Beatrice could power the future of energy

Supernova’s messy birth casts doubt on reliability of astronomical yardstick

The exploding stars known as type Ia supernovae are so consistently bright that astronomers refer to them as standard candles — beacons that are used to measure vast cosmological distances. But these cosmic mileposts may not be so uniform. A new study finds evidence that the supernovae can arise by two different processes, adding to lingering suspicions that standard candles aren't so standard after all.

1,800 firefighters battle wildfires in central Portugal

In recent years, the country has witnessed some of its deadliest fires on record, with 106 people killed in 2017. 

Concerns have been raised across all levels of society as it emerged that January was one of the worst months on record for domestic violence murders in Portugal.

How it is possible?!

Videos of children showing their exposed buttocks, underwear and genitals are racking up millions of views on YouTube – with the site displaying advertising from major cosmetics and car brands alongside the content.

Einstein’s general theory of relativity tested by star orbiting a black hole

Underwater surface of glacier is melting up to 100 times faster than previously thought

The submarine surface of Alaska’s LeConte glacier could be melting around 100 times faster than previously thought, direct observations have revealed.

Kepler clue to supernova puzzle

BBC Says We Only Have 18 Months To Save The Planet From Climate Change

Humanity has only 18 months left to take decisive political steps to avert the catastrophic effects of climate change, according to a report Wednesday by the BBC.

The Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Little Ice Age are some of the better known excursions from global mean temperatures that have occurred in the last two millennia. 

This paper reviews a series of climate change adaptation and mitigation options that can support increased production, production efficiency and greater food security for 9 billion people by 2050

The 17 Most Bizarre and Completely Outlandish Art Restoration Fails of All Time

Archaeologists Believe They Have Identified the Unlikely Secret Ingredient Used to Build Stonehenge

The modern world had long marveled over the ancient site of Stonehenge, unable to figure out how prehistoric people erected the ring of monolithic standing stones. Now, archaeologists have finally solved the mystery of the Neolithic monument’s construction: the massive slabs may have been moved into place with the aid of lard.

Counting the Panama Papers money: how we reached $1.28 billion

More than $1.28 billion has been clawed back by governments around the world after the Panama Papers investigation in 2016.

Hong Kong outcry after masked thugs launch attack

Video footage showed dozens of men, most in masks, storming a mass transit station in Yuen Long, chasing passengers and beating them with rods. Among those hurt in the attack were demonstrators returning from a large anti-government rally, as well as a pregnant woman and a woman holding an infant, according to witnesses.

At the center of the public's fury is a proposed law that would allow China to extradite people from Hong Kong to the mainland. The bill has come to symbolize growing fear that the region, long-viewed as a separate entity from mainland China, is losing its autonomy under Beijing’s encroaching authoritarianism. They have reason to be concerned.

Marisa Merz, Key Arte Povera Figure and Relentlessly Inventive Sculptor, Is Dead at 93

Building assemblages from materials like unfired clay, tin, lead, and stone, or carefully stitching together wire, fabric, and thread, Merz made rough-hewn art that can look at once tough and precarious, vital and vulnerable. Her sculptures are as multivalent and complicated as people, as life.

Karina Canellakis makes Proms history with stirring First Night

The US musician led the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and BBC Singers in