral.

Government officials have historically paid little attention to this issue beyond reinforcing foundations beneath landmarks like the cathedral. However, recent water crisis episodes have prompted authorities to increase research funding, Cabral explained.

Data from the NISAR satellite will be essential for scientists and policymakers developing strategies to tackle this challenge.

“To do long-term mitigation of the situation,” Cabral said, “the first step is to just understand.”

When Moira Cathleen Delaney learned she had an aggressive intestinal cancer, she began planning how she wanted her body handled after death. Her passion for gardening, wildlife, and forests led her to choose natural organic reduction, a process that transforms human remains into soil.

Following her death in October at 57 years old, Delaney’s family scattered portions of her transformed remains beneath her beloved backyard tree and distributed other portions in glass containers to close friends and family members for planting.

“For her, it was a very comforting thought to be able to return to the earth in that kind of way, and to have her final physical act contributing to the life process,” said Marcos Moliné, her son.

Research conducted for the National Funeral Directors Association shows growing interest in environmentally conscious body disposal methods. Experts and researchers note that people are increasingly concerned about how traditional death practices like embalming, fire cremation, and vault burials impact climate, environment, and human health. Many also desire their final resting place to be in natural outdoor settings they treasured.

“How we die does lead to a substantial impact on not only the people around us and our communities, but the earth itself,” said Mark Shelvock, a psychotherapist and lecturer at Western University in Canada, who co-wrote a paper on green death practices.

Available options differ depending on location and local regulations. Traditional practices carry significant environmental costs.

The embalming process uses known cancer-causing chemicals like formaldehyde, which are injected into veins to preserve bodies for viewing. While the Environmental Protection Agency has labeled formaldehyde gas an “unreasonable risk” to public health, studies suggest minimal likelihood of soil and groundwater contamination.

Fire cremation, chosen by nearly two-thirds of respondents in funeral association surveys, typically relies on fossil fuel energy. The Cremation Association of North America calculates that a standard cremation uses energy equivalent to powering a 2,000-square-foot home for one week.

Casket and vault production requires substantial resources, involving wood harvesting, mining, and energy-intensive manufacturing. Concrete production alone accounts for approximately 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions and 2% in the United States.

Traditional cemeteries demand ongoing maintenance including mowing, watering, and fertilizing, requiring continuous energy and resource consumption.

“There’s all of this management that goes into conventional cemeteries that looks very much like a golf course,” said Samuel Perry, a funeral director and president of the Green Burial Council, a global nonprofit that guides green burial standards and certification.

Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery in Florida combines natural burials with land preservation efforts. Workers dig graves manually, and bodies must be placed in biodegradable caskets or shrouds made from materials like bamboo or cotton. The facility prohibits embalmed bodies and vaults, requiring cremated remains to be stored in chemical-free, biodegradable urns.

The approach emphasizes natural decomposition processes.

Scott King initially doubted his mother Linda’s wish for this burial method, but research convinced him of its elegant simplicity. Linda was interred in a Prairie Creek meadow last October, and recently, King buried his brother Kenneth nearby.

“Through death, life begets life,” said King. “She really liked that idea, too, that she can, in her passing, help give life to something else. That was very important to her. My brother, I think, sort of went along with the ride.”

The cemetery collaborates with a land trust to manage, restore, and protect property from development. Staff remove invasive plant species, introduce native vegetation, and conduct controlled burns.

Executive director Heather Grove explains the benefits extend beyond burial practices. The area now supports increased biodiversity and wildlife populations, and “if you want talk about carbon capturing and all that, conservation is key to sequester,” she said.

Green Burial Council data indicates that eco-friendly burials sequester approximately 25 pounds of carbon.

Elena Slominski, a researcher studying environmentally conscious disposal methods, describes conservation burial as “by far the best thing you can do because it’s actually, technically a carbon sink. It actually restores ecological habitat and protects the land.”

However, this option faces limitations in areas where space is scarce, and critics argue it’s impractical due to land requirements.

Earth Funeral specializes in natural organic reduction, sometimes called terramation or human composting. Bodies remain in sealed containers for 30 to 45 days alongside mulch, wood chips, and flowers. Microorganisms break down remains into soil through natural processes that generate heat reaching 131°F or higher, sufficient to eliminate pathogens.

“What we are fundamentally doing is using science and technology to accelerate a completely natural process” using renewable energy sources, said Tom Harries, the company’s co-founder and CEO. Families receive portions of the resulting soil, while remaining amounts go to conservation or reforestation projects.

Fourteen states currently permit this process, with 15 others considering legislation to legalize it, according to Earth Funeral. Experts recommend this option for urban residents facing limited and expensive burial space.

Alkaline hydrolysis also aims to accelerate natural decomposition. Colorado-based water cremation company Be a Tree places bodies in vessels containing 95% water and 5% potassium hydroxide, then heats the mixture to approximately 200°F for about 18 hours.

Remaining skeletal material is air-dried, processed, and returned to families as powder in urns or formed into stone shapes. Most families use some liquid for houseplants or gardens, while the majority goes to land conservation partners as fertilizer, said founder and CEO Emily Nelson. Other companies discharge remaining liquid with regular wastewater.

This method consumes roughly 90% less energy than fire cremation.

Perry from the Green Burial Council addresses frequent questions about whether post-death disposal choices significantly impact individual environmental footprints.

“The quick and dirty answer is no, I don’t think this one thing is going to change a whole lot. But it’s always about changing industries. And as an industry, if we do better, we are making a bigger impact.”

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has poured more than $15 billion into developing its massive Starship rocket system, according to IPO documents obtained by Reuters, representing an enormous financial commitment as the company approaches nearly a decade of work perfecting a completely reusable launch vehicle.

The enormous investment vastly exceeds the approximately $400 million SpaceX invested in creating its reliable Falcon 9 rocket, which currently dominates the commercial launch market. Starship represents the cornerstone of SpaceX’s future operations as the company prepares for public trading with a valuation of $1.75 trillion.

The towering two-stage rocket system is essential to Musk’s grand vision of deploying larger groups of Starlink satellites, transporting astronauts to lunar and Martian destinations, and eventually launching thousands of artificial intelligence computing satellites to serve as space-based alternatives to energy-intensive Earth-based data centers.

“We have continued to invest significantly in further increasing our lead by pursuing full and rapid reusability at scale, including investing over $15 billion in our next-generation rocket, Starship,” SpaceX stated in its confidential IPO registration documents.

According to the filing, SpaceX plans to begin deploying its next-generation Starlink satellites, designated V3, during the latter half of 2026. These advanced satellites will likely launch aboard Starship, which features a cargo bay specifically designed to accommodate up to 60 of the upgraded satellites per mission.

This capacity represents a significant improvement over Falcon 9’s typical payload of approximately 24 smaller Starlink satellites, demonstrating how closely Starship’s performance is tied to Starlink’s financial viability.

Development of Starship now represents the majority of SpaceX’s research investments. The company allocated $3 billion to space segment research and development in 2025, with the entire amount directed toward the Starship program, according to filing documents. This marks a substantial increase from the previous year’s $1.8 billion investment.

Since 2023, SpaceX has completed 11 Starship test missions, experiencing both dramatic setbacks and remarkable achievements. Notable successes include capturing the rocket’s enormous Super Heavy booster using giant mechanical arms upon its return to Earth, a technique intended to significantly improve reusability efficiency.

Despite these advances, SpaceX acknowledges in its filing that numerous unprecedented obstacles must be overcome before Starship can achieve Musk’s ambitious target of “thousands of launches per year.” The company indicates this launch frequency would be necessary to deploy 100 gigawatts of solar-powered AI satellites annually, equivalent to roughly one-quarter of America’s yearly energy consumption.

“They’re getting really close,” commented Chris Quilty, president of Quilty Space, a space and satellite industry research company. “But what we still don’t know, and won’t know for a while is, can they do it repeatedly?”

Among Starship’s most significant challenges is constructing the massive ground infrastructure required to support Musk’s desired launch frequency, including fuel supply systems, water infrastructure, and developing a heat shield capable of withstanding multiple atmospheric re-entries for the main spacecraft.

Each Starship launch requires natural gas equivalent to 244 tanker trucks, according to Federal Aviation Administration analysis. Approximately one million gallons of water are needed to suppress the rocket’s powerful acoustic vibrations during takeoff.

“There is not enough water in the water system to support the launch of Starship” at such a massive scale, Quilty explained.

Another major hurdle involves in-orbit refueling, an untested and dangerous procedure requiring Starships to dock with tanker variants to transfer fuel. This capability would be crucial for deep space missions and would require multiple Starship launches to accomplish.

“That’s probably the last big challenge,” said Hans Koenigsmann, former SpaceX Vice President of Flight Reliability and one of the company’s founding employees. “If that happens, then I think from then on it should be more or less, success.”

The complexity increases due to the propellant requirements. Liquid oxygen must remain at extremely cold temperatures and be perfectly sealed to prevent leakage into space.

“In-orbit refueling is complex, and we have not yet demonstrated or attempted it,” SpaceX acknowledged in its filing.

“We may not be able to develop, commercialize, scale, or successfully implement these or other strategic initiatives on the timelines we currently anticipate, or at all,” the company added.

During the past decade, SpaceX has constructed an extensive development facility in South Texas called Starbase, dedicated entirely to Starship operations. The facility supports a manufacturing approach designed to produce rockets at speeds comparable to commercial aircraft rather than traditional spacecraft.

“When you build up your production before you actually have the product, you obviously run the risk that if you change your mind… every change on the rocket has a change on the factory now too,” Koenigsmann explained.

Test failures have necessitated hundreds of design modifications to the vehicle. Koenigsmann characterized Starship as “a totally different animal” compared to Falcon 9.

SpaceX is currently preparing for its first Starship test mission since October, representing the program’s longest gap between flights. The upcoming mission will introduce the Starship V3 prototype.

“Version 3 is basically a clean-sheet design of the ship,” stated Charlie Cox, Director of Starship Engineering, in a video SpaceX released on X Friday.

The V3 Starship, featuring dozens of critical improvements, is designed for orbital missions, extended space testing, and crewed lunar landings—the rocket’s most demanding mission type for which NASA has paid SpaceX at least $3 billion through its Artemis moon program.

“That Version 3 is what HLS is going to be based on,” said Kent Chojnacki, Deputy Manager of NASA’s Human Landing System program. “A lot’s gonna be dependent on this first flight.”

Russia’s space program achieved a milestone Thursday evening with the inaugural test flight of its advanced Soyuz-5 rocket, according to an announcement from the nation’s space agency.

The rocket departed from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur launch facility at 9 p.m. Moscow time on April 30th without complications, Roscosmos officials reported. The space agency touts the vehicle as featuring the globe’s most potent liquid-fuel propulsion system.

According to Roscosmos, the advanced rocket can transport cargo weighing as much as 17 metric tons while delivering substantial cost savings compared to previous models. The agency emphasized the vehicle’s enhanced efficiency for deploying satellites and other equipment into low Earth orbit.

Dmitry Bakanov, Roscosmos director, praised the achievement as representing a “new step in space exploration” and predicted the program would generate employment opportunities across Russia and Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz-5 represents Russia’s first newly engineered launch system since 2014, according to previous statements Bakanov made to President Vladimir Putin.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand’s beloved national symbol, the kiwi bird, disappeared from Wellington’s surrounding hills more than 100 years ago. Today, local residents are leading an extraordinary grassroots effort to bring these endangered flightless creatures back to their nation’s capital.

“They are a part of who we are and our sense of belonging here,” said Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust. “But they’ve been gone from these hills for well over a century and we decided as Wellingtonians that wasn’t right.”

Under cover of darkness Tuesday evening, Ward and fellow volunteers carefully transported seven containers across challenging terrain on a misty hillside overlooking the waters separating New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Each container held a precious cargo — a kiwi bird, with one representing the milestone 250th bird brought back to Wellington through the Capital Kiwi Project’s efforts.

New Zealanders derive their common nickname from this unique bird species. The kiwi presents an unusual appearance with its tiny, undeveloped wings and whisker-like facial features, combined with its naturally timid behavior.

Holding deep spiritual meaning for many New Zealanders, the kiwi’s likeness can be found throughout the country, even adorning the nation’s air force aircraft — an ironic choice given that this bird lacks a tail and cannot achieve flight.

Experts believe approximately 12 million kiwi birds inhabited New Zealand’s landscape before human settlement. Current estimates place the surviving population at roughly 70,000 birds nationwide, with numbers declining by 2% annually.

On the windswept hills where Wellington’s kiwi population now calls home, Tuesday night’s only sounds came from spinning wind turbines. Ward and his team positioned their containers in pairs, carefully opened them, and gently angled the boxes forward.

Several quiet observers became emotional during the release. A participant offered a karakia, a traditional Māori prayer.

Each container gradually revealed a distinctive long, curved beak as the kiwi birds cautiously emerged into their new shadowy environment, then quickly accelerated into runs before vanishing into the night.

For the first time in history, kiwi birds entered New Zealand’s Parliament building this week. Before the seven newest Wellington residents were taken to their hillside habitat, handlers brought them into Parliament’s elegant banquet hall to commemorate the 250th kiwi’s arrival in the city.

Both legislators and students expressed hushed amazement at observing these shy, nighttime creatures at close range — many experiencing their first encounter as conservation staff held the substantial birds similar to human infants, with their weathered feet extended.

“This animal has given us as a people so much in terms of our sense of identity,” Ward told The Associated Press. “We want to challenge our civic leaders, our politicians and say this is a relationship we need to honor.”

New Zealand hosts several of the planet’s most unusual and rare bird species. Many have survived only through ambitious conservation programs that sometimes operate with uncertain financial support.

Earlier conservation efforts relocated all remaining birds of certain species to predator-free offshore islands or protected sanctuaries where careful monitoring and protection was possible, though few New Zealanders would encounter them there.

Ward and his colleagues envisioned something different: New Zealand’s symbolic national bird thriving alongside residents in a busy capital city, despite human development and non-native predators previously eliminating the kiwi population.

“Where people are is also the places where we can bring them back because we’ve got the means to do that guardianship,” Ward said.

While unprotected kiwi populations continue declining, their numbers have flourished in well-managed wild bird reserves — so successfully that some protected locations have reached capacity.

This success has enabled relocations to areas like Wellington, where organizations like Ward’s encourage residents to welcome their new avian neighbors. Late-night mountain bikers have encountered kiwi, and the birds have appeared on residential security cameras throughout the capital, according to Ward.

“They’re living and calling and being encountered on the hills surrounding our city,” Ward said.

Achieving this required significant coordination. Throughout the past ten years, collaboration between property owners, the local Māori tribe, and the Capital Kiwi Project has created an extensive 24,000-hectare area where kiwi can freely roam.

More than 5,000 traps targeting stoats — the primary threat to kiwi chicks — are distributed across this territory. Wellington’s kiwi population currently maintains an impressive 90% chick survival rate.

This kiwi restoration represents part of New Zealand’s ambitious goal to eliminate introduced predators, including feral cats, possums, rats, and stoats, by 2050. While debate continues regarding the feasibility of this target established by a previous government in 2016, community organizations have embraced the challenge enthusiastically.

Certain Wellington areas now exist completely free of mammalian predators except for domestic pets, allowing native bird species to thrive. Volunteers monitor neighborhoods with exceptional thoroughness, watching for even a single rat’s appearance.

“When I think of endangered species globally, for the most part you can’t do much other than campaign or donate money,” said Michelle Impey, chief executive of Save the Kiwi. “But we have this incredible movement throughout the country where everyday people are taking it on under their own steam to do what they can to protect a threatened species.”

J. Craig Venter, the pioneering scientist who spearheaded efforts to decode human DNA and revolutionized our understanding of genetics, passed away Wednesday at age 79.

The J. Craig Venter Institute, which operates genomics research facilities in La Jolla, California, and Rockville, Maryland, confirmed his passing. Officials said Venter died in San Diego following hospitalization due to complications from recent cancer therapy.

During the 1990s, Venter challenged a massive federal initiative known as the Human Genome Project by wagering he could employ alternative sequencing methods to decode human DNA faster. His gamble paid off when Celera Genomics, his private firm, joined with Human Genome Project scientists in 2000 to announce they had successfully mapped the 3.1 billion building blocks of DNA that serve as humanity’s genetic blueprint. The complete genome was officially finished in April 2003.

“Some have said to me that sequencing the human genome will diminish humanity by taking the mystery out of life,” Venter remarked during a 2000 White House ceremony celebrating the achievement. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

His groundbreaking research actually uncovered deeper mysteries while simultaneously helping medical researchers identify genetic factors behind rare disorders and widespread illnesses like heart disease and cancer. The work also revealed genetic variations that could increase disease susceptibility in individuals.

The Navy veteran, who served during the Vietnam conflict, credited that experience with showing him life’s fragility and sparking his fascination with how billions of human cells work together to sustain life.

During his tenure at the National Institutes of Health, Venter contributed to developing methods for rapidly identifying extensive sections of human genetic material.

He later became the first person to publish his complete genetic sequence publicly, hoping researchers could analyze it to determine inherited traits from both parents and identify potential health vulnerabilities. This work paved the way for personalized medical treatments based on individual genetic profiles. His team also achieved a major synthetic biology milestone by engineering a bacterial cell using laboratory-created DNA.

SAN FRANCISCO — A colossal sea lion dubbed Chonkers has captured the attention of both visitors and San Francisco locals who are making special trips to Pier 39 hoping to catch sight of the enormous marine mammal.

Thursday morning brought photographers and onlookers as the giant Steller sea lion rested on the dock, dwarfing the many smaller California sea lions that regularly inhabit the waterfront area.

“He’s like a Volkswagen! He’s so huge!” exclaimed Oluwaseyi Akinbobola, a Los Angeles tourist who made a quick detour to the pier with some spare time. “I have heard everywhere about this big giant sea lion, and I like to look at things, so just thought I’d check it out.”

According to Laura Gill, public programs manager at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Chonkers probably traveled south from Washington or Oregon waters and tips the scales at an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. The massive Steller sea lion represents a rare visitor to the pier, which offers protection from both predators and rough seas while serving up abundant seafood.

“There’s plenty of food in San Francisco Bay for them, so the fish, the rockfish, the anchovies, the herring, there’s a lot of easy prey for them,” she said.

San Francisco local Danielle Ovadia noted how the enormous sea lion, initially observed at the pier last month, has united the neighborhood. “He’s so precious, and he’s quite literally humongous,” she said.

While sea lions have become a trademark feature of the busy tourist pier, their presence only began following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, marina records show. A single male pioneer was soon accompanied by many others, and the marine mammal colony had expanded to over 300 by February 1990.

Gill explained that Chonkers typically appears at the docks during early morning hours but becomes more elusive as the day progresses. She finds it charming to observe his attempts to cuddle with the resident sea lions for warmth and wonders whether additional Steller sea lions might follow his lead.

“He’s trying to fit in, but he sticks out like a sore thumb,” she said.

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have made a groundbreaking discovery about how tiny organisms work together, according to new research published in Nature Microbiology.

The study, conducted by Dr. Sarah Moraïs and overseen by Prof. Itzhak Mizrahi, reveals that microorganisms deliberately modify their actions when living alongside other microbes in communities. Rather than fighting for resources, these microscopic creatures sense their neighbors and adapt their functions to avoid direct conflict.

This research tackles a puzzle that has long intrigued scientists: how can numerous microbial species survive together when logic suggests they should be battling for the same food sources? The answer lies in their ability to recognize other microbes and change their biological roles, creating less overlap and reducing head-to-head competition.

The research team built experimental microbial communities using bacteria from digestive systems. Instead of simply identifying which species were present, they tracked protein creation to understand what job each microbe was actually performing in the group.

“A microbe is not defined only by its genome, which represents its potential, but also by its community. The same bacterium can behave very differently depending on who surrounds it,” Moraïs explained.

The results show that microbial communities operate like well-organized teams where members split up responsibilities rather than competing against each other. Scientists believe this discovery could explain how complex microbiomes form and maintain their stability over time.

These findings could have wide-ranging practical applications. Prof. Mizrahi noted that for human health, creating effective probiotics might require choosing microbe combinations that naturally share different functions. In farming, better understanding of how microbes organize themselves could lead to improved animal feed efficiency and lower emissions. The biotechnology field might also benefit by developing systems using multiple microbes instead of relying on single engineered organisms.

The research team included scientists from Ben-Gurion University and the University of Greifswald. Funding came from the European Research Council, the Israel Science Foundation–Swiss National Science Foundation partnership, and the Israel Science Foundation.

NEW YORK (AP) — The workplace landscape is experiencing a dramatic shift as artificial intelligence technology becomes deeply integrated into daily professional routines across numerous industries.

Educators are utilizing these digital tools to develop curriculum materials and evaluate student work. Sales and marketing teams are deploying AI to network effectively and analyze potential customer requirements. Meanwhile, project coordinators are turning to artificial intelligence as a translator when complex technical discussions become difficult to follow during workplace meetings.

While many professionals embrace these technological advances, some express worry that widespread adoption might diminish analytical reasoning abilities, particularly in younger generations. These users emphasize the importance of carefully reviewing AI-generated work, noting that these systems can produce errors or fabricated information.

Below are examples of how various professionals incorporate artificial intelligence into their work routines to increase efficiency and spark innovation.

Kristin Moore, who works as a technical product manager at PERQ, a digital marketing platform serving property management firms, has discovered an innovative application for AI in workplace communication. When attending meetings where engineers discuss complex topics beyond her technical background, she records these conversations and processes them through Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, requesting simplified summaries of her required follow-up actions.

“It picks up on all of that terminology that I don’t understand, and it can simplify it into something that I can consume,” Moore said.

Additionally, she employs the AI system to analyze emails, customer service requests, recorded discussions, and client communications to identify development priorities for her organization.

“It’s definitely freed up hours and hours of my week,” Moore said.

Kyle Weimar works as an elementary educator with Charter Schools USA while coordinating his Florida school’s multi-tiered support program, focusing on creating intervention strategies for students in the lowest-performing 20% academically.

In this capacity, he inputs academic assessments, progress reports, and medical data into his district’s artificial intelligence platform. Prior to student support meetings, he requests brainstorming assistance to develop targeted help strategies for individual children.

Weimar has also implemented AI for assignment evaluation. He can process 100 student papers through an AI system, provide scoring criteria, and receive graded work with immediate student feedback. “I can do that in 30 minutes, whereas it would have taken me a week before,” he said.

Given that educators face overwhelming workloads, “so any tools that we can use to make that a little bit more viable, we’re really excited about using,” Weimar said.

Ashley Smith serves as marketing director for HireQuest, a staffing and recruitment firm operating approximately 400 franchise locations. She utilized Claude to construct an analytical dashboard that examines web traffic information and social media patterns. This system identifies content that resonates with HireQuest’s audience versus material that receives little engagement, helping Smith advise franchise owners on business development strategies.

During a recent major manufacturing industry conference attended by her sales staff, she instructed them to photograph companies they wanted to target. She then uploaded these images to an AI platform, requesting a comprehensive list containing company names and projections about their potential staffing requirements over the following 18 to 24 months, based on public announcements and financial documents.

The time Smith conserved by delegating this research to AI allowed her to increase direct consultation time with franchise partners.

“AI has not replaced anything. It’s only expanded what we’re able to offer to our franchisees,” Smith said. “It allows us to do things that, candidly, we just weren’t able to deliver even as short as two years ago.”

Andrew Markle, a design executive at Georgia Pacific, the manufacturing company behind Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper, and various household products, employs AI for rapid visual concept development. During brainstorming sessions for modernizing the Brawny paper towel brand, his team used AI to visualize different appearances for the mascot character on their product packaging, including variations in facial hair length.

This AI assistance accelerated the team’s idea evaluation process while providing predictions about target customer reactions, Markle explained.

“It’s not replacing the creative eye of what’s good and what’s appropriate for our business,” Markle said. “Ultimately, we knew we were going to partner with our ad agency. We have an illustrator that’s going to do the final vision.”

Kenneth Lynch works as a special education instructor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, teaching life skills to developmentally disabled students to promote independent living. He uses AI to create educational assessments and study materials. When working with a student interested in automotive careers, Lynch uploaded mechanical training manuals to an AI system that produced chapter-specific quizzes.

However, he exercises caution when seeking AI guidance on psychological conditions. “When I look up different types of diagnosis and try to connect comorbid diagnoses together, it really struggles with understanding how those fit together,” Lynch said.

Ravi Pendse, serving as chief information officer at the University of Michigan, employs AI for meeting preparation by requesting predictions about potential questions he might face.

“It has made me a lot more efficient,” Pendse said. “It gives me more time to focus on my own mental health and wellness.”

The University of Michigan has also developed an AI tutoring system that faculty members can customize to provide students with round-the-clock academic support. Despite these benefits, Pendse emphasizes responsible implementation.

“We all should be thinking about how we ensure that AI does not erode our critical thinking skills, especially those of our children,” Pendse said. “As we grew up, we learned from our mistakes. We wrote bad papers, and we got better.”

Bob Jones, the university’s assistant vice president for emerging technology and support services, utilizes AI to refine his email communications for specific audiences.

“If I’m communicating about a particularly sticky topic, I want to make sure that I’m neutral and thoughtful,” Jones said. “So the idea of really assessing how I’m presenting myself, AI is really good at that.”

Natalie Blythe, marketing director at SumnerOne, a company providing printing equipment, copying machines, and IT solutions, requests AI assistance for developing email marketing campaigns, social media content, and presentation materials. She also leverages the technology to better understand her target customers.

When targeting printing services to higher education institutions, she asked ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI platform, to develop a demographic profile for a typical university admissions director. She then requested predictions about this professional’s primary challenges and ways her company’s offerings could address these issues.

“When it first started up, I was in the camp of, ‘Oh my God, this is the end for us,’” Blythe said about AI’s early development. Rather than simply fearing the technology, she committed to learning its applications.

“The efficiencies gained out of it have been tremendous,” she said.

A Texas-based biotechnology company is working to bring back an extinct African antelope species that disappeared more than 200 years ago due to hunting by European colonists.

Colossal Biosciences, headquartered in Dallas, revealed Thursday that the bluebuck antelope has become the sixth extinct species in their revival program. The distinctive animal, which featured a silvery slate-blue coat and curved horns, once roamed South Africa’s southwestern Cape region before being completely eliminated around 1800.

“We’re two years into the bluebuck project and have already completed several foundational steps,” company CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm explained to Reuters. “We are equally excited about how our technology can help living antelopes today. About a third of the world’s roughly 90 antelope species are threatened or near-threatened.”

The bluebuck measured approximately four feet tall at the shoulder and possessed distinctive backward-curving black horns that extended roughly 22 inches in length. Hunters valued the animals for their uniquely colored pelts, driving them to extinction within just 34 years of their initial scientific documentation.

“Humans did this. European settlers shot the bluebuck out of the Cape in under 34 years. There’s no ambiguity about the cause and there’s no ambiguity about the responsibility. If we have the capability to right that wrong, I think we have an obligation to,” Lamm stated.

The company’s approach involves modifying genetic material from the roan antelope, which shares more than 98% of its genome with the extinct bluebuck. Scientists are currently in the gene-editing phase, introducing bluebuck characteristics into roan antelope cells.

“We are now in the genome-editing phase, where we introduce key bluebuck edits and genes into roan antelope cells,” Lamm explained. “After finishing the various edits, the next step will be to use the edited cells to create an embryo and move toward implantation. From there, gestation would take about nine months.”

Researchers obtained bluebuck DNA primarily from a preserved specimen housed at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The team has successfully developed pluripotent stem cells from roan antelopes, which Lamm described as “essentially versatile ‘starter cells’ that can become many different cell types.”

“We’ve also made breakthroughs in reproductive methods, including successfully collecting eggs from antelope species using advanced techniques,” he added.

Colossal’s portfolio includes five other extinct species: the dire wolf, woolly mammoth, thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), dodo, and moa. In April 2025, the company announced the birth of three genetically engineered wolf pups created using ancient DNA from dire wolf fossils.

“The dire wolves are doing great,” Lamm reported. “The three dire wolves live on a 2,000-acre secure, expansive ecological preserve that allows us to monitor and manage them while providing them a semi-wild habitat to thrive in. We hope to have more dire wolf pups by the end of the year.”

While some scientists debate the ethics of species resurrection, Lamm argues that traditional conservation methods are insufficient for the current extinction crisis.

“Honestly, I think the debate sometimes functions as a way to avoid a harder conversation, which is that conservation as currently practiced is not winning. We are losing species faster than our existing toolkit can address,” he said.

The company expects to announce scientific progress on their mammoth, dodo, thylacine, and moa projects before the end of the year.

A former Harvard University researcher who was found guilty of concealing financial ties to China has now established a new brain-computer interface laboratory in that country, with access to resources that surpass what he had in the United States.

Charles Lieber, 67, who ranks among the world’s top experts in brain-computer interface technology, is currently directing China’s government-funded Institute for Brain Research, Advanced Interfaces and Neurotechnologies (i-BRAIN) in Shenzhen. This technology holds promise for treating diseases like ALS and helping paralyzed individuals regain movement, but it also carries potential military uses.

According to the U.S. Defense Department, researchers with China’s People’s Liberation Army have explored brain interfaces as a method to create enhanced soldiers with improved mental capabilities and battlefield awareness.

In December 2021, a jury found Lieber guilty of providing false information to federal investigators regarding his connections to a Chinese government program designed to recruit international talent, along with tax violations related to Chinese university payments. His punishment included two days in jail, six months of home confinement, a $50,000 fine, and $33,600 in restitution to the IRS. His legal team noted during proceedings that he was battling lymphoma, which was in remission at the time.

Now, three years following his sentencing, Lieber oversees the state-supported i-BRAIN facility, which provides him with specialized nanofabrication tools and primate research capabilities that weren’t available during his Harvard tenure. The laboratory operates under the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART).

Speaking at a Shenzhen government gathering in December, Lieber reflected on his transition to China: “I arrived on April 28, 2025 with a dream and not much more, maybe a couple bags of clothes. Personally, my own goals are to make Shenzhen a world leader.”

When contacted through an assistant, Lieber declined to participate in an interview, citing “current commitments.” He also did not respond to written inquiries.

According to a May 1, 2025 post on i-BRAIN’s website, SMART named Lieber as an investigator last year. The same announcement revealed his appointment as the institute’s founding director, which received less media attention initially.

In 2011, Thomson Reuters recognized Lieber as the world’s leading chemist of the previous decade in their scientific rankings. The company, which later sold this ranking business in 2016, chose not to comment on the matter.

Security experts argue that Lieber’s ability to rebuild his research operation following a federal criminal conviction for concealing Chinese connections demonstrates how American technology safeguards haven’t matched China’s efforts to obtain sensitive research. This concern grows more significant given Beijing’s military-civil fusion approach, which allows civilian scientific work to be shared with military forces.

Glenn Gerstell, who served as general counsel for the U.S. National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020 and currently advises the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explained: “China has weaponized against us our own openness and our own efforts for innovation. They’ve flipped that and turned it around against us, and they’re taking advantage of it.”

Neither China’s Ministry of Science and Technology nor its defense ministry responded to questions about brain-computer interface development. SMART and i-BRAIN also remained silent regarding their research activities and Lieber’s recruitment.

Lieber’s current position appears to offer superior resources compared to his previous American setup. In February, i-BRAIN acquired a deep ultraviolet lithography system manufactured by semiconductor equipment company ASML, according to the lab’s website. These Dutch-made machines create the microscopic circuits necessary for advanced computer chips. During his Harvard years, Lieber relied on shared lithography equipment through the university’s Center for Nanoscale Systems, which serves over 1,600 users each year.

While i-BRAIN’s equipment model trails restricted machines by two generations, semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis estimates its cost at approximately $2 million. ASML declined to discuss its customers publicly.

The same campus provides Lieber access to Brain Science Infrastructure (BSI) Shenzhen, a research facility containing 2,000 primate enclosures and designated space for i-BRAIN projects. Many field researchers view primate testing as essential preparation for human trials of invasive brain-computer interfaces. The BSI facility belongs to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and receives funding from Shenzhen’s government, though none of these organizations answered questions about brain-computer interface technology or primate research’s role.

A September 2025 website post indicates that i-BRAIN seeks domestic and international researchers for electrophysiology studies using rhesus monkeys as human brain-computer interface models, with interested candidates directed to contact Lieber.

No evidence suggests Lieber conducted primate research at Harvard. The prestigious Massachusetts institution shuttered its New England Primate Research Center in 2015 following persistent animal welfare concerns and funding difficulties.

Jung Min Lee, a researcher who collaborated with Lieber on nanofabrication studies at Harvard, has joined him at i-BRAIN as research associate professor. Lee, who specializes in integrating flexible electronics into brain tissue, could not be reached for comment. Harvard did not respond to questions about either Lieber or Lee.

Brown University professor and neuroscientist John Donoghue, who developed the BrainGate brain-computer interface system, emphasized that primate research is “absolutely critical” for advancing neural interface technology to human applications, despite facing regulatory and funding obstacles in America.

“With so many hassles with non-human primate research here, to have somebody give you all this support, access to technology, a concentrated center, a national initiative – those are things that are very attractive,” Donoghue told reporters.

SMART’s 2026 budget, entirely funded by Shenzhen’s government, increased nearly 18% to roughly $153 million. However, budget documents don’t specify how much funding goes to i-BRAIN specifically.

SMART launched in 2023 under founding president Nieng Yan, a structural biologist whose 2022 return to China after five years at Princeton University was celebrated in local media as a “goddess scientist” homecoming. Neither Yan nor Princeton responded to questions about her Shenzhen role and Lieber’s recruitment.

Adjacent to SMART sits the legally distinct but functionally connected Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, established in 2019 with approximately $2 billion in five-year government funding. Both institutions share leadership and offices within Guangming Science City, a national science center featuring landscaped parks and waterways. They will eventually occupy a dedicated 750,000-square-meter site currently under construction at an estimated $1.25 billion cost.

Visitor signs at SMART’s location display the motto: “Innovate with the Party.” A reporter was refused access to i-BRAIN’s offices while attempting to deliver correspondence to Lieber.

Lieber joins at least six others who have transferred to SMART from American institutions, though the others are Chinese-born researchers returning to their homeland.

In March 2026, China designated brain-computer interface technology as a national development priority in its latest five-year plan. Zheng Shanjie, who leads China’s National Development and Reform Commission, stated in October that brain-computer interfaces and related technologies “will be equivalent to creating another Chinese high-tech sector in the next 10 years.”

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also funds brain-computer interfaces for drone and cyber defense applications. Court records show Lieber’s Harvard research projects received over $8 million in Defense Department funding since 2009. The Pentagon did not respond to questions about the technology’s military applications or Lieber’s Shenzhen activities.

Lieber’s 2021 conviction represented one of the few successful prosecutions under the U.S. Justice Department’s China Initiative, created during the first Trump administration to combat Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft. The Biden administration discontinued the initiative following numerous failures and accusations of racial profiling.

While under supervised release, Lieber obtained court permission for at least three China trips in 2024, including one that U.S. District Judge Denise Casper approved for “employment networking.” Judge Casper did not respond to comment requests.

In a 2023 pre-sentencing document, Lieber’s defense team described how the scientist had been battling lymphoma and was mostly homebound, leaving only for medical visits, short walks, and occasional farm trips. During his 30-year Harvard career, he worked over 80 hours weekly in the laboratory, and in his free time enjoyed “coaching wrestling, and growing giant pumpkins in the back yard.”

Lieber admitted to being “young and stupid” for participating in China’s Thousand Talents Program, the government initiative to recruit overseas experts, his attorney told the court in 2021. When arrested in 2020, Lieber informed FBI agents he “wanted to win a Nobel Prize” and gain recognition for his work, prosecutors revealed.

Both the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment on the case.

Some analysts view the Lieber situation as evidence of broader American policy shortcomings.

“If you think of him as a vector for tech acquisition that runs contrary to U.S. interests, we identified that, punished him, and that did nothing to stop the big-picture trend,” said Emily de La Bruyère, who co-founded China-focused consultancy Horizon Advisory and serves as a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Gerstell, the former U.S. official, called Lieber “Exhibit A” in demonstrating inadequate American legal mechanisms.

“This is a guy who was convicted of precisely the thing that we want him to be convicted of in this context, and yet the minute he’s released from house arrest, he’s off in China,” he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has introduced a new digital tool that allows the public to browse through previous environmental education grant competitions and awards distributed through its Environmental Literacy Program.

The interactive platform includes filtering capabilities and a map-based interface that users can navigate to examine the history of funding opportunities and recipients from past program cycles.

The Environmental Literacy Program, administered through NOAA’s Office of Education, has provided grants to support environmental education initiatives across the country.

A groundbreaking genetic study has overturned long-held assumptions about what transpired following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, when Germanic leader Odoacer overthrew the young Emperor Romulus Augustulus in Italy, triggering the breakdown of centralized power across much of Europe.

Scientists analyzing DNA from ancient burial sites in what is now southern Germany have discovered how these monumental political upheavals impacted everyday citizens, while challenging the widespread belief in violent “barbarian invasions” that supposedly swept across the former empire’s territories.

The research revealed that once imperial marriage laws were no longer enforced, Roman garrison troops and city dwellers quickly began intermarrying with lower-status residents, including people of Northern European heritage.

“The temporal alignment between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in Italy and the genetic shift we detect in southern Germany is remarkably precise,” explained Joachim Burger, an anthropologist and population geneticist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany who served as the study’s senior author. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Scientists examined genetic material from 258 individuals buried in distinctive row-style graves across present-day Bavaria and Hesse, with 112 of these remains discovered at the Bavarian village of Altheim. The majority of burials occurred between 450 and 620 AD.

“Row grave cemeteries were a newly emerging early-medieval burial practice where individuals were buried in rows, often containing grave goods like clothing, jewelry and weapons. These cemeteries stretched across the former Roman frontier from the Netherlands to Hungary,” stated Jens Blöcher, a population geneticist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz who led the study.

Roman forces had constructed military installations along the German frontier to defend against attacks and civil unrest, with some of these outposts growing into substantial communities and eventually major cities. Mainz, Regensburg, Trier and Cologne all developed near the burial locations examined in this research.

The genetic evidence documented a significant population change that coincided with the late fifth-century breakdown of Roman governmental systems. Data showed that Northern Europeans had already begun migrating south into the region in small numbers during the empire’s lengthy decline, living apart from the established Roman communities, likely working as farm laborers. During this period, outsiders could receive land grants under specific conditions, including restrictions on marrying Romans.

“They have lived there for generations, marrying almost exclusively within their own group – preserving their northern genetic heritage,” Burger noted.

The Roman military and civilian populations displayed significant genetic diversity, including people with ancestral roots from throughout the empire. These groups were genetically different from the outsiders gradually arriving from Northern Europe, including areas as far away as Britain, as well as from the Balkans and even Asia.

The genetic data showed intermarriage between these two populations following the empire’s end and a peaceful blending of peoples that ultimately created a new early-medieval society.

“While we do detect north-to-south movement of people across the former imperial frontier, the majority of this migration occurred generations before the pivotal horizon” of the empire’s collapse, Burger explained, noting the movement began in the third and fourth centuries.

“Crucially, this influx was not driven by large, ethnically homogeneous tribal blocs or major clans, but rather by small kinship groups and even isolated individuals. This pattern directly contradicts the traditional narrative of a ‘mass barbarian invasion’ following Rome’s collapse,” Burger added.

Well before Romulus Augustulus was removed from power, the vast Roman Empire had been split into eastern and western sections. While the Western Roman Empire crumbled after an extended period of chaos and military defeats, the Eastern Roman Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire, remained centered in Constantinople – modern-day Istanbul – and continued to flourish.

The genetic information also revealed demographic details about the studied population, showing life expectancies of approximately 40 years for women and 43 years for men, along with high infant death rates in a society where nearly 25 percent of children lost at least one parent by age 10.

Christianity had already become established as the official Roman religion. The genetic data indicated families followed monogamous nuclear structures, widows did not remarry within their deceased husband’s family, and there was strict prevention of marriages between close relatives like cousins.

“All these traits reflect Christian norms from Late Antiquity,” Burger observed.

The evidence suggests additional Northern Europeans continued arriving in the region during the centuries following the empire’s fall, with a new genetic pattern developing by approximately the seventh century – “one that closely resembles the genetic profile we observe today in central Europe,” according to Burger.

MILTON, Mass. — Each morning, Matthew Douglas ascends a narrow staircase to emerge through a rooftop hatch, where a glass orb housed in metal framework has etched a delicate line across a paper strip, documenting yesterday’s sunshine hours.

This daily ritual represents part of an unbroken tradition at Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center, located 15 miles south of Boston, where weather watchers have maintained identical procedures for 141 consecutive years. Through virtually unchanged analog equipment, they’ve compiled an uninterrupted database of temperature readings, moisture levels, rainfall amounts, wind measurements and additional atmospheric data that supports forecasting models and scientific studies.

“My routine is the same every day,” said chief weather observer Douglas, who has worked there since 1997, sporting a dark blue sweatshirt with the name of the observatory on the front. “The only thing that changes are the numbers and the weather itself.”

According to executive director Alex Evans, Blue Hill stands as America’s longest continuously functioning weather observatory. Since 1885, employees and volunteers have depended on identical instruments, including mercury and alcohol-based thermometers, moisture-detecting devices that utilize human hair strands, and the rooftop glass sphere that tracks bright sunshine periods.

Maintaining identical equipment in the same location for nearly 150 years, Douglas explained, ensures that any detected shifts in weather patterns represent genuine changes rather than variations caused by different instruments producing altered measurements compared to previous equipment. Possessing such a “tried and true database” as a baseline proves invaluable for climate studies, he emphasized.

While climate science faces challenges from political opposition, budget reductions and staff cuts have affected federal weather agencies since 2025. Blue Hill, operating as a private nonprofit organization, has largely escaped this turbulence. Nevertheless, its continued operations remain uncertain, as funding sources are scarce in the current political climate, Evans noted.

Blue Hill’s mission extends beyond maintaining weather records to bridging the gap between ordinary citizens and climate science, despite appearing outdated compared to modern technology.

Very few American weather observatories match Blue Hill’s age, and even fewer maintain manual data collection methods. While volunteer networks across the nation still employ similar techniques to supply information to the National Weather Service, weather stations — both private facilities and those connected to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — have transitioned to automated digital systems since the 1990s.

Blue Hill transmits daily observation summaries to the National Weather Service, which chief scientist Michael Iacono says may influence weather predictions under certain conditions, plus monthly reports to the National Centers for Environmental Information for distribution to climate researchers. Local television meteorologists also receive daily summaries and occasionally incorporate these observations into their broadcasts, he added.

Within Blue Hill’s circular three-story tower, crowned with castle-style battlements, weather observers Douglas and Amanda Joly occupy an office surrounded by evidence of their daily efforts. Wall-mounted boxes contain sunshine recording cards, wind velocity charts printed on EKG paper fill filing cabinets, and computer systems house spreadsheets where Douglas and Joly carefully document temperature and humidity readings.

Records spanning more than a century “is really unique,” according to Chris Fiebrich, a University of Oklahoma meteorologist. This “dataset is golden,” he explained, because climate change involves gradual trends that “you can only see that clearly if you have measurements that go way back, from before we had satellites” and other contemporary equipment.

Blue Hill’s documentation reveals, for instance, a 5-degree Fahrenheit (approximately 2.8-degree Celsius) rise in average yearly temperatures at the observatory since 1885, plus local ponds now freeze for nearly three weeks less during winter compared to that era.

Observers can also identify the effects of environmental policies. Since the 1990s, Blue Hill has documented increased bright sunshine duration following a low point during the 1980s. Since airborne pollutants like particulate matter block sunlight, cleaner air produces more sunshine, making this improvement partially attributable to the Clean Air Act — federal legislation enacted in 1970 and revised in 1990 to enhance air quality through reduced pollutant emissions.

One-third of Americans believe climate scientists comprehend “not too well” or “not at all well” whether climate change occurs, based on a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. Trump labeled climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” during a United Nations General Assembly address last September, while attempting to undermine climate science.

During times when “the word ‘climate’ is politically demonized in some circles,” stated Alan Sealls, American Meteorological Society president, locations like Blue Hill can serve as “a small part of many possible solutions” to make weather and climate science accessible to people, including young audiences.

The pathway to Blue Hill Observatory follows a curving asphalt route threading through woodland and alongside a ski lift; drivers must carefully navigate around hikers and dog walkers. At the summit, guests can appreciate westward views above the forest canopy or enter through an open archway into the observatory’s courtyard.

Annie Hayes, a Milton resident who toured Blue Hill in mid-March with her spouse and two children, explained that witnessing how observers gather data creates stronger confidence in the science, which otherwise might seem “a little bit of a mystery.”

The mercury barometers in the observers’ workspace — including one the observatory considers the oldest such device in active daily operation within the United States — exemplify this principle. “If somebody’s standing there seeing it while you’re explaining it to them … it becomes a little less scary,” noted chief scientist Iacono.

Blue Hill’s atmospheric pressure instruments consist of glass tubes and small mercury containers — a lustrous, silver-white liquid — mounted within wooden wall cases. When air pressure pushes down on exposed mercury, it rises through the tubes, with the distance traveled indicating atmospheric pressure changes. This mechanism explains the pressure measurement “inches of mercury.”

Another visitor favorite is the Campbell-Stokes recorder, designed to measure bright sunshine hours. Its glass sphere, positioned within a curved metal mount, functions as a magnifying lens, concentrating sunlight onto a paper card and burning a streak as the sun travels across the sky.

While indicating the glass sphere displayed in the history room, Amanda Joly, Blue Hill’s deputy chief observer, described how this recorder, dating to 1898, was stolen in 1993 and subsequently recovered. The theft’s silver lining is that while a modern replacement handles rooftop duties, visitors can now handle the original sphere — something children especially enjoy — without observers worrying about measurement interference.

Hayes’ family, local residents, was examining rain gauges in the gift shop when facilities director Don McCasland described a new Blue Hill citizen science initiative, enabling residents to collect and contribute weather data to a central database. The family intends to begin using their rain gauge this summer.

It’s “a great way to involve the kids and get them excited,” Hayes said. “And who knows? Maybe they’ll find an interest and want to pursue it on their own, too.”

German rescue teams have launched an ambitious operation to save a stranded humpback whale, loading the massive marine mammal onto a specially designed barge for transport to deeper waters. The whale, dubbed Timmy by local media outlets, has been trapped in shallow Baltic Sea waters near Germany’s coastline since early March.

The marine giant was first observed swimming off Germany’s Baltic coast on March 3, thousands of miles from its natural Atlantic Ocean environment. Since then, the whale’s condition has worsened as it repeatedly became stuck in shallow areas, with global audiences watching failed rescue attempts through live video feeds.

Rescue crews worked for several hours on Tuesday to guide the whale onto the flooded transport vessel using specialized straps and a specially excavated channel leading to the barge, according to Germany’s dpa news agency.

By early Wednesday morning, the transport vessel had reached Fehmarn island in northern Germany, positioned near Danish territorial waters, German newspaper Bild confirmed.

The planned route will take the barge around Denmark’s northern coastline, passing through the Skagerrak strait before reaching the North Sea.

Mecklenburg Vorpommern Environment Minister Till Backhaus, whose state had been hosting the stranded whale, expressed his personal investment in the rescue effort on Tuesday, stating he was “on the verge of jumping into the water to help the whale get through the last few meters.”

Despite scientific community concerns that the transport might prove too stressful for the animal, Backhaus approved the privately proposed rescue operation.

The appropriate response to the whale’s situation has sparked weeks of public debate, with some advocating for allowing the animal to die peacefully while others push for continued rescue efforts. Beach demonstrations in Wismar have featured activists demanding the whale’s freedom, while other groups have proposed alternative transportation methods to return the animal to ocean waters.

Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack previously told The Associated Press that rescue attempts have inflicted significant stress on Timmy.

“I believe the whale will die very soon now. And I would also like to raise the question: What is actually so bad about that?” he said. “Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.”

Scientific experts remain uncertain about the whale’s survival prospects during transport. Some researchers theorize the whale deliberately sought shallow waters due to weakness and exhaustion. However, veterinarians working with the private rescue group believe the animal is strong enough to endure the journey.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A quartet of mountain bongo antelopes touched down in Kenya this week, marking another milestone in efforts to save these distinctively striped creatures from extinction.

The animals made the journey from Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, traveling in specially designed wooden transport containers via KLM cargo aircraft to Kenya’s primary airport. High-ranking officials including Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Tourism Minister Rebecca Miano welcomed the animals, with Miano describing the event as a “homecoming of the majestic bongos.”

These remarkable antelopes face dire circumstances in the wild, with government estimates showing fewer than 100 mountain bongos surviving in their natural habitat. The species earned its critically endangered status due to hunting pressures and disease outbreaks. A devastating rinderpest epidemic in the 1980s killed thousands of the animals, prompting conservationists to relocate many survivors to European facilities for safekeeping.

This marks the third such repatriation effort in recent years, following a previous shipment in February 2025. The newly arrived animals will spend time in quarantine and adjustment periods before moving to Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, which currently cares for 102 bongos. Eventually, they will be released back into their wild forest homes.

The conservancy operates Kenya’s National Recovery and Action Plan for the Mountain Bongo alongside government partners, with plans to incorporate these four newcomers into breeding programs designed to diversify and strengthen genetic lines.

Conservation filmmakers Jahawi and Elke Bertolli, both Kenya natives, emphasized to The Associated Press that these returning animals carry crucial genetic diversity essential for species survival. They noted that mountain bongos serve an important ecological function in maintaining forest ecosystems that supply Kenya’s water resources.

Czech Republic Ambassador Nicol Adamcova highlighted how this transfer demonstrates the enduring conservation partnership between her nation and Kenya, representing their joint dedication to protecting threatened wildlife.

Mudavadi praised the achievement as evidence of what becomes possible when government policy, scientific research, and international cooperation align toward common conservation objectives. “I commend all stakeholders involved and assure you of Government’s unwavering support in strengthening conservation frameworks and ensuring that Kenya’s biodiversity continues to thrive,” he stated.

Minister Miano emphasized that introducing genetically diverse animals represents a vital component in building the species’ reproductive strength and long-term survival prospects.

Chinese authorities have temporarily halted the approval process for new autonomous vehicle permits following a technical failure that caused Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis to unexpectedly cease operations in Wuhan last month, according to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg News citing sources with knowledge of the situation.

The temporary ban prevents companies developing self-driving technology from expanding their current robotaxi fleets, initiating new testing programs, or beginning operations in additional metropolitan areas, the report indicated.

Local officials have also put a hold on Baidu’s robotaxi services in Wuhan while they conduct their investigation into what caused the system malfunction, Bloomberg reported.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the Bloomberg report at the time of publication.

Government agencies including the industry ministry, transport ministry, and public security ministry did not provide immediate responses to written requests for comment. Baidu also failed to respond to inquiries about the situation.

Two competing robotaxi companies emphasized their commitment to safety protocols while confirming their services continue operating without interruption.

“Pony.ai’s robotaxi services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are currently operating normally,” the company stated.

“Our preparation work in Changsha and Hangzhou is also progressing as planned,” Pony.ai added.

WeRide reported that its “robotaxi services in China are still operating as normal” across coverage areas spanning more than 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles).

“We support the authorities’ efforts to ensure the highest safety standards across the industry,” WeRide said in its statement.

Earlier this month, Chinese government officials directed regional authorities to perform internal safety reviews and enhance monitoring protocols for road testing of intelligent connected vehicles.

A new study released Wednesday shows encouraging progress in protecting the world’s tropical rainforests, with destruction rates dropping significantly in 2025 after reaching devastating record levels the year before.

According to research from the World Resources Institute and University of Maryland, approximately 4.3 million hectares of untouched tropical forest disappeared last year – equivalent to 10.6 million acres. This represents a substantial 36% decrease compared to 2024’s record-breaking losses.

The improvement stems primarily from Brazil’s aggressive campaign to reduce deforestation, following commitments made by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after taking office in 2023.

Elizabeth Goldman, who co-directs Global Forest Watch and helped compile the annual assessment, expressed cautious optimism about the findings. “It’s encouraging, when the problem feels massive, (that) there are real interventions that work out there and we can see it in the data,” Goldman stated.

However, she cautioned that current deforestation rates remain dangerously high. Nations worldwide are still destroying forests at levels 70% above what scientists say is necessary to achieve the international pledge signed by nearly all countries in 2023 to stop and reverse forest destruction by 2030.

“Achieving this goal in the coming years will not be easy,” Goldman warned.

Agricultural development remains the primary cause of forest clearing globally, with commercial farming operations in countries like Brazil, Bolivia and Indonesia leading the destruction, while subsistence farming drives losses in regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Some nations have shown sustained success in forest protection. Malaysia and Indonesia have maintained long-term policies that effectively reduced primary forest losses, particularly in areas where palm oil plantations historically threatened natural ecosystems.

Yet policy changes threaten this progress. Indonesia experienced increased deforestation last year partly due to President Prabowo Subianto’s expansion of a food estate initiative designed to achieve national food independence.

Environmental organizations worry that Brazil may face similar setbacks after the expiration of an industry agreement that prevented soybean purchases from recently cleared Amazon rainforest areas.

Beyond tropical regions, global forest losses including northern ecosystems fell 14% last year. However, climate change continues mounting pressure on forests worldwide.

Canada experienced its second-worst wildfire season on record last year, with the past three years seeing boreal forest burns approximately five times higher than the previous two-decade average.

In tropical areas, where fires typically result from human activity, increasingly dry conditions are transforming small controlled burns into massive uncontrolled blazes.

Rod Taylor, who directs WRI’s global forest programs, noted that while forests remain crucial carbon storage systems that help combat climate change, rising temperatures are increasingly converting these ecosystems from carbon absorbers into greenhouse gas producers through fires and droughts.

“We’re on a kind of knife’s edge,” Taylor explained.

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles announced Tuesday it has greenlit new regulations that will permit companies to test and operate self-driving heavy-duty trucks on state highways.

The updated rules eliminate previous restrictions on autonomous vehicles exceeding 10,001 pounds, potentially opening the door for driverless freight transport across the Golden State. The DMV emphasized that the changes also strengthen safety protocols and monitoring requirements for all categories of self-driving vehicles.

Under the new framework, autonomous trucks must still make required stops at inspection stations and follow all existing state and federal commercial vehicle regulations. Medium-weight autonomous vehicles up to 14,001 pounds will be permitted for use by government agencies and educational institutions.

The regulatory change comes after Governor Gavin Newsom rejected legislation in 2023 that would have banned heavy-duty autonomous trucks from California roads. Following that veto, the DMV began developing this comprehensive regulatory structure to address the previous limitations.

Companies seeking to deploy autonomous trucks must follow a phased approach, starting with supervised testing using human safety operators before advancing to fully driverless trials and eventual commercial operations. Testing requirements mandate 50,000 miles of operation for lighter vehicles and 500,000 miles for heavy-duty trucks at each development stage.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The vessel that transported four crew members on a historic lunar journey has arrived back at its starting point in Florida.

On Tuesday, NASA’s Artemis II spacecraft made its way back to Kennedy Space Center, nearly four weeks after launching on mankind’s initial moon voyage in more than five decades.

After touching down in Pacific waters on April 10, the Orion vessel was transported by truck from San Diego to Cape Canaveral. Technical teams will conduct thorough inspections of the craft’s thermal protection system and all other components as they prepare for the upcoming Artemis III orbital docking demonstration around Earth next year. The spacecraft’s electronic systems and scientific instruments will be extracted and repurposed.

The crew from the United States and Canada named their vessel Integrity, and it transported astronauts farther from Earth than any human has previously ventured. Apart from some issues with the restroom facilities, the spacecraft functioned effectively throughout the mission lasting nearly ten days, NASA reported.

Mission Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen are finally taking time to rest following extensive medical evaluations and additional testing after completing their mission.

“Been waiting for this moment,” Wiseman posted on X recently, sharing footage of himself enjoying time at the beach. “There is a lot in my head that I must process and very little has to do with leaving the planet. Today is my first step. I have never in my life felt peace like this.”

Before the Artemis II mission, no astronauts had journeyed to the moon since the Apollo 17 expedition in 1972.

The upcoming Artemis III mission will utilize a new spacecraft and different crew members. They will conduct orbital operations around Earth, practicing docking procedures with moon landing vehicles currently being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin. This preparation will pave the way for a lunar surface mission involving two additional astronauts, potentially as soon as 2028.

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have made a groundbreaking discovery that overturns a fundamental assumption about how plants feed themselves, according to an announcement made by the university on Tuesday.

The research team discovered that vegetation can take in vital nutrients directly from dust particles in the air through their leaves, contradicting the traditional scientific belief that plants obtain nourishment exclusively through their root systems from soil.

Published in New Phytologist journal and covered by Xinhua news agency, the research demonstrates that plant leaves can capture minerals like iron and phosphorus from dust floating in the atmosphere. Scientists explained that this feeding process works because leaves have a mildly acidic surface that dissolves dust particles, freeing up nutrients for the plant to absorb.

The research team conducted field testing under Mediterranean climate conditions, including locations in the Judean Hills, to verify their findings. Native plant species cistus creticus and salvia fruticosa that were subjected to artificial dust exposure displayed increased levels of iron and phosphorus in their upper portions, while nutrient concentrations in their root systems stayed essentially the same.

According to the research team, their discoveries reveal that plant leaves actively participate in nutrient collection rather than simply acting as inactive surfaces. Through a combination of field studies and worldwide data analysis, the scientists determined that nutrients obtained from atmospheric dust can significantly contribute to plant nourishment.

The study revealed that in certain areas, nutrients taken in through leaves represented as much as 17 percent of iron consumption and 12 percent of phosphorus consumption compared to nutrients obtained from soil. When intense dust storms occur, the quantity of nutrients absorbed from the atmosphere can equal or surpass the amounts gathered from ground sources.

The research indicates this feeding method could be especially crucial in locations where soil nutrients are scarce or hard for plants to reach. The scientists noted that this process might have a major impact in desert regions and ecosystems with poor soil quality.

The study also suggested that atmospheric nutrient absorption could become more significant as climate change influences worldwide dust movement patterns, potentially changing how plants obtain essential minerals across different geographical areas.

A group of Google workers has delivered a formal request to company leadership calling on the tech giant to turn down any Pentagon contracts that would involve secret military applications of their artificial intelligence systems.

The formal request, which was sent to CEO Sundar Pichai and includes signatures from high-ranking staff members and researchers at Google’s DeepMind AI division, asks the company to avoid any Defense Department partnerships involving confidential technology applications. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the document.

Staff members expressed concerns that confidential military projects would reduce openness and make it impossible for company officials to monitor how their AI systems are being utilized. “There is no way to ensure that our tools will not cause serious harm or violate individual freedoms,” the petition stated.

The document also addressed wider moral questions surrounding military AI applications. “We want to see AI benefit humanity; not to see it being used in inhumane or extremely harmful ways. This includes lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance but extends beyond,” the workers wrote.

They added, “The only way to guarantee that Google does not become associated with such harms is to reject any classified workloads. Otherwise, such uses may occur without our knowledge or the power to stop them.”

This workplace resistance mirrors similar internal pushback from 2018, when Project Maven sparked controversy over Google’s involvement in helping the Pentagon analyze objects in drone surveillance footage from international operations. During that incident, more than 4,600 workers signed a letter demanding the contract be canceled.

Two months earlier, competing AI firm Anthropic lost its Defense Department partnership after making a comparable demand to limit confidential military use of its technology.

Google has not yet provided a response to requests for comment regarding the worker petition.

BERLIN – A complex rescue operation launched Tuesday to save a young humpback whale that has been trapped in Germany’s shallow Baltic Sea waters for nearly a month, sparking weeks of heated public discussion about how best to help the marine mammal locals have dubbed Timmy.

The juvenile male whale will be directed through a specially-excavated channel onto a ship-transport barge filled with water before being taken to the North Sea, according to organizers of the privately-funded rescue effort reported by regional media outlets.

Rescue coordinators believe the whale is healthy enough for transport, but marine biology experts from the German Oceanographic Museum have expressed serious concerns about the plan.

“The chances of a successful rescue are very slim due to the animal’s poor state of health and the generally poor prognosis,” the museum stated.

The rescue attempt would subject the whale to “great deal of stress and a high risk of injury” and “would result in very high noise levels inside the barge due to the high level of sound reflection,” museum officials warned.

Two wealthy individuals are financing the rescue mission, including one person connected to the German electronics retailer MediaMarkt. The total cost of the operation remains undisclosed.

Constanze von der Meden, serving as a spokesperson for the rescue team, has not responded to media inquiries.

The whale earned its nickname from nearby Timmendorfer beach, close to the Baltic island where it became stranded. Marine biologists first observed the animal approximately four weeks ago swimming in low-salt waters that whales typically avoid, suggesting the creature was either sick or confused about its location.

Since then, the whale has repeatedly become stuck on underwater sand formations.

Government officials in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have defended their approach of reducing the animal’s stress levels while dismissing public demands to euthanize the whale to prevent further suffering.

Thousands of concerned citizens have contacted authorities through email, with some messages containing death threats against officials. State Environment Minister Till Backhaus announced that criminal charges will be pursued when appropriate.

Animal rights advocates and other interested parties have established temporary camps near the rescue location.

Humpback whales were once hunted nearly to extinction but have made a significant recovery, with the species now considered at low risk of disappearing, though two specific populations remain endangered.

A groundbreaking study of a Greek volcano is changing how scientists understand dormant volcanic systems, revealing that these geological giants can remain quiet for more than 100,000 years before coming back to life.

Researchers examining the Methana Volcano, situated approximately 37 miles southwest of Athens, have challenged the widespread belief that volcanic systems become “extinct” after remaining inactive for 10,000 years.

Scientists analyzed 700,000 years of volcanic activity at Methana, discovering eruptions punctuated by extended dormant phases. Their research revealed that the volcano’s most prolonged quiet period – spanning from roughly 280,000 to 168,000 years ago – wasn’t evidence of extinction but instead represented a time of significant underground magma buildup.

“This long period of quiescence at Methana happened during the prehistory, so we are piecing it together based on the chemical evidence preserved in the rocks and minerals. To understand what happened under Methana, we need to picture the volcano as the tip of an iceberg: at the surface we see only a little bit of it, while most of the igneous system is underground,” explained ETH Zürich volcanologist Răzvan-Gabriel Popa, who led the research published in Science Advances.

The Earth consists of multiple layers, including the surface crust where we live and the underlying mantle where magma originates. Volcanic eruptions occur when ascending magma overwhelms underground chambers and pushes excess material toward the surface, while lack of magma supply causes volcanoes to become quiet and eventually cease activity.

“What we have now found is that in subduction zones, volcanoes can go quiet even when the mantle produces a lot of magma, but with a twist: this magma is superhydrous, and the volcano doesn’t die, but it thrives, while taking a nap,” Popa noted.

These superhydrous magmas contain exceptionally high water content and appear to drive this dormancy process.

“They ascend through the crust, they start bubbling like a fizzy drink,” Popa described. “This gas bubbling triggers crystallisation, making the magma sticky and viscous, and it slows down a lot – by a factor of 100 to 1,000 – and becomes so lazy … it can’t continue towards the surface.”

According to Popa, this causes the magma to become stuck underground.

“Since the magma chamber can’t evacuate all that excess material, no eruption happens, and the reservoir accumulates this crystalline, sticky magma that helps it grow,” Popa said.

This process could eventually result in larger and potentially more powerful eruptions when the volcano does reawaken.

To piece together this volcanic timeline, researchers analyzed more than 1,250 zircon mineral crystals found in volcanic rocks and used alternative minerals like ilmenite when zircon wasn’t available to monitor magma chamber activity during quiet periods.

Popa noted that this “silent” magma accumulation can be monitored using advanced equipment.

“Magma accumulation at depth often triggers earthquakes that may be too small for us to perceive, but seismometers record them easily. The ground may also bulge by only a few centimetres per year, yet satellites and GPS can detect those changes,” Popa said.

Although Methana sits relatively near the Greek capital, Popa indicated the volcano doesn’t present major immediate dangers, with any future eruptions likely resembling past lava flows rather than explosive events.

Nevertheless, Popa suggested this phenomenon might be more common than previously understood, with numerous apparently inactive volcanoes potentially still developing underground magma chambers, especially in areas like Greece, Italy, North and South America, and Japan.

The research team plans to next investigate Ciomadul in Romania’s Eastern Carpathians, a volcano that has remained quiet for almost 30,000 years but may still contain an active underground magma chamber.

“It’s important for our society to understand that for volcanoes, quiet doesn’t always mean safe,” Popa concluded.

Each swimming session leaves traces of sunscreen behind in the water, creating an environmental concern for marine ecosystems.

Research published in Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that roughly one-quarter of applied sunscreen rinses away during water recreation, depositing approximately 5,000 tons yearly into coral reef regions worldwide. This amount equals the mass of roughly 1,000 elephants, with many of these compounds proving harmful to coral organisms. Some scientists believe this figure underestimates the actual impact, since the research didn’t account for additional friction from swimming motions that could increase chemical runoff.

Despite occupying merely 0.1% of ocean space, coral reefs provide habitat for roughly 25% of marine life. These ecosystems already face pressure from rising ocean temperatures, contamination, excessive fishing, and shoreline construction. Now they confront another challenge from sunscreen compounds that harm young corals, cause bleaching events, and interfere with normal development. While researchers acknowledge this represents a lesser threat compared to climate change, it’s one that individuals can directly influence.

The contamination extends beyond direct swimming contact. Sunscreen ingredients reach waterways through post-beach showers, towel washing, and human waste. Sewage systems represent the primary pathway for sunscreen pollution entering oceans, since standard treatment facilities cannot effectively eliminate most UV-blocking compounds. These substances travel from wastewater plants through rivers before reaching marine environments.

Though sunscreen protection prevents burns and lowers skin cancer rates, different formulations create varying environmental impacts.

The most compelling evidence of damage involves oxybenzone and octinoxate, two commonly used chemical UV blockers. Research from 2016 in Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology demonstrated that oxybenzone converts healthy, swimming coral larvae into malformed, motionless specimens. This compound forces corals to reject the algae that supply most of their nutrition and coloration, creating a stress reaction called bleaching. Bleached corals become weakened, more susceptible to illness, and may starve or perish if harsh conditions continue. Scientists also discovered that oxybenzone harms DNA and causes early skeleton development that can trap entire larvae. The chemical can trigger bleaching at reduced temperatures, amplifying damage from ocean warming caused by climate change.

This substance becomes harmful at levels as minimal as 62 parts per trillion, comparable to a single drop in six Olympic swimming pools. At Hanauma Bay, a well-known Hawaii diving location, roughly 2,600 daily guests deposited about 412 pounds of sunscreen into ocean waters each day, based on 2017 research by the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory nonprofit.

Scientists express increasing worry about octocrylene, avobenzone, and homosalate as well.

These compounds spread throughout marine systems. UV-blocking ingredients have been found in fish and other ocean creatures, creating concerns about seafood consumption safety.

“We measured the level of oxybenzone in locally caught fish. It was scary,” said Craig Downs, executive director of nonprofit Haereticus Environmental Laboratory, who led the 2016 study. “These chemicals move through the food chain, then we eat it.”

Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide represent generally safer options compared to chemical UV blockers, though they require careful consideration. Specialists recommend non-nano versions, since larger particles prove less likely to be breathed in or absorbed by marine creatures.

Zinc oxide may contain small amounts of heavy metal contaminants including lead, chromium, and mercury, Downs explained, while few products have received thorough environmental safety evaluation.

Buyers should also examine inactive components, as oils, scents, and other additives can damage marine ecosystems.

Certain mineral sunscreen companies include UV filters like butyloctyl salicylic acid and ethylhexyl methoxycrylene to maintain SPF effectiveness in zinc oxide products, which Downs has connected to possible cancer dangers and coral harm.

Specialists suggest using protective clothing, swim shirts, headwear, and shade structures.

“If you put on a rash guard or long sleeve swim shirt, you basically cover up 50% of your body, which means you don’t need 50% of the sunscreen,” Downs said. “From a conservation perspective, that’s a massive win.”

When sunscreen becomes necessary, choose products containing non-nano zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as primary ingredients. While studies continue examining how these minerals affect marine settings, most experts prefer them over chemical UV blockers.

Although mineral sunscreens historically leave white residue, newer versions provide more transparent coverage.

Specialists also suggest avoiding spray applications, which can scatter sunscreen particles into air and nearby areas. Allowing at least 15 minutes after application before entering water helps the product bond with skin instead of immediately washing away.

Hawaii became the initial U.S. state in 2018 to ban sales of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, referencing their coral reef damage. Key West, Florida, has implemented comparable restrictions. Palau and the U.S. Virgin Islands have established broader prohibitions covering additional chemicals associated with reef harm.

Outside these restrictions, the market remains mostly uncontrolled. Terms like “reef safe” or “reef friendly” lack universal meaning or criteria.

“People can just write whatever they want on a bottle, and there’s no validation, no testing, no standardization,” said Michael Sweet, head of the Nature-based Solutions Research Centre and the Aquatic Research Facility at the University of Derby in England.

During laboratory testing, some products “have decimated corals before my very eyes,” he said. “When you see that, you wonder what’s being put into our oceans on a daily basis, from shampoos, skin care, conditioners and shower gels. All this stuff goes into our rivers and ultimately our oceans.”

Several independent verification programs have developed to assist consumer choices. Protect Land + Sea represents one certification created by Downs’ laboratory that confirms products exclude ingredients like oxybenzone, octinoxate, and parabens. Experts point out that ingredient screening provides value, though it differs from complete ecological safety assessment of entire formulations.

“Reefs are being hammered left, right and center,” Sweet said. “Every little bit we can do tips the balance a little bit further up and hopefully gives them that bit of a fighting chance.”

BERLIN — Mechanical canines bearing incredibly lifelike silicone replicas of famous personalities’ faces are wandering through a German art gallery, periodically “defecating” printed photographs of their environment that they’ve captured using built-in cameras.

The robotic creatures feature heads modeled after tech titans Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, along with artistic legends Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, as part of an interactive art piece by American creator Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) currently on display at Berlin’s New National Gallery.

Every printed photograph displays a slice of reality altered by artificial intelligence to mirror the character of each mechanical dog — essentially representing how the human figure attached to each robot might view the world. For instance, the Picasso-headed canine generates images in a Cubist aesthetic, while Warhol’s version produces pop art-style prints.

Exhibition organizers describe the installation as a statement about how algorithms and digital platforms influence our understanding of reality.

“In the past, our view of the world was shaped in part by how artists saw the world,” Beeple explained to the Associated Press. “How Picasso painted changed how we saw the word, how Warhol talked about consumerism, pop culture, that changed how he saw those things.”

Today, however, technology executives who control sophisticated algorithms determine what information we encounter and what remains hidden from view, the artist explained.

“That’s an immense amount of power that I don’t think we’ve fully understood, especially because when they want to make a change, they don’t need to lobby the U.N. They don’t need to get something through Congress or the EU, they just wake up and change these algorithms.”

Some of the mechanical animals also sport heads resembling Beeple himself.

Lisa Botti, who curated the Berlin exhibition, explained that artificial intelligence represents one of today’s most significant influences on daily life, and “museums are the places where society can reflect” on such changes, which motivated her decision to showcase Beeple’s creation.

The installation, called “Regular Animals,” made its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025.

Beeple, a graphic artist from South Carolina, produces various forms of digital artwork and helped establish the “everyday” movement in 3D graphics by creating and sharing one image daily online for years without interruption.

Christie’s auction house ranks him as the third most valuable living artist by auction sales, trailing only David Hockney and Jeff Koons.

In spring 2021, Christie’s began accepting bids for Beeple’s digital compilation titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” which eventually sold for more than $69 million. The auction house characterized the piece as “critiques of modern society, the government and social media” presented through “grotesque, dystopian futures, often featuring celebrities like Donald Trump and Kanye West.”

Christie’s noted this sale represented the first occasion a major auction house sold a purely digital artwork authenticated by a non-fungible token, and the first time cryptocurrency served as payment for an auctioned artwork.

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, function as digital certificates that verify the authenticity of digital collectibles by storing information on a blockchain digital ledger. These tokens have recently gained popularity in online collecting circles, emerging alongside the cryptocurrency surge.

During the Art Basel 2025 event, Beeple distributed the photographs produced by his robotic dogs to attendees, including certificates labeled “100% organic GMO-free dog shit.” Several prints contained QR codes providing access to complimentary NFTs, effectively allowing Beeple to distribute his digital creations at no cost for potential future monetization by recipients, including sometimes the photograph subjects themselves.

A Massachusetts seafood operation has rescued an extraordinary crustacean from the dinner plate, donating an incredibly unusual lobster to researchers due to its stunning split coloration.

The remarkable specimen displays standard brown coloring along one half of its body while showing vivid orange hues on the opposite side, with this dramatic contrast extending completely from head to tail.

Officials at Wellfleet Shellfish Company in Eastham, Massachusetts, announced Monday they’ve received numerous calls about the fascinating creature over recent days. The business has transferred the lobster to Woods Hole Science Aquarium in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where it will become a public exhibit once the facility completes renovations.

“The lobster is now with Woods Hole Science Aquarium’s animals currently being housed in holding tanks at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the aquarium’s construction period. When the aquarium reopens, the lobster will be on display, offering visitors a rare look at one of the ocean’s most striking natural anomalies,” the shellfish company said in a statement.

Local fishermen hauled in the unique lobster during their April 16 fishing operations off Cape Cod. While unusually pigmented lobsters frequently appear at New England fishing docks throughout spring and summer months, this split-colored variety represents an exceptionally uncommon discovery.

American lobsters typically display mottled brown shells, but genetic mutations can alter the proteins responsible for binding pigments, creating color variations. Some specimens appear blue or orange, others show calico-style spots, while certain brightly colored varieties earn the nickname “cotton candy” lobsters.

According to University of New England marine sciences professor Markus Frederich, split-colored lobsters develop when two separate lobster eggs merge and mature as a single organism, as he explained to The Associated Press in 2024. While scientists have estimated the probability of various lobster color mutations, Frederich notes these calculations remain rough approximations.

Representatives from Wellfleet Shellfish Company described their split-colored discovery as a “remarkable and exciting find.”

The legendary British wildlife filmmaker David Attenborough’s milestone 100th birthday will be commemorated starting next week with a special documentary exploring his revolutionary 1979 nature series.

The upcoming program, titled “Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure,” offers viewers an inside look at the creation of the groundbreaking documentary that featured iconic moments like Attenborough’s intimate encounters with mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

That original series established the blueprint for wildlife documentaries that continue today and cemented Attenborough’s reputation as a leading voice in environmental conservation worldwide.

The anniversary special reveals previously unseen footage, including extended scenes of a young gorilla interacting with the presenter and additional hunting sequences with lions.

Drawing from his personal filming journals, Attenborough shares harrowing experiences from production, including being held by Rwandan military forces and facing threats while working in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Production team members discuss the logistical nightmares of organizing international shoots during an era when correspondence took weeks to reach destinations, plus the anxiety of shipping irreplaceable film canisters back to Britain.

The documentary also provides expanded coverage of their quest to capture footage of the coelacanth, an Indian Ocean species nicknamed a “living fossil.”

Their successful filming occurred when a local fisherman accidentally caught the rare fish, then contacted the crew after setting it free. “It was the first time it was filmed alive, but only just,” Attenborough remarks in the anniversary program.

According to Mike Gunton, creative director of the BBC’s Natural History Unit who collaborated with Attenborough on subsequent projects, the original series was transformational.

“All we really have done is remake ‘Life on Earth’,” Gunton explained to Reuters.

Born May 8, 1926, in London, Attenborough began his BBC journey in 1952. His breakthrough came two years later with “Zoo Quest,” which he ended up hosting when the intended presenter became ill during their initial filming expedition.

After advancing into BBC executive roles, Attenborough chose to return to nature programming in his late 40s, proposing “Life on Earth” as a comprehensive exploration of evolutionary history.

He completed all scripts for the 13-episode series before beginning three years of global filming.

“He has, without doubt, defined natural history and how we see the world,” stated Victoria Bobin, who produced and directed the new documentary.

“Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure” debuts Sunday on BBC.

Additional centennial festivities include a new series called “Secret Garden,” a London concert performance, and museum exhibitions throughout Britain honoring the naturalist’s birthday.

Scientists working at the famous ruins of Pompeii have achieved a groundbreaking first by using artificial intelligence technology to recreate the facial features of someone who perished when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying the Roman city under volcanic ash.

The computer-generated image shows an elderly male who was among a pair of victims found trying to escape toward the coastline during the catastrophic eruption. Scientists believe this individual died during the early stages of the disaster when heavy volcanic debris was falling from the sky.

This innovative reconstruction emerged from a partnership between Pompeii Archaeological Park and the University of Padua, utilizing data gathered from excavation work conducted near the Porta Stabia cemetery area outside the ancient city’s boundaries.

The historic site near Naples, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage location, became frozen in time when volcanic ash and pumice stone covered it almost two millennia ago, creating an extraordinary preservation of the city and thousands of residents.

When researchers discovered this victim, he was clutching a ceramic bowl above his head, which they believe was his desperate attempt to protect himself from the small volcanic rocks called lapilli that were raining down during the eruption.

Historical records from Roman author Pliny the Younger and others document how people tried using various items as shields while ash and debris covered their city.

Along with the makeshift helmet, the man was found with an oil lamp, a small iron ring, and 10 bronze coins – personal belongings that provide a glimpse into his final hours and everyday life in Pompeii before disaster struck.

The computerized facial reconstruction combined artificial intelligence with photo-editing technology to transform skeletal remains and archaeological evidence into a lifelike human appearance.

“The vastness of archaeological data is now such that only with the help of artificial intelligence will we be able to adequately protect and enhance them. If used well, AI can contribute to a renewal of classical studies,” Pompeii park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said in a statement.

According to researchers, this project seeks to make archaeological discoveries more relatable and emotionally meaningful to the general public while keeping scientific accuracy at its core.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Wildlife conservationists celebrated a historic breakthrough Monday after motion-activated cameras documented a critically endangered Sumatran orangutan successfully navigating an artificial rope bridge over a busy public roadway.

The remarkable footage shows the young primate hesitating at the forest boundary before carefully grasping the rope structure and venturing into the open space above the road. The orangutan paused midway across to peer down at the traffic below before completing the journey to the opposite side.

This groundbreaking event represents the first recorded instance of this near-extinct species utilizing a man-made crossing structure over a public thoroughfare, according to wildlife protection experts.

“This was the moment we had been waiting for,” Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director of Indonesian conservation group Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, or TaHuKah, told The Associated Press. “We are very grateful that the canopy here provides benefits for orangutan conservation efforts.”

The crossing structure stretches across the Lagan–Pagindar road in Pakpak Bharat district, an essential transportation route linking isolated communities to educational facilities, medical care, and government offices. However, this same roadway slices through critical orangutan territory, dividing approximately 350 individuals between two separate forest sections: the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve and the Sikulaping Protection Forest.

Road improvements completed in 2024 expanded the forest gap even further, destroying the natural pathways that tree-dwelling animals previously used for movement between habitats.

“Development was necessary for people,” Siregar said. “But without intervention, it would have left orangutans trapped on either side.”

TaHuKah partnered with the Sumatran Orangutan Society, or SOS, along with regional and federal agencies to implement an innovative approach: suspended rope pathways connecting trees on both sides, enabling arboreal species to travel safely above vehicle traffic.

Conservation teams installed five separate bridge structures, each equipped with surveillance cameras and strategically placed following comprehensive studies of nesting patterns, forest coverage, and wildlife movement corridors. Engineers designed the bridges to accommodate the substantial weight of these massive tree-dwelling mammals.

Researchers maintain constant surveillance through camera monitoring systems on each crossing point and conduct regular inspections to prevent illegal forest encroachment. Wildlife experts remain optimistic that additional orangutans will follow this trailblazer’s example.

The team waited two full years before witnessing the first orangutan crossing attempt. Initially, only smaller wildlife species utilized the structures, with cameras documenting squirrels, langur monkeys, and macaques, followed eventually by gibbons — indicating growing acceptance among primates.

The orangutan’s behavior showed much more caution, constructing sleeping nests in proximity to the bridge, spending time at the crossing edges, and gradually testing the rope strength over extended periods.

“They observe,” Siregar said. “They don’t rush. They watch, they try, they retreat. Only when they’re certain it’s safe do they move.”

Eventually, the breakthrough moment arrived when one individual completed the full crossing — marking not only a Sumatran first, but the initial documented case worldwide of the species traversing a public roadway via artificial means, according to conservation organizations.

While similar crossing structures have facilitated orangutan movement in other locations, these typically span waterways or private logging roads. Public highways present significantly greater obstacles due to constant noise, heavy traffic, and unpredictable conditions, conservationists explain.

The consequences of habitat isolation are severe for orangutan populations. Separation results in inbreeding, genetic deterioration, and ultimate population extinction. Reconnecting fragmented territories provides essential survival opportunities.

These great apes once inhabited extensive regions throughout southern Asia but currently exist only on Sumatra and Borneo islands. Current population estimates indicate fewer than 14,000 Sumatran orangutans survive in natural habitats, along with approximately 800 Tapanuli orangutans and roughly 104,700 Bornean orangutans, based on conservation data.

“These bridges allow orangutans to move, to mix, to maintain healthy populations,” Siregar said. “It reduces the risk of extinction.”

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is revolutionizing its drug discovery process through artificial intelligence, achieving a remarkable 50% reduction in the time required to identify promising treatment candidates, according to company executives.

Speaking at the Reuters Momentum AI event in New York on Monday, Chief Information Officer Jim Swanson revealed how the technology is transforming the company’s approach to finding new medications. While AI cannot yet independently discover and develop new drugs from start to finish, it’s proving invaluable for evaluating vast numbers of potential chemical compounds and biological treatments.

“That’s still a ways away, but we can optimize,” Swanson explained. “We’ve cut our lead optimization time in half.”

The New Jersey-headquartered healthcare company has strategically concentrated its AI efforts on essential operations, including product development powered by artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical research, and supply chain improvements.

“We’re trying to cure cancer,” Swanson emphasized. “We need every tool that we can leverage to be able to do that.”

Manufacturing processes have also benefited from AI implementation, with the technology helping determine optimal timing and temperature conditions for adding solvents during production.

Perhaps most dramatically, Johnson & Johnson has transformed its regulatory documentation workflow using artificial intelligence. Swanson noted that preparing clinical trial reports previously required between 700 and 900 hours of work.

That timeframe has been slashed from “700 hours to about 15 minutes,” Swanson reported.

Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for human workers, Swanson characterizes it as an enhancement to existing employee capabilities. The company currently employs approximately 4,000 information technology professionals.

“A software engineer isn’t getting replaced, now their role is expanding,” he noted. “Our focus continues to be on skills. These are ‘and’ skills, not ‘or’ skills.”

Scientists studying wildlife on a Lake Superior island say wolf numbers are flourishing, but the growing packs are devastating the moose herds they depend on for survival, according to new research published Monday.

Isle Royale, a 134,000-acre national park situated in western Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, Canada, serves as a unique outdoor laboratory where researchers can study predator-prey relationships with minimal human interference.

Wildlife population studies have been ongoing on the island since 1958. These surveys typically take place during winter months when the roadless island remains closed to tourists, though recent years have brought significant challenges for research teams.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the first-ever cancellation of the survey in 2021. During the 2024 winter study, the National Park Service evacuated researchers after unusually mild temperatures made the surrounding ice too dangerous for ski-plane operations. Scientists depend on these aircraft for wildlife tracking since the island lacks a proper runway, requiring landings on frozen Lake Superior. The 2023 survey also failed when their pilot experienced a sudden medical emergency.

This year, however, a research team headed by Michigan Tech University scientists successfully completed their work between January 22 and March 3. Their findings indicate the island now hosts 37 wolves. Previous data collected before the 2024 evacuation showed 30 wolves.

The 2026 population estimates mark the highest wolf numbers since the late 1970s and show remarkable recovery from a low point of just two wolves ten years ago. Scientists believe genetic problems from inbreeding had reduced pup survival rates.

Meanwhile, the island’s moose population faces a dramatic decline. Current surveys count 524 moose, representing a 75% drop from the peak of 2,000 animals recorded in 2019. Researchers estimate wolves killed nearly 25% of all moose during the past year. For the first time in nearly seven decades, scientists observed zero moose calves during their winter survey.

Sarah Hoy, a Michigan Tech researcher who studies predator-prey relationships and co-leads the survey, described enduring wind chills reaching minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit while struggling to stay warm in their cabin wood stoves.

Despite harsh conditions, clear weather allowed for outstanding wildlife observations. Scientists spotted wolves during all but one survey flight, Hoy noted. A memorable moment came on Valentine’s Day when they watched a wolf pack huddled together on the ice.

“It’s always such a privilege to get to see wolves interacting, witnessing courtship behavior, pups playfully tugging on each other’s tails, or a pack working together to take down a moose,” she said.

Research teams plan summer studies on the island to examine how the expanding wolf population might achieve ecological balance with other island species.

Tech giant Google will establish its inaugural artificial intelligence campus in Seoul, South Korea, according to a presidential policy adviser who announced the partnership on Monday.

The collaboration was formalized during a meeting between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis in Seoul. Presidential adviser Kim Yong-beom confirmed that the Science Ministry and Google signed a memorandum of understanding to move forward with the groundbreaking facility.

This marks the first AI campus of its kind that Google has committed to building anywhere in the world, Kim noted. The facility is designed to strengthen ties between Google’s technical teams and South Korea’s engineering community and startup ecosystem.

During negotiations, South Korean officials asked Google to station a minimum of 10 engineers from its U.S. headquarters at the new Seoul campus. Hassabis indicated he would review this request, according to Kim’s statement.

The Google DeepMind leader expressed enthusiasm about the educational opportunities the partnership would create. “To help with training up the next generation in these amazing technologies through internships at our AI hub and other training programmes,” Hassabis said of his hopes for the collaboration.

Hassabis also outlined plans to strengthen Google’s relationships with major Korean corporations, including Samsung, SK Hynix, Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics division, and LG. He said DeepMind aims to “instigate new joint projects” with these industry leaders.

The Google executive praised South Korea’s technological infrastructure, calling it a “great industrial base” that excels in crucial AI development areas spanning from semiconductor manufacturing to robotics innovation.

During their discussion, President Lee and Hassabis explored AI’s future trajectory and its potential effects on society. Lee specifically brought up concerns about employment displacement due to AI advancement, suggesting the need for basic income protections for workers who might lose jobs to automation.

Hassabis reflected on South Korea’s significance in AI history, referencing the landmark 2014 match between DeepMind’s AlphaGo system and Korean Go champion Lee Sedol. He described that historic competition as marking “the beginning of the modern AI era” and spurring numerous technological breakthroughs, including DeepMind’s protein-folding research through the AlphaFold system.

The financial markets have shown little excitement over DeepSeek’s latest artificial intelligence breakthrough, marking a stark difference from the Chinese company’s dramatic impact on global tech stocks just one year ago.

When the Hangzhou-based firm unveiled its V4 model on Friday, investors barely took notice – a far cry from the massive selloff that occurred when DeepSeek first introduced its cost-effective AI systems that required significantly less computing power than American competitors.

Last year’s launch of DeepSeek-V3 and R1 created what industry experts called a “black swan” moment, forcing investors worldwide to reconsider their assumptions about artificial intelligence development costs and China’s technological capabilities despite U.S. semiconductor restrictions.

However, the calm response to V4 demonstrates how rapidly market expectations have evolved. Companies and investors have now become familiar with efficient, budget-friendly AI models created under limited computing resources, eliminating the shock factor.

“This announcement followed a rather predictable path,” explained Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia, who noted that improvements in model design and efficiency have become commonplace throughout the industry and research community.

Performance data confirms this assessment. Artificial Analysis reports that while DeepSeek-V4 Pro represents a substantial upgrade from earlier versions, it ranks alongside other top open-source models rather than clearly outperforming them, with rivals like Kimi and Qwen closing the performance gap.

This situation differs dramatically from last year, when DeepSeek seemed to surge past its Chinese competitors, leading to widespread adoption domestically and amplifying its international influence.

Industry observers attribute the previous market disruption to several converging elements: inflated valuations of American technology companies, assumptions that a small group of firms would maintain market control, and the sudden appearance of an obscure Chinese startup delivering surprisingly powerful results.

These circumstances no longer exist in today’s market environment.

“The expectation that new players will emerge is now baked into valuations,” Su noted, explaining that markets have developed more realistic perspectives about both AI’s potential and its limitations.

Meanwhile, competition within China has grown fiercer, with numerous companies launching increasingly sophisticated models, diminishing DeepSeek’s competitive advantage.

On Monday, stock exchanges in South Korea and Taiwan reached record levels, supported by widespread confidence in AI-related investments.

Alfredo Montufar-Helu from Ankura China Advisors believes V4’s importance extends beyond market reactions to the broader technological competition between the United States and China.

He highlighted DeepSeek’s optimization of V4 for Huawei processors, as stricter American export restrictions aim to prevent Chinese companies from accessing advanced U.S. semiconductors essential for AI development.

“The ‘wow factor’ was last year – that’s already priced in,” he explained. “What matters now is whether China can continue advancing on AI development, and potentially do so with its own chips – the geopolitical implications would be significant.”

OAKLAND, Calif. — Two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures are preparing for a legal battle that could determine the future direction of artificial intelligence technology.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman will square off in federal court beginning Monday, when jury selection starts for a case centered on accusations of broken promises, deception, and corporate greed that destroyed their former partnership in AI development.

At the heart of the dispute is OpenAI’s transformation from its 2015 origins as a nonprofit organization largely backed by Musk’s funding into today’s profit-focused enterprise worth $852 billion that created ChatGPT.

The case’s resolution could significantly influence who controls AI advancement — technology that many worry could eliminate jobs and potentially threaten human existence.

These concerns drive Musk’s lawsuit, filed in August 2024, which will be heard by a jury and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. As the world’s wealthiest individual, Musk argues these risks justify his legal action.

In his civil complaint, Musk accuses Altman and his second-in-command Greg Brockman of betraying him by abandoning the San Francisco-based company’s original charitable mission to responsibly oversee revolutionary technology. Instead, he claims they secretly pivoted toward profit-making operations.

OpenAI dismisses Musk’s claims as baseless resentment designed to harm its rapid expansion while promoting Musk’s competing venture, xAI, which he established in 2023.

Between December 2015 and May 2017, Musk contributed approximately $38 million to OpenAI and originally demanded over $100 billion in compensation.

However, potential damages have decreased substantially following several unfavorable pre-trial decisions. Musk no longer pursues personal compensation and now requests unspecified funds to support OpenAI’s charitable division. The payment would come mainly from OpenAI’s commercial operations and Microsoft, which became the company’s largest investor after Musk withdrew his support.

Musk’s legal action also demands Altman’s removal from OpenAI’s board of directors. The funding cutoff created a bitter rift between the former partners. Musk claims he responded to misleading behavior that OpenAI’s board recognized when they dismissed Altman as CEO in 2023, though he regained his position days later.

The trial presents potential dangers for Musk, who was recently found liable by another jury for misleading investors during his $44 billion Twitter acquisition in 2022. Any harmful revelations about Musk’s business methods could prove especially damaging as his aerospace company SpaceX prepares for a summer initial public offering that might make him the world’s first trillionaire.

Regardless of the outcome, the proceedings promise compelling drama featuring opposing testimony from two of technology’s most influential and controversial personalities — 54-year-old Musk and 41-year-old Altman.

“Part of this is about whether a jury believes the people who will testify and whether they are credible,” Gonzalez Rogers explained during an earlier court session while justifying why the case deserved a trial. The judge will render the final verdict, with the jury providing advisory input.

Musk, whose wealth totals roughly $780 billion, has earned recognition as an innovator for his roles developing digital payment pioneer PayPal, electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, and aerospace company SpaceX. However, he has also faced criticism for his social media posts, unfulfilled Tesla autonomous driving promises, and his cost-cutting position in President Donald Trump’s recent administration.

Some of Musk’s unpredictable conduct has been linked to claims of psychedelic drug use, though Gonzalez Rogers ruled that ketamine use cannot be discussed during the trial. The judge will permit questions about Musk’s participation in Nevada’s 2017 Burning Man festival, an unconventional event associated with widespread drug consumption. The court will also allow inquiries about Musk’s relationship with former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, who is the mother of several of his children.

Altman, who currently possesses approximately $3 billion in wealth, remained relatively unknown until ChatGPT’s debut in late 2022. The technological surge sparked by that conversational AI tool has led some observers to compare Altman to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the 20th-century nuclear weapons developer.

While Altman initially received praise as an innovator, he now faces criticism due to concerns about AI’s potential risks. This month, the New Yorker magazine published an article portraying him as an unethical leader. Shortly afterward, authorities arrested a 20-year-old man on attempted murder charges for hurling a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s San Francisco residence, apparently motivated by fears about AI’s impact on society.

The contrasting testimonies from Altman and Musk are anticipated to reveal insights into the reasoning behind the AI competition and the deterioration of their friendship. Their alliance began in 2015 when they committed to developing AI more responsibly and safely than profit-focused companies led by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, according to pre-trial evidence.

The bitter breakdown between the two entrepreneurs was documented in a February 2023 email conversation that emerged during pre-trial proceedings.

After telling Musk “you’re my hero,” Altman wrote: “I am tremendously thankful for everything you’ve done to help —I don’t think OpenAI would have happened without you — and it really (expletive) hurts when you publicly attack OpenAI.”

Musk replied: “I hear you and it is certainly not my intention to be hurtful, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake.”

Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek announced significant price cuts for its latest technology model, providing developers with substantial savings through early May.

The company revealed it will offer a 75% price reduction on its recently launched AI model, DeepSeek-V4-Pro, with the discount available until May 5th. Additionally, DeepSeek announced it will reduce costs for input cache hits throughout its complete API product line to just one-tenth of the previous pricing, according to a company announcement on social media platform X.

The tech startup unveiled a preview of its eagerly awaited V4 model on Friday, which has been specifically designed to work with Huawei’s semiconductor technology.

The V4 system is available in two different configurations: the Pro version, which offers enhanced capabilities at a higher cost, and the Flash option, which provides a more streamlined and budget-friendly alternative.

DeepSeek claims its Pro version surpasses other open-source models in global knowledge testing, with only Google’s proprietary Gemini-Pro-3.1 achieving better performance results.

The Chinese technology company states that its V4 models are especially designed for AI agent applications, which can handle more sophisticated operations compared to standard chatbots but demand increased computational resources.

Almost 30 sloths perished at a Florida animal import facility over a two-year span due to freezing conditions and illness, state wildlife officials have revealed.

An inspection document from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission dated August shows that 21 sloths brought in from Guyana died at Orlando’s Sanctuary World Imports facility in December 2024. The deaths occurred when building temperatures plummeted to between 40 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, sloths cannot control their body heat like other mammals and require temperatures between 68 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit to survive.

Peter Bandre, identified in the document as the facility’s licensee, explained that the animals suffered what he described as a “cold stun.” He stated that the building lacked electricity and water and was unprepared for the animal shipment, but canceling the delivery was no longer possible. Though the facility bought space heaters, they caused electrical problems and failed, leaving the sloths without warmth for at least one evening.

The warehouse subsequently brought in 10 sloths from Peru in February 2025. Two arrived already dead, while the remaining animals appeared severely malnourished and died from what officials described as “poor health issues.” Bandre mentioned plans to hire a new veterinarian, who would be the facility’s third, according to state records.

The Associated Press was unable to reach Bandre through a phone number listed for Sanctuary World Imports in the August documentation.

State inspection records from March 2026 show that Sanctuary World President Benjamin Agresta announced the company had been renamed Sloth World Inc. and that Bandre no longer worked with the operation. The AP’s attempts to contact Sloth World Inc. through phone and text messages on Sunday were unsuccessful.

March inspectors found that the facility where the Guyanese sloths died now featured separate heating and cooling systems maintaining a constant 82-degree temperature. Officials noted no problems with the sloths currently housed there.

Your eyes need time to adapt to the complete darkness. Gradually, tiny points of light begin to emerge, followed by brighter celestial objects. Within moments, entire star formations become visible, and eventually, you can observe an entire galaxy with nothing but your natural vision.

Chile’s Atacama Desert offers visitors an seemingly endless view of the night sky. Known as Earth’s most arid region, this location also provides one of the clearest views into space available anywhere on the planet.

The desert’s exceptional combination of minimal rainfall, elevated terrain, and most importantly, distance from city lights has established it as an unmatched center for cutting-edge astronomy and the location of the planet’s largest ground-based telescope installations.

“The conditions in the Atacama Desert are unique in the world,” said Chiara Mazzucchelli, president of the Chilean Astronomical Society. “There are more than 300 clear nights per year, meaning no clouds and no rain.”

However, these pristine dark skies now face potential danger.

In the previous year, the desert became the center of a conflict between researchers and an energy company planning a renewable power facility mere kilometers from the Paranal Observatory. The European Southern Observatory manages this location, which will also house what’s planned to be the most advanced optical telescope ever constructed.

While the energy development was scrapped in January after widespread opposition from astronomers, physicists and Nobel Prize winners, the incident highlighted serious worries that current sky protection legislation is insufficient, obsolete and ambiguous. Multiple environmental rules have since undergone examination, including regulations from Chile’s science ministry covering designated astronomical protection areas.

“We are working to ensure the new criteria are strict enough to guarantee that there will be no impact on astronomical areas,” said Daniela González, director of the Cielos de Chile Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2019 to protect the quality of Chile’s night skies.

The Associated Press conducted a three-day visit to the Paranal installations located within the region known as Photon Valley. Within this elevated corridor, multiple observatories function together utilizing some of the most advanced scientific equipment ever developed.

“Many of these large facilities are located in Chile, and ESO’s telescopes in particular are the most powerful astronomical facilities on the planet,” said Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, the intergovernmental organization’s representative in Chile.

Paranal represents just one of almost 30 astronomical locations throughout northern Chile, with most operated by international organizations. Each year, the Atacama Desert attracts thousands of astronomers and researchers from across the globe who come to study how the universe began.

“We are lucky to be here,” said Julia Bodensteiner, an assistant professor at University of Amsterdam, noting that the chances of being selected as a visiting astronomer at Paranal are just 20% to 30%.

Navigating the Atacama’s rough, irregular landscape presents significant challenges. At elevations above 3,000 meters (10,000 feet), breathing becomes difficult, while extreme daytime heat transitions to bitter nighttime cold. However, for astronomical observation and research, these more than 105,000 square kilometers (40,500 square miles) of desert provide ideal conditions.

The remarkable environment of the Atacama has made possible some of the most ambitious space research projects ever planned, including the Extremely Large Telescope, ELT — a $1.5 billion project by ESO set for completion in 2030.

Featuring 798 mirrors and a light-collecting surface of nearly 1,000 square meters (a quarter of an acre), the ELT will deliver 20 times more power than current leading telescopes and provide 15 times greater clarity than NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

The information gathered at these observatories serves a crucial purpose not just for understanding life on Earth, but also for exploring possibilities of life beyond our world. Protecting these research locations remains vital.

Using the ELT, said ESO astronomer Lucas Bordone, “we should be able to see Earth-like planets in what we call the habitable zone, so basically the planets which are candidates towards life.”

Two decades ago, the Atacama Desert represented “an ocean of darkness,” recalled Eduardo Unda-Sanzana, director of the Astronomy Center at the University of Antofagasta. “It was just you and the universe.”

Through the years, the environment has undergone dramatic transformation.

Fueled by expanding cities, industrial growth, and the establishment of mining operations and wind energy installations, the desert has become highly sought-after land where finding balance proves challenging.

At Paranal, researchers live underground in specially designed quarters built to minimize their environmental footprint. Windows must stay blocked, corridors remain unlit, and any outdoor activity relies solely on flashlights. Even minimal artificial light can disrupt telescope operations.

Last year’s announcement of a planned green energy development created alarm throughout the global scientific community. Researchers urged officials to safeguard Chile’s dark skies from the proposed location, planned for construction just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Paranal.

The situation raised concerns about various negative effects, including additional light pollution, small vibrations and dust particles, plus increased air turbulence. Such conditions would render astronomical research impossible.

“If you place the ELT next to a city, it doesn’t matter that its diameter is 40 meters long. It’s just the same as having a tiny telescope,” Gregorio-Monsalvo said.

Even though the company withdrew the project in late January, researchers caution that without updated, stronger regulations, similar developments could emerge at any time.

“Despite all the media hype in 2025, we find ourselves exactly where we were last year,” said Unda-Sanzana, who is also part of a ministerial advisory commission that recently delivered recommendations to Chile’s government following the incident.

Historical examples abound. Chile’s first international solar observatory — a major solar research station run by the U.S. Smithsonian Institution in the early 1900s — was compelled to cease operations in 1955 because of environmental contamination from expanding mining operations nearby.

“We’ve had 70 years to learn from history and avoid repeating those same mistakes,” Unda-Sanzana said.

NEWPORT, R.I. — A stark contrast exists between Newport’s wealthy southern districts, where grand historic estates enjoy the shade and environmental benefits of established trees, and the city’s economically disadvantaged northern neighborhoods, where large trees are scarce among subsidized housing developments.

“Residents in this area aren’t getting the advantages that trees provide,” explained Natasha Harrison, who heads the Newport Tree Conservancy. “They deserve more.”

The organization has worked to establish hundreds of indigenous trees within Miantonomi Memorial Park, a 30-acre municipal green space, aiming to restore a healthier woodland ecosystem. Fifteen community members joined conservancy staff at the northern park location Wednesday in observance of Earth Day.

Native forest species in the park have struggled against invasive vegetation, disease outbreaks, and damage from local wildlife including deer, rabbits, and squirrels. This year marks the first time the conservancy has attempted to relocate native saplings to their nursery facility for protection before returning them to the forest environment.

The organization aims to increase tree coverage in the region and improve what’s known as the “tree equity score” — a measurement system that determines whether communities have adequate tree populations to provide residents with health, economic, and environmental advantages.

Federal support was initially expected through U.S. Forest Service funding distributed to the Arbor Day Foundation, a worldwide organization focused on tree planting and forest protection, according to Harrison. However, the Forest Service canceled a $75 million grant to the foundation last year as the Trump administration moved to eliminate environmental justice programs targeting tree planting in financially disadvantaged areas.

Harrison noted the conservancy had anticipated receiving $150,000 through the foundation partnership. Private donors stepped in to cover the funding gap following the grant cancellation, while volunteer support continues to drive the organization’s efforts.

“The situation created stress, but I refused to let it stop our progress,” Harrison stated.

For nearly four decades, the conservancy has collaborated with city officials to expand Newport’s tree coverage through strategic planting initiatives.

During the park visit, Joe Verstandig, who manages the conservancy’s plant collections, guided participants through the woodland area. He identified problematic invasive species including Aralia spinosa clusters (known as devil’s walking stick), Norway maples, and Japanese knotweed. He demonstrated proper techniques for carefully removing desired native plants like Rhode Island’s common arrowwood, elderberry, and American holly.

Among the volunteers were friends Allie Bujakowski and Mara Swist. Bujakowski, who lives within a mile of the park and regularly walks her dog there, was joined by Swist from nearby Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Both women expressed enthusiasm about participating in hands-on Earth Day activities while supporting the conservancy, which had previously planted a tree in Bujakowski’s yard.

“They’re establishing trees in community areas where they’re desperately needed,” said Bujakowski, wearing a Newport mansions cap. “The visual impact is significant. Trees they planted two years ago are already attracting birds back to the area.”

The CEO of ChatGPT’s parent company has issued a formal apology to a Canadian town following the company’s failure to notify law enforcement about a user account connected to a deadly school shooting.

In a letter written on April 23, Sam Altman, who leads OpenAI, expressed regret to the community of Tumbler Ridge for not informing police about Jesse Van Rootselaar’s banned account. Authorities say Van Rootselaar carried out a shooting at a school in February that claimed eight lives before she ended her own life.

Altman stated he was “deeply sorry” that authorities were not notified about Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account, which the company had suspended in June for violating its terms of service.

The artificial intelligence company had previously explained that while they banned Van Rootselaar’s account the prior year due to policy breaches, those violations didn’t reach the threshold that would trigger an automatic report to law enforcement under their internal guidelines.

In his letter, Altman revealed he had discussions with both Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka and British Columbia Premier David Eby regarding the devastating incident. He characterized the community’s suffering as “unimaginable.”

The OpenAI executive pledged that his company would collaborate with government leaders to help ensure such a tragedy doesn’t occur again in the future.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society is marking a double celebration this weekend as they welcome visitors to see their brand-new Australian outback exhibit while announcing the arrival of their first koala baby.

The tiny joey, offspring of koalas Ellin and Sydney, was born during the fall months and has been tucked away in its mother’s pouch until recently becoming visible to zoo staff. Amarylis Celestina, who manages the zoo’s carnivore and koala programs, emphasized the significance of this birth.

“For the zoo and for us here, it’s the very big deal,” Celestina explained. “We are trying the best that we can to help with a lot of the genetic diversity within the population that we have here in the United States. So that’s why it’s important that we do have a joey and that we were successful this year.”

Zoo staff are carefully tracking Ellin’s weight and supplying additional nutrition to support her as she nurses her young one.

The koala family is now enjoying their upgraded living space, which features enhanced vegetation, fresh climbing structures for exercise, and solar lighting systems that bring natural illumination indoors. These improvements recreate elements of Australia’s wilderness environment for the endangered marsupials, who can now move freely between their temperature-controlled indoor space and an enlarged outdoor area.

Zoo CEO and president Margo McKnight highlighted the habitat’s importance in a statement, saying: “This new habitat is a milestone for our koalas. The deliberate design supports the voluntary, cooperative care our zoologists and koalas have developed together.”

The koalas living at American zoos are provided through agreements with Australia’s federal government as part of conservation efforts.

Known for their tranquil temperament and relaxed way of life, koalas prefer climbing and moving between tree branches in their environment. Zoo administrators explain that the habitat improvements are specifically intended to encourage these instinctive behaviors in the animals.

Wildlife researchers in Virginia got a firsthand look at just how many animal species call suburban areas home when they placed a monitoring camera outside their own office building. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources installed the trail camera near their Henrico headquarters, located in Richmond’s suburbs, and the footage revealed an amazing array of creatures sharing space with humans in unexpected places.

The automated camera system allowed scientists to monitor animal activity around the clock without disturbing the natural behavior of local wildlife. Positioned along an animal pathway in a small wooded area next to the facility’s parking lot, the device recorded every creature that passed by during a three-month period from May through July 2025. The camera installation was part of the Virginia Gray Fox Project, a collaborative research effort between the wildlife department and Virginia Tech University aimed at studying gray fox populations, which appear to be declining throughout the state based on field observations.

Though the target gray fox species didn’t appear on camera – these animals typically prefer more heavily wooded areas with less human development – the monitoring equipment captured numerous other wildlife species thriving in the suburban setting. Animals photographed included red foxes, coyotes, opossums, white-tailed deer, gray squirrels, raccoons, cottontail rabbits, and striped skunks. These creatures are commonly found throughout Virginia and have successfully adapted to living in rural, suburban, and even urban environments. Red foxes, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, and opossums are particularly adaptable because they eat a varied diet, allowing them to take advantage of different food sources and thrive in developed areas.

Spotting these and other wildlife species in residential neighborhoods has become increasingly common as human development expands into natural habitats. Residents can often discover a surprising variety of animals living nearby by simply paying attention to their surroundings. Wildlife experts emphasize that simply seeing these animals is not cause for alarm, but observers should always maintain a safe distance and give wildlife plenty of space.

Property owners can take several steps to minimize conflicts with wildlife while helping animals maintain their natural behaviors. The key is eliminating easy food sources that might attract animals to homes and yards. This includes avoiding feeding wildlife directly, securing garbage and compost bins, bringing pet food indoors, and installing proper fencing around gardens and chicken coops. Animals may also seek shelter or denning sites near human structures, which can be prevented by sealing openings under buildings and into structures – but only after confirming no animals are currently using these spaces. The best time for this type of prevention work is during late fall and winter months.

Maintaining wildlife’s natural wariness of humans is crucial for both animal and human safety. If wild animals approach people or pets, experts recommend backing away slowly, securing pets, and using noise and large gestures like yelling and arm waving to frighten the animal away. This type of hazing helps reinforce animals’ instinctive fear of humans and prevents them from becoming too comfortable in human-occupied areas.

Virginia residents experiencing wildlife conflicts can contact the state’s toll-free wildlife conflict helpline at 1-855-571-9003 or visit the department’s website for additional resources and guidance.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have unveiled their most spectacular view yet of the famous Sombrero galaxy, showcasing its brilliant ring of stars in unprecedented detail.

The National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab made public on Friday their latest photograph of this distinctive hat-shaped cosmic formation. While a Chilean telescope captured the observations four years earlier, scientists only finished processing the color imagery this week.

Sitting roughly 30 million light-years from Earth, this spiral formation — officially designated as Messier 104 — ranks among the most massive galaxies within the Virgo constellation cluster. The galaxy spans an estimated 50,000 light-years in diameter. Each light-year represents approximately 6 trillion miles.

The remarkable new image shows the galaxy’s luminous stellar halo extending to roughly three times the width of the central sombrero structure.

Using a specialized dark energy camera, the telescope also detected a trail of stars flowing from the galaxy’s southern boundary. Researchers theorize these streaming stars, along with the surrounding halo, originated from smaller galaxies that were torn apart during ancient cosmic collisions.

The Sombrero galaxy was first identified by astronomers during the 1700s.

LONDON (AP) — As she trains through the streets near Buckingham Palace, Tilly Dowler is pursuing an achievement that once seemed impossible to reach.

Diagnosed with Stargardt disease and retaining only about 10% of her vision, Dowler just started running last year. She began with a basic couch-to-5K program and gradually increased her distance to marathon length. Now she’s getting ready for the London Marathon alongside her boyfriend as her guide, utilizing artificial intelligence-equipped Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses for navigation and performance tracking.

“They are AI assisted,” she said. “While running, I can ask for live cues, such as what landmarks are around me and how far I have run.”

The glasses enable her to blend audio information with direction from her running companion, she explained.

“I can put my music on but still be able to listen to my guide runner,” she said.

Speed isn’t her primary focus.

“My mission was to inspire other people with sight loss and people going through something really tough and inspire them to believe in themselves,” she said.

Dowler joins an increasing number of vision-impaired athletes utilizing AI-enhanced smart glasses. These devices merge typical consumer technology with cameras, microphones and open-ear audio systems. Users can operate them through voice commands, buttons or basic hand movements, while artificial intelligence analyzes the environment and delivers audio information.

Meta, the technology company, produces the most recognized smart glasses through collaborations with Ray-Ban and Oakley. Sales exceeded 7 million pairs of Meta Ray-Bans in the previous year, demonstrating their rising acceptance. However, the devices have raised privacy concerns, including unauthorized recording of individuals and worries about Meta sharing video content with human reviewers for AI development.

For Sha Khan, who lost approximately 90 percent of his sight in 2021 from retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease, this technology has integrated into both everyday activities and athletic training.

“It’s like literally a part of me now,” he said. “If I step out the front door, I wouldn’t do that without my glasses on.”

Khan depends on his guide dog, Moby, for daily navigation outside of running activities.

The hands-free design proves particularly valuable because it lets him concentrate on working with Moby without managing a mobile device, he noted.

Khan started running in 2022 following encouragement from a Guide Dogs UK volunteer, a charity providing guide dogs and mobility assistance for vision-impaired individuals, after his sudden sight loss affected his mental well-being.

During training sessions with guide runners, he operates the glasses through voice controls.

“If they say that’s Big Ben ahead of us I can just say ‘hey Meta take a picture,’” he said.

The hands-free functionality matters significantly to him.

“I don’t need to be worrying about fumbling with a mobile phone,” he said.

Smart glasses employ forward-facing cameras to capture visual data and artificial intelligence to process it, transforming the details into audio through speakers integrated in the frame.

Chris Lewis, a technology expert who experiences visual impairment and has tested smart glasses while skiing, described the system as providing extra situational awareness.

“The AI is taking the images coming in, analyzing it and giving you the information about what’s in front of you, what might be moving and what might be changing,” he said.

This enables users to obtain immediate information while maintaining environmental awareness, which proves crucial for activities like running, he explained.

Lewis noted that marathon events can create additional obstacles, with dense crowds straining cellular networks and potentially reducing signal strength, which may impact the glasses’ ability to provide consistent real-time data.

Guide Dogs UK, which offers various services to promote independent living, recommends using the technology to supplement rather than substitute existing support methods.

“These glasses can really support and enhance somebody’s independence but they’re not there to be relied upon or replace core independent skills,” said Tommy Dean, a technology specialist at the charity.

Guide dogs, mobility instruction and human assistance remain crucial, especially in challenging environments, he emphasized.

Ben Hatton, an analyst at CCS Insight who examines new consumer technologies, identified reliability as a primary obstacle.

“If you’re going to allow visually impaired people to walk down the street or cross busy roads with the technology then it has to be perfectly reliable every single time,” he said.

Factors including precision, connectivity and affordability will influence how broadly this technology becomes available, he added.

Even with these constraints, specialists believe artificial intelligence improvements are allowing mainstream devices to contribute more significantly to accessibility solutions.

“The fact that consumer technology can enhance the experience of someone with a sight problem adds to the potential to be more and more independent,” Lewis said.

Over 59,000 participants are anticipated for Sunday’s London Marathon, according to event organizers, following a 26.2-mile course through the capital city beginning in Greenwich and ending near Buckingham Palace.

A Chinese artificial intelligence company that caused global market turbulence last year has unveiled preview editions of its newest major technology upgrade on Friday, intensifying the competitive battle between China and the United States in the AI sector.

The V4 release from DeepSeek has been eagerly awaited by technology enthusiasts wanting to evaluate its performance against leading American AI systems including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have previously claimed that DeepSeek improperly developed its technology using their innovations.

Technology industry experts had predicted the new model would debut over a month ago during the beginning of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

According to DeepSeek, the newly released V4 open-source models come in both “pro” and “flash” editions, featuring significant enhancements in knowledge processing, logical reasoning, and autonomous task execution capabilities – the ability to handle complex operations and workflows independently.

This V4 system follows the V3 model that DeepSeek introduced in the final months of 2024.

However, it was DeepSeek’s specialized reasoning AI system, known as R1, that surprised financial markets when it launched in January 2025. The company maintained it offered better cost efficiency than OpenAI’s comparable model and became representative of China’s progress in matching American technological innovation.

DeepSeek stated that its “V4 Pro Max” edition demonstrates “superior performance” on standard reasoning evaluations compared to OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 model and Google’s Gemini 3.0-Pro. The company acknowledged it performs “marginally” below GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1-Pro levels.

Regarding autonomous capabilities, the Chinese firm claimed its V4 “pro” edition could surpass Claude’s Sonnet 4.5 and nearly matches Claude’s Opus 4.5 model according to their internal testing.

The “flash” edition of V4 matches the “pro” version’s performance on basic automated tasks and demonstrates reasoning abilities that closely approach it, DeepSeek reported.

“Based on the benchmark results, it does appear DeepSeek V4 is going to be very competitive against its U.S. rivals,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia.

Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, described DeepSeek’s V4 launch as a “pivotal milestone for China’s AI industry”, particularly as worldwide competition grows more intense in the race for technological independence in essential technologies.

DeepSeek provides a free web-based and mobile chatbot service. Unlike leading models from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, it characterizes its technology as “open source” by allowing developers access to modify and expand upon its fundamental technology.

Both V4 editions feature a 1 million token context window, which measures how much data an AI model can process and remember, and operate more efficiently, the company announced. This represents a substantial advancement from previous versions, as the V3 supported only a 128,000 token context window.

A Microsoft report from January revealed that DeepSeek usage has been expanding across numerous developing countries.

Nevertheless, some experts remain doubtful. Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, described V4 as a “competent” successor but noted it doesn’t represent as significant an advancement as the R1 launch.

“Domestic competition has intensified significantly since R1’s release,” Su said. “Against U.S. models, DeepSeek’s own evaluation suggests its capabilities largely match on most fronts, but independent evaluations are needed before final conclusions can be drawn.”

In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek and two additional China-based AI companies of conducting “industrial-scale campaigns” to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models.” The company said they accomplished this through a method called distillation that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.” OpenAI made comparable accusations in correspondence to U.S. lawmakers.

This week, Michael Kratsios, chief science and technology adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, also accused foreign technology companies “principally based in China” of distilling leading U.S. AI systems and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”

China’s embassy in Washington responded to the accusations, calling them “unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.”

Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies announced Friday that its advanced artificial intelligence computing system will provide complete compatibility with a new AI model from startup company Deepseek.

The telecommunications company stated that its Ascend computing platform, which utilizes Ascend 950 artificial intelligence processors, will offer comprehensive support for Deepseek’s V4 model versions. This announcement followed the AI startup’s release of a preview showcasing its latest technological advancement.

The development represents another step in China’s ongoing efforts to advance its domestic artificial intelligence capabilities through partnerships between established technology firms and emerging AI companies.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Back in 1972, when Apollo crew members Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Eugene Cernan touched down on the lunar surface to gather rock and dirt samples, they were making history as the final moon mission of that era.

Even then, Schmitt was thinking ahead to future generations. Speaking through crackling radio transmissions to his fellow astronaut and mission controllers back on Earth, he issued a challenge.

“Well, I tell you Gene, I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let’s see them leave footsteps like these someday,” Schmitt said.

Now 90 years old, Schmitt remains one of just four surviving Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon. As a field geologist, he became the first scientist to explore the lunar surface, and his scientific background proved crucial in understanding the moon’s origins and what those discoveries reveal about our solar system.

The veteran astronaut experienced renewed excitement watching the Artemis II crew launch on their recent historic lunar flyby mission. He remains optimistic about new generations returning to the moon and venturing even further into space.

During a recent Associated Press interview, the former New Mexico U.S. senator discussed topics ranging from establishing a lunar base to harnessing new energy sources and whether humanity is alone in the cosmos. He touched on dark matter and quantum entanglement, emphasizing that countless discoveries await us.

“You’ve just got to remember,” he said, “what used to be called supernatural probably should be called unknown physics.”

Schmitt believes establishing a lunar base makes perfect sense for multiple reasons, with geopolitical considerations being paramount. Having a presence in deep space serves as preparation for eventual Mars missions.

The moon contains resources that would significantly reduce Mars mission costs while providing valuable experience. He emphasizes that each new generation must gain both psychological and practical experience working in deep space. The Artemis II mission was particularly valuable because it gave ground personnel and Mission Control real-world experience rather than just simulations.

Schmitt brought extensive knowledge from previous crews and early sample analyses to his mission in the geologically complex Taurus-Littrow valley. This location extends deeper than the Grand Canyon, offering three-dimensional geological features unavailable on earlier missions. Having a field geologist aboard meant more efficient sample collection that could advance understanding of lunar origins and the moon’s relationship to both Earth and solar history.

The moon serves as a historical record of our solar system’s 4.5-billion-year evolution, providing a vast library of knowledge about solar system development and the sun’s activity over that timespan.

Schmitt’s recent research into the lunar debris layer reveals that increased solar activity coincided with an explosion of ocean life on Earth. The warming oceans likely supported this life expansion, leading to greater quantity and diversity, the emergence of mammals, and life’s migration to newly formed continents approximately half a billion years ago.

Lunar samples include titanium-rich basalt lava, similar to formations found in New Mexico but with higher titanium content. This titanium concentration proves crucial for lunar resources, particularly hydrogen and helium.

An isotope called helium-3 could become extremely important for energy production, quantum computing, and cancer therapy applications on Earth. Since Earth has limited helium-3 supplies, the moon could serve as our primary source for this valuable isotope.

Helium-3 offers the possibility of nuclear energy without nuclear waste, a concept scientists have understood for decades. The moon now presents an opportunity to develop this clean nuclear energy alternative.

Both China and the United States show interest in helium-3, making it a significant technological driver in the current space race and Cold War dynamics primarily involving China.

Working on the moon proved surprisingly comfortable for Schmitt. Despite being in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon with equally high surrounding mountains, the one-sixth gravity made movement much easier than on Earth. Even wearing a pressure suit, walking felt like being a child again, with minimal impact from falls.

The moon provides an easy working environment with proper equipment and life support systems. Schmitt found himself getting somewhat lazy in the low gravity, able to let objects float while performing other tasks. However, this mental adaptation caused problems upon return to Earth, such as dropping a water cup on the aircraft carrier after splashdown. It took about three days to readjust to Earth’s gravity.

Long-term lunar living appears very feasible, though establishing permanent civilization would require addressing radiation concerns through available protective methods. Mars missions present different challenges, likely requiring fusion rockets to reduce travel time.

Given billions of sun-like stars in the universe, Schmitt believes life could statistically have originated elsewhere, though Earth’s life-supporting conditions are truly unique. The precise alignment of factors suggests involvement of an infinitely intelligent creator.

Regarding potential alien visitation, Schmitt remains skeptical. If advanced beings could reach Earth, he believes they would communicate more effectively than current evidence suggests. While he considers it plausible, he finds it unlikely.

Schmitt would eagerly travel to Mars, with one condition: his wife Teresa would accompany him. He believes Mars missions will prove fantastic for future explorers.

Youth education, particularly in mathematics, remains extraordinarily important for space exploration. NASA has become younger since the shuttle era, and the commercial sector has developed new technologies and approaches that NASA is integrating into deep space exploration strategies.

Each late summer, massive white polar bears congregate near Kaktovik, a small Alaska Native community positioned above the Arctic Circle, where they feed on whale remains left by local hunters while awaiting winter’s freeze of ocean waters.

This remarkable wildlife display previously drew over 1,000 visitors annually to Kaktovik, the sole community within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The phenomenon became known as “last chance tourism” – opportunities to witness extraordinary wildlife before climate change potentially eliminates them.

The coronavirus outbreak and federal restrictions on boat excursions effectively shut down Kaktovik’s polar bear tourism due to worries about overwhelming the small community. However, village officials now seek to restart the industry, believing it could generate millions for the local economy while providing residents additional income – if proper protections are established for both community life and the bears.

“We definitely see the benefit for tourism,” said Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp, which owns 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) of land. “The thing is, it can’t be run like it was before.”

Dating to the early 1980s, any Kaktovik resident with watercraft and local knowledge could guide tourists to observe bears roaming the flat, barren barrier islands offshore or feeding on bowhead whale carcasses left by subsistence hunters.

Visitor numbers surged following the 2008 federal designation of polar bears as a threatened species. Arctic warming is destroying sea ice that bears need for seal hunting, with scientists predicting most polar bears could disappear by century’s end.

Rising tourism prompted federal permit and insurance requirements that began excluding local operators, Lampe explained. Outside companies took over, eventually bringing tourist crowds to Kaktovik – population roughly 250 – during the six-week viewing period.

The community’s two hotels and restaurants lost revenue when major operators started flying visitors from Fairbanks or Anchorage for single-day visits. Residents complained about tourists staring at them or walking through private property.

Limited aircraft capacity created problems, with locals sometimes competing with tourists for flights to larger cities for medical care, forcing those unable to board into costly overnight hotel stays.

Kaktovik suspended tourism during the pandemic. In 2021, federal authorities stopped boat tours entirely, primarily due to concerns about tourist impacts on bear behavior and community disruption.

Alaska Native leadership is currently negotiating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address these issues and restart the industry, possibly by 2027. The agency stated to The Associated Press that it’s collaborating with Kaktovik “to ensure that any future opportunities are managed in a way that prioritizes visitor safety, resource protection, and community input.”

Proposed changes include limiting how long boats can remain near bears. Extended exposure makes bears comfortable around humans, Lampe noted, creating dangerous situations when bears enter the village seeking food.

At tourism’s peak, removing bears from town became more difficult despite the bear patrol using non-lethal ammunition. The patrol killed approximately three to four bears yearly, compared to maybe one annually before the tourism increase, Lampe said.

“Our safety was at risk,” Lampe said.

In 2023, a polar bear killed a 24-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son in Wales, western Alaska. This marked Alaska’s first fatal polar bear attack in nearly three decades in the only U.S. state where the species lives.

Since halting Kaktovik boat tours, bears appear more wary of humans again, Lampe observed.

Bear tourism overlaps with Kaktovik’s subsistence whaling season. When crews land whales, butchering typically occurs on nearby beaches. While the community welcomes visitor observation or participation, some recorded or photographed without permission, which is disrespectful, Lampe said.

Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association, recommended Kaktovik develop two- or three-day experiences.

Native communities prepared for tourists “want them to come and be educated and walk away with a greater understanding of our people and our way of life and our culture,” she said.

Roger and Sonia MacKertich of Australia sought the world’s best polar bear viewing location when they visited Kaktovik in September 2019. They stayed several days, took an elder-guided walking tour, and purchased local artwork including a polar bear hoodie.

For Roger MacKertich, a Sydney-based professional wildlife photographer, boat tours watching bears on barrier islands or swimming were the experience highlight. The bears ignored their presence.

“That’s nearly as good as it gets,” he said.

BEIJING – A Chinese artificial intelligence company made headlines Friday with the announcement of its newest AI technology upgrade.

DeepSeek, the Beijing-based startup, revealed through its WeChat social media platform that it has begun testing its latest V4 artificial intelligence system. The updated technology will offer both professional and flash editions, according to company officials.

This latest release marks the next step forward from the company’s V3 system, which launched in December 2024. The AI startup gained significant attention last year when its previous model went viral across social media platforms.

Cisco Systems unveiled a groundbreaking switching chip Thursday that the company says will enable different types of quantum computers to communicate with each other, marking another milestone in building what could become a quantum version of the internet.

While major technology companies like Google and IBM are racing to build their own quantum computers, Cisco has taken a different approach by focusing on connecting quantum machines from various manufacturers rather than creating its own hardware.

Current quantum computers use vastly different technologies – some operate by targeting rubidium atoms suspended in vacuum chambers with laser beams, while others rely on superconductors chilled to temperatures near absolute zero.

Vijoy Pandey, who serves as senior vice president and general manager of Outshift, Cisco’s emerging technologies division, explained that quantum researchers expect each of these different methods may prove valuable for specific applications. Cisco’s new switch operates at normal room temperature using standard fiber-optic telecommunications cables to bridge the communication gap between these diverse systems.

“You can speak any language,” Pandey said.

Although extensive networks of quantum computers likely won’t emerge until the 2030s, Cisco’s switching technology could provide immediate benefits for cybersecurity, according to Jeetu Patel, the company’s president and chief product officer.

Quantum mechanics operates on the principle that information can exist in multiple states simultaneously until observed – similar to the famous thought experiment where Schrödinger’s cat remains both alive and dead until someone opens the box to check.

Cisco’s switch can link multiple quantum sensors that are currently available into a networked “entangled state.” When hackers or malicious artificial intelligence systems attempt to spy on the network, the quantum sensors would immediately detect the intrusion because the entanglement would break down when the information gets intercepted.

“If you can start detecting behaviors of what is happening on the network through a quantum switch, it changes your defense posture almost entirely,” Patel said.

The island nation of Singapore is evolving into a technological safe haven as artificial intelligence companies seek refuge from the escalating tech battle between the United States and China.

Rather than serving as a bridge between East and West, Singapore has become a strategic location where businesses can distance themselves from both superpowers’ increasing control over technology exports and talent movement. The city-state’s business-friendly environment and English-speaking workforce make it an attractive alternative.

Kerry Goh, who leads Kamet Capital, explained that establishing operations in Singapore “gives a lot of comfort” to global customers because intellectual property remains on the island, free from regulatory interference by either China or the United States.

Goh recently counseled two former Alibaba executives who wanted funding to launch their AI video company Topview in Singapore, anticipating that international clients would be hesitant about Chinese government supervision.

“Your clients are not Chinese. This product is not available in China,” Goh noted about Topview, explaining that a Singapore base improves prospects for American sales. The company has secured more than $8 million from Kamet since 2024.

The tech rivalry between the superpowers intensified during Donald Trump’s presidency, with security concerns driving reciprocal restrictions that have accelerated with artificial intelligence development. Trump’s changes to H-1B visa requirements for skilled workers have particularly disrupted companies that regularly transfer employees to or from the United States.

These developments have strengthened Singapore’s goal of becoming the world’s most AI-driven economy through programs including specialized visas for AI professionals and tax incentives for intellectual property registration.

According to an Economic Development Board representative, these “ecosystem enablers” have drawn investment from companies of varying sizes and locations.

“Singapore is increasingly becoming a neutral hub for AI companies from both the U.S. and China,” observed Brad Gastwirth, who heads global research at Circular Technology.

Companies with Chinese or American connections now operating in Singapore include automation platform Workato, wealth management developer Addepar, and note-taking device creator Plaud AI. Legal platform Harvey AI established operations there in June.

American AI developer Anthropic, which raised $30 billion in funding led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, intends to open a Singapore office, according to three sources familiar with the plans. This would put the company alongside major players OpenAI, Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, and Google’s DeepMind. Anthropic representatives declined to provide comment.

However, Singapore’s appeal as a neutral zone could potentially trigger restrictions from the competing superpowers. The United States has already banned Nvidia from selling advanced AI chips to China and blocked access to semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

China reportedly imposed travel restrictions on founders of AI startup Manus after the company relocated from China to Singapore last year before being acquired by Meta. Similarly, China allegedly prevented MiroMind from sending employees overseas after the startup left China and established offices in Singapore, Japan, and the United States.

When contacted by reporters, MiroMind’s parent company Shanda only stated that it develops AI projects internationally. Shanda CEO Chen Tianqiao wrote on LinkedIn that global expansion proves challenging for AI companies when “regulation, geopolitics, and public scrutiny are changing faster than most companies can adapt.”

Neither China’s Ministry of Commerce nor the U.S. Department of Commerce responded to requests for comment.

National University of Singapore political scientist Chong Ja Ian warned that “given increasing demands from the U.S. and Chinese governments to keep their tech stacks separate, there is a risk that Singapore is seen as a grey space for technology transfers – including people moving to new firms – that one or both major governments disallow to take place.”

“That could result in restrictions being placed on Singapore,” Chong added.

Tan Yinglan, founding managing partner of Insignia Ventures Partners, noted that Chinese founders can only successfully establish Singapore operations if they surrender their Chinese citizenship, avoid employing engineers in China, and ensure their company’s revenue, data, and headquarters remain outside China.

The challenges facing technology companies operating between the two superpowers are extensive. China’s requirement that companies provide data upon government request concerns foreign partners, while unpredictable U.S. policies keep investors anxious.

“The (U.S. visa) process has become more unpredictable with longer processing times, stricter screening, and higher fees, which makes planning harder for startups and mid-sized AI companies that rely heavily on global talent,” Gastwirth explained.

Singapore’s entry process is “very friendly” with work permits sometimes approved within three days, according to Huang Lin, who founded corporate services provider Link-da. His company has assisted approximately 50 Chinese AI-related businesses in establishing Singapore operations since 2024.

Indonesian AI engineer Vincent Tatan described Singapore as “very welcoming” when he relocated there from the United States, where his employer had initiated but then canceled his permanent residency application.

“I can fight for it, but is it worth the fight and the wait?” Tatan questioned.

Pakistan made history Wednesday when its space agency revealed a major breakthrough in the nation’s human spaceflight ambitions.

SUPARCO, Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, disclosed that two prospective astronauts, Khurram Daud and Muhammad Zeeshan Ali, will travel to China to undergo intensive astronaut preparation at China’s Astronaut Center.

The announcement follows a groundbreaking space cooperation pact established in February 2025 between SUPARCO and China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Following rigorous selection processes in Pakistan that included extensive medical evaluations, psychological testing, and skills assessments, these two individuals emerged as finalists meeting global human spaceflight criteria.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting described this achievement as a major milestone in the country’s space exploration efforts, establishing Pakistan within an exclusive circle of nations pursuing human space missions.

Through this partnership, Pakistan is working toward its inaugural voyage to China’s Space Station (CSS).

The historic mission is scheduled for late 2026, featuring a Pakistani astronaut functioning as a payload specialist.

While stationed on the CSS, Pakistan’s representative will perform multiple scientific studies in zero-gravity conditions.

The research will cover vital fields such as materials science, fluid physics, life sciences, and biotechnology, offering potential breakthroughs for environmental adaptation, agricultural security, and manufacturing advancement.

This achievement demonstrates the strengthening Pakistan-China alliance in space ventures and showcases SUPARCO’s advancement toward self-sufficient human spaceflight operations. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials have praised this development as evidence of bilateral cooperation and a foundation for future deep-space missions.

This accomplishment positions Pakistan within an elite group of countries participating in human spaceflight and is anticipated to advance research in climate studies, agricultural security, and industrial development.

The Pakistan-China space technology alliance has grown into an enduring strategic relationship founded on substantial achievements and shared expertise.

China has assisted Pakistan’s satellite programs through initiatives including PakSat-1R and the newer PakSat-MM1, while jointly developing remote sensing and communications systems.

The February 2025 astronaut partnership agreement between SUPARCO and CMSA initiated a fresh chapter, expanding cooperation into human space exploration.

Through this arrangement, Pakistan is preparing to deploy its first astronaut to China’s orbital station by 2026, combined with collaborative microgravity research.

This continuing partnership encompasses technology sharing and skills development, while emphasizing China’s position as Pakistan’s primary ally in advancing its space initiatives and supporting the development of independent satellite systems and human space exploration capabilities.

RHODE ISLAND COAST (TV Delmarva) — Towering wind turbines reaching three times the height of the Statue of Liberty were actively generating clean energy off Rhode Island’s shoreline Thursday, delivering power to the regional electrical grid.

Multiple wind energy developments continue advancing along the Atlantic seaboard despite President Donald Trump’s campaign to eliminate America’s offshore wind sector. Trump frequently expresses his disdain for wind energy and describes the turbines as unsightly.

Associated Press reporters journeyed approximately 100 miles offshore and observed three out of five regional wind installations. Two facilities are operating at full capacity, two are nearing completion, and one remains roughly half-finished.

Initial turbines from the Revolution Wind development were easily spotted from about 5 nautical miles away, with visibility extending further on clear days. The massive structures formed orderly rows across the horizon, with several rotating in gentle breezes.

The turbines’ immense scale became apparent from even a mile’s distance.

Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind represent offshore energy developments designed to supply electricity to approximately 1 million residences throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.

The journey to Revolution Wind’s location required roughly 90 minutes, traveling more than 15 miles south of Rhode Island’s shoreline.

Several turbine blades began rotating as morning winds strengthened. Personnel were working within the wind farm’s central hub, a substantial gray substation facility.

Revolution Wind has reached over 90% completion. The project recently started supplying electricity to New England’s power network and remains scheduled for completion this year.

At the adjacent Sunrise Wind site, construction has achieved nearly 50% completion. The area features a combination of installed turbines and vacant yellow foundations awaiting their towers and blades. A vessel equipped with massive cranes for installing offshore wind components was positioned nearby.

One spinning turbine’s tip seemed to reach the cloud line.

South Fork Wind, America’s inaugural large-scale offshore wind facility, sits adjacent to the Revolution Wind location.

Currently in its second year of commercial operation, its dozen turbines generate sufficient electricity for more than 70,000 New York homes.

A vessel serving as a mobile headquarters for wind farm technicians was positioned beside one turbine Thursday. The workers had crossed the ship’s gangway onto the turbine and were stationed at its foundation.

When South Fork launched in 2024, Biden administration representatives described it as merely the start — significant new wind installations would appear along American coastlines to address climate change, generate employment and speed the country’s clean energy transition.

Under a year later, Trump resumed the presidency and directed a temporary suspension of leasing and permitting for wind energy developments. His administration has halted work on wind farms currently under construction, negotiated a $1 billion payment to a French energy corporation to abandon U.S. offshore wind development and implemented additional review requirements for wind and solar projects. Federal courts have overturned several of his directives blocking wind energy advancement, including a Tuesday decision preventing the administration from enforcing some policies that slow clean energy development.

While wind energy faces restrictions, American electricity demand is surging dramatically with few alternatives available in space-limited coastal states for major new energy projects in coming years, which increases utility costs, according to Hillary Bright, executive director of offshore wind advocacy organization Turn Forward.

“These energy policies are really hitting people at home, in their pocketbooks,” she said. “Offshore wind ultimately can be a part of that solution.”

The nearest installation to shore is the Block Island Wind Farm, located in state waters near Block Island, Rhode Island.

These five turbines started operating in 2016, establishing this as America’s first offshore wind facility. Its turbines are shorter than those at later projects, but still appear massive at close range. They substituted for polluting diesel generators that previously powered Block Island.

Vineyard Wind completed construction in March, becoming the first wind farm to reach this milestone during Trump’s current presidency.

The facility is anticipated to achieve full operation in upcoming months, powering over 400,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses.

Two additional major U.S. offshore wind farms remain under construction: Empire Wind, a New York offshore wind development, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, a Virginia offshore wind project.

“This is a major commercial industry in the United States of America,” Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in an interview. “Whether the president is enthusiastic about it or not, we have massive energy projects that are either bringing power to the grid or near completion.”

Scientists have uncovered evidence that colossal octopuses stretching more than 60 feet in length dominated ancient oceans during the dinosaur era 100 million years ago.

Research published Thursday in the journal Science examined fossilized jaw remains, showing these enormous sea creatures with eight arms competed alongside other apex marine predators of their time.

University of Alabama paleontologist Adiel Klompmaker, who was not part of the research team, described the discovery in an email, stating “These krakens must have been a fearsome sight to behold.”

While most people associate late Cretaceous ocean dominance with razor-toothed sharks and large marine reptiles like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, these giant octopuses have been overlooked in discussions of prehistoric sea life.

The challenge in studying ancient octopuses stems from their soft tissue composition, which rarely fossilizes well, making size estimates difficult. Additionally, many scientists have underestimated soft-bodied invertebrates as serious contenders among top predators, despite octopuses possessing powerful beaks made of hardened chitin capable of crushing shells and bones.

Researchers examined jaw fossils from 15 ancient octopus specimens previously discovered in Japan and Vancouver Island, Canada. Using an innovative method called digital fossil mining, they identified 12 additional jaw specimens from Japan by scanning rock cross-sections to locate hidden fossils.

By comparing these ancient jaws to modern octopus specimens, scientists calculated that these prehistoric creatures measured between 23 and 62 feet in total length. Co-author and Hokkaido University paleontologist Yasuhiro Iba noted in an email that the largest jaw significantly exceeded the size of any contemporary octopus.

The research team observed extensive damage on the largest specimens’ jaws, including scratches, chips, and worn edges. According to Iba, this wear pattern indicates “the animals repeatedly crushed hard prey such as shells and bones.”

Without preserved stomach contents, researchers cannot definitively determine these creatures’ exact diet or confirm direct competition with other apex predators. They likely fed on fish and snails, capturing prey with their flexible tentacles before crushing it with their powerful beaks.

American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Neil Landman, who was not involved in the study, suggested that discovering octopus fossils in additional locations could provide better insight into their role in ancient marine ecosystems.

“It’s a big old planet,” Landman explained. “So we have lots to look at to piece together the marine ecosystem through time.”

MACAPA, Brazil — Highway construction crews building roads through Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have stumbled upon remarkable archaeological treasures that shed new light on the region’s Indigenous history thousands of years before European contact.

Workers expanding the BR-156 highway in Brazil’s Amapa state have uncovered nine archaeological sites containing pottery vessels believed to be burial urns and small carved objects resembling human faces. The mandatory archaeological surveys required before road construction have revealed evidence of complex Indigenous societies that thrived long before Columbus reached the Americas.

“What we now about the region’s past is also tied to the opening created by these projects, which gives our relationship with them a somewhat ambivalent character,” explained Lúcio Flávio Costa Leite, director of the Archaeological Research Center at Amapa’s Institute for Scientific and Technological Research. “At the same time, the knowledge we gain about these sites leads us to pay closer attention to these regions, including by adopting permanent protection measures.”

The excavated pottery displays various styles and crafting methods that demonstrate cultural connections stretching from Brazil’s Para state all the way to Caribbean communities, challenging earlier assumptions that the Amazon was sparsely populated before European arrival.

Archaeological team member Manoel Fabiano da Silva Santos, working with Brazil’s National Department of Transport Infrastructure, described the soil layers as a chronological record of human occupation.

Santos discovered Portuguese ceramics and metal fasteners in the surface layers, evidence of European settlement. “Digging deeper, we uncovered pottery and ceramics associated with earlier Indigenous presence, marking the site’s transition before and after the arrival of colonizers,” Santos explained.

The recovered artifacts will join Amapa’s state archaeological collection, which Costa Leite oversees and contains approximately 530,000 items. The collection’s most ancient piece dates to roughly 6,140 years ago, demonstrating continuous human habitation throughout Amapa’s history.

These discoveries provide valuable information about how early Indigenous groups lived, conducted burials, and interacted with their rainforest environment.

“Here is something I often debate with my students — we usually think of technology as computers and microchips,” Costa Leite noted while examining shelves of ancient ceramics. “But all of this required careful reading of the landscape and deliberate choices of materials.”

Among Amapa’s most remarkable archaeological sites is located in Calcoene, featuring a thousand-year-old stone circle comprising 127 carved standing stones arranged in a 30-meter diameter formation. The monument sits in grassland surrounded by rainforest near a meandering river.

This Archaeological Park of the Solstice has earned the nickname “Stonehenge of the Amazon” due to similarities with the famous British landmark. Research led by archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral from the Federal University of Minas Gerais revealed that the stones were deliberately positioned to mark the sunrise during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice.

“It’s hard to say exactly what all the stones mean, but what we do know is that they are not from the site itself. They were brought from other nearby locations,” Cabral noted.

Further investigation revealed the site also functioned as a cemetery, with radiocarbon analysis showing continuous use for hundreds of years starting approximately 1,100 years ago.

Scientists discovered the site in 2005, and visitors can tour it with advance permission from Amapa’s Institute for Scientific and Technological Research. Plans are underway to designate it as a national park, which would increase public access.

Brazilian law protects all archaeological locations from alteration, providing additional safeguards for the surrounding rainforest ecosystem.

Current archaeological and ecological research demonstrates that Indigenous peoples not only inhabited the Amazon for millennia but actively managed its landscape through sustainable long-term practices, according to Eduardo Neves, an archaeology professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

Neves has spent over three decades studying Amazon archaeology and currently directs the Amazon Revealed project, which began in 2023 and uses satellite technology to locate archaeological sites hidden beneath the forest canopy.

Satellite imagery has revealed roadway systems connecting archaeological locations and buried landscape patterns indicating repeated settlement and intentional environmental modification. These features suggest the existence of large population centers, Neves explained.

While archaeologists had theorized about such connections, modern technology has revealed their extensive geographic scope. The scans show road networks linking settlement clusters throughout the forest, particularly visible in southern Amazonas state and Acre.

“When people think of an Indigenous tribe, they often imagine a small village isolated in the middle of the forest. But evidence shows a high degree of interconnectivity linking different settlements,” Neves said.

“Amapa is a key piece that helps us see how dynamic and active these populations were, and how they maintained networks of exchange that have been in place for millennia,” Cabral added.

Astronomers have determined that an interstellar comet which passed through our solar system in 2023 likely came from an extremely frigid and remote area of the Milky Way galaxy that never developed into its own star system, according to research published Thursday.

The cosmic wanderer, designated Comet 3I/Atlas, represents just the third confirmed visitor from beyond our solar system and may be the most ancient object ever studied. Researchers believe it could date back as far as 11 billion years, making it more than double the age of our sun.

Using the ALMA telescope facility located in Chile’s Atacama Desert, a research group from the University of Michigan analyzed the comet during the autumn months. The harmless ice ball was first identified last summer, providing NASA and European Space Agency scientists ample opportunity to study it with various space-based instruments as it traveled past Mars in October and reached its nearest point to Earth in December. The comet has now moved beyond Jupiter and is departing our solar system permanently, remaining visible only through professional equipment.

Researchers discovered unusually elevated levels of deuterium, a form of heavy hydrogen, within the comet’s water composition. This finding indicates the object formed in an environment far colder than our local cosmic region, existing before our solar system’s star had even come into being, explained University of Michigan’s Teresa Paneque-Carreno.

Unlike our sun, which likely developed alongside other newly formed stars, this comet’s original stellar environment may have been more isolated, resulting in reduced heating and much colder temperatures, she added.

The research findings appeared in Nature Astronomy journal.

Scientists remain uncertain about the comet’s exact birthplace. Hubble Space Telescope observations indicate its core measures between a quarter-mile and 3.5 miles across. The object is traveling away from us at approximately 137,000 miles per hour.

Connecting these various “puzzle pieces together may give an idea to how the planet-forming conditions were at these early times,” Paneque-Carreno said in an email.

The initial confirmed interstellar object to enter our cosmic vicinity was Oumuamua, identified by a Hawaiian telescope in 2017. Comet 2I/Borisov was discovered in 2019 and bears the name of the Crimean amateur astronomer who first observed it.

SYDNEY – The Australian government has announced it is collaborating with artificial intelligence company Anthropic and other software firms following concerns about cybersecurity weaknesses, according to a representative for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke who spoke Thursday.

The partnership comes after Anthropic launched its Mythos artificial intelligence system, which was created to help with defensive cybersecurity operations. However, the powerful AI tool has raised alarm bells in multiple nations due to its extensive abilities to identify security weaknesses in computer systems.

According to Anthropic, early testing of the Mythos model revealed what the company described as “thousands” of significant security flaws found across “every major operating system and web browser.” This discovery has heightened worries about existing vulnerabilities in commonly used software and technology platforms.

Nearly four decades after the catastrophic Chernobyl accident sparked worldwide anxiety about atomic energy and hindered its expansion across Europe and beyond, nuclear power is experiencing a remarkable global resurgence. This renewed interest has gained significant momentum due to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Currently, more than 400 atomic reactors operate across 31 nations, with approximately 70 additional units under development. These facilities generate roughly 10% of global electricity production, representing about one-fourth of all low-carbon energy sources worldwide.

Modern atomic facilities have undergone continuous enhancements, incorporating additional safety mechanisms while reducing construction and operational costs.

Although both the Chernobyl catastrophe and Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident reduced enthusiasm for atomic energy, a comeback was anticipated years ago, according to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

Given the Middle East conflict, “I am 100% sure nuclear is coming back,” he stated.

“It’s seen as a secure electricity generation system, and we will see that the comeback of nuclear will be very strong, both in (the) Americas, in Europe and in Asia,” Birol told The Associated Press.

America leads global nuclear electricity production with 94 functioning reactors that generate approximately 30% of worldwide atomic power. The nation is expanding efforts to boost nuclear capacity with ambitions to increase it fourfold by 2050.

“The world cannot power its industries, meet the demands of artificial intelligence, or secure its energy future without nuclear power,” U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas DiNanno said last month.

China currently runs 61 atomic reactors and dominates new construction globally, with nearly 40 facilities being built as the country aims to overtake America as the world’s top nuclear producer.

European Commission leader Ursula von der Leyen has admitted that reducing nuclear energy was Europe’s “strategic mistake” and has presented new programs to promote power plant construction.

Meanwhile, Russia has established a commanding position in exporting nuclear expertise, constructing 20 reactors internationally.

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl’s fourth reactor exploded while Ukraine remained part of the Soviet Union. The incident contaminated surrounding regions and released radiation throughout Europe.

Ukraine continues to depend significantly on atomic plants for approximately half its electrical supply. These facilities have served a crucial function since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Moscow’s military has seized Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and Kyiv has accused Russia of launching a drone strike against the protective structure surrounding the damaged Chernobyl reactor.

Japan has reactivated 15 reactors following a comprehensive review of lessons learned from the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Fukushima, with 10 additional units awaiting restart approval.

South Africa maintains the African continent’s sole nuclear facility, though Russia is constructing one in Egypt, and several other African countries are investigating the technology.

“The momentum we are seeing today is the result of a growing recognition that reliable, low-carbon electricity will be essential to meet the world’s rising energy demand,” said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Europe attempted to reduce its dependence on Russian energy following the Ukraine war, but the Middle East conflict highlighted its reliance on fossil fuels.

The European Commission has changed its view of atomic energy, now considering it part of clean power alongside wind and solar to achieve environmental objectives.

In 1990, nuclear energy provided roughly one-third of Europe’s electricity; currently it supplies only about 15%, and von der Leyen has recognized that depending on imported fossil fuels creates a disadvantage.

“I believe that it was a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a reliable, affordable source of low-emissions power,” she said recently. “In the last years, we see a global revival of nuclear energy. And Europe wants to be part of it.”

The EU is exploring Small Modular Reactors, anticipated to begin operations in the early 2030s. These units are considered more economical and quicker to construct, offering greater flexibility than conventional reactors.

France and several other EU nations, including Sweden and Finland, have championed atomic power. Conversely, Germany, Austria and Italy are among EU countries that have prohibited its use.

In a significant policy change last year, Belgium overturned legislation requiring reactor closures and extended their operational periods. Spain continues planning to eliminate its nuclear capacity and shut down seven functioning reactors between 2027 and 2035.

Operating 57 reactors across 19 facilities, France depends on atomic power for nearly 70% of its electricity.

Multiple French administrations have supported nuclear energy as fundamental to the nation’s energy independence, remaining undaunted by Chernobyl. In 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for six new pressurized water reactors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the shift to low-carbon energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with gas supply shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict, “revealed the limits of deploying renewable electricity and Europe’s dependence on gas,” said Nicolas Goldberg, a partner at Paris-based Colombus Consulting.

“France has therefore been reinforced in its strategy of maintaining its existing nuclear plants, which means extending their lifespan as much as possible,” he said.

Years of anti-nuclear demonstrations in Germany, intensified by previous accidents, pressured successive administrations to abandon technology that opponents viewed as dangerous and unsustainable. Germany deactivated its final three atomic reactors in 2023, completing plans developed by various governments over twenty years.

A substantial nuclear comeback in Europe’s largest economy remains unlikely, despite recent discussions among some in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right coalition about openness to potential future small modular reactors.

“The decision is irreversible — I regret it, but that’s how it is,” Merz said, noting the plant operators’ “consistent answer was: ‘We are too far along with demolition.’”

Russia has aggressively expanded atomic power capacity both domestically and internationally.

The country operates 34 reactors, including eight Chernobyl-type RBMK reactors, known as light water graphite reactors, which produce about one-quarter of all nuclear generation. These have undergone extensive upgrades, adding safety features to address the inherent design flaw that, combined with human error, caused the Chernobyl disaster.

Major construction projects include new units at Kursk, Leningrad and Smolensk locations, a planned Far East facility, and potential floating nuclear units.

Russia is also constructing 20 reactors across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, having signed agreements to begin construction in several additional countries.

Russia has completed the first atomic reactor for neighboring ally Belarus, which experienced contamination across one-third of its territory from Chernobyl.

“Belarusian authorities are using the changed context and the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ to claim that we are acting like everyone else in the world, rather than solving the problems of Belarusians in the contaminated territories,” said Irina Sukhiy, founder of the Belarus ecological group Green Network.

Remote workers who frequently set up shop in coffee houses, shared workspaces, airport terminals, or hotel lobbies face unique security challenges that require careful attention.

The rise of telecommuting, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic and enabled by widespread broadband access, has created new workplace flexibility. Many employees now work outside traditional offices either because their companies lack local facilities or their home environments aren’t conducive to productivity.

However, conducting business in public venues introduces significant privacy and security concerns that demand protective measures.

Companies increasingly recognize these risks, with many organizations establishing specific protocols for off-site work environments. Some businesses provide comprehensive privacy training and detailed guidelines for employees who work in public settings.

Certain employers actively discourage working from busy establishments like coffee shops due to data protection concerns. British government guidelines for employees handling sensitive materials state clearly: “These environments can present additional risks, including being more freely accessible to people without the appropriate clearance and need-to-know.”

International travel policies may also restrict which countries employees can work from, adding another layer of workplace security considerations.

While most people in busy cafes and shared spaces focus on their own activities, workers should still take precautions against unwanted observation.

Choosing seating arrangements strategically can prevent accidental screen viewing by others. Positioning yourself with a wall behind you makes “shoulder surfing” much more difficult for potential snoopers.

Privacy screen filters offer additional protection by using microscopic slats that block viewing from side angles, making your display visible only when viewed directly.

Public internet connections, despite their convenience, present serious security vulnerabilities that cybersecurity professionals strongly advise against using.

The National Security Agency specifically warns against networks that don’t require passwords, as information transmitted through these connections remains vulnerable to interception and tampering.

Password-protected networks don’t guarantee data encryption, according to NSA cybersecurity recommendations.

The agency identifies multiple threats associated with public wireless networks, including fraudulent access points designed to deceive users.

“A malicious actor can set up a fake access point, also known as an evil twin, to mimic the nearby expected public Wi-Fi, resulting in that actor having access to all data sent over the network,” the NSA explains.

Mobile hotspots provide superior security by utilizing cellular signals to establish personal wireless networks. Both iPhone and Android devices typically include this capability.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) add another security layer by encrypting data transmission and directing it through protected channels to secure servers, preventing unauthorized access. Many companies supply VPN access to employees, though individuals can obtain personal subscriptions.

Additional practical safety measures apply when working in public environments.

Maintaining awareness of your surroundings helps protect against theft, as visible laptops can attract criminals. Never leave devices unattended, even for brief bathroom breaks.

Private conversations should be avoided in public settings. Speaking loudly during video conferences in crowded locations to overcome background noise increases the risk of sensitive information being overheard.

“In public areas be aware of whether you can be overheard by any unauthorized individuals, such as members of the public, or smart listening devices,” British government guidance cautions.

A Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer has announced ambitious plans to begin mass production of aerial vehicles by next year, marking a significant step forward in the development of personal flying transportation.

During a Thursday interview, Xpeng president Brian Gu revealed that the company anticipates launching volume production and widespread delivery of their flying car technology in 2027. The announcement represents a major milestone for the electric vehicle industry as it expands beyond traditional ground-based transportation.

In addition to the flying car initiative, Gu disclosed that Xpeng will begin manufacturing robots on a large scale during the final quarter of this year. The company has outlined strategies to substantially grow this robotics division through partnerships with outside companies beginning next year.

The developments highlight China’s continued push into advanced transportation technologies and autonomous systems, as the nation seeks to establish itself as a leader in next-generation mobility solutions.

WASHINGTON D.C. — A baby Asian elephant is capturing hearts in the nation’s capital after stepping into public view for the first time Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. The female calf, named Linh Mai, represents a milestone as the first elephant born at the facility in 25 years.

Linh Mai arrived on February 2nd, born to mother Nhi Linh following an almost two-year gestation period.

According to Robbie Clark, who manages the zoo’s elephant program, the young pachyderm has quite the personality. “Linh Mai is a hoot, she’s a fantastic little elephant to get to know,” Clark explained.

Clark went on to describe the calf’s developing character traits. “She’s very curious,” Clark added. “She’s learning how to be quite playful with the enrichment and the environment that she’s living in, and she’s confident.”

The zoo houses its Asian elephant population in a spacious habitat known as Elephant Trails, featuring outdoor pathways and water features. Those unable to make the trip to Washington can observe Linh Mai through the zoo’s online elephant camera.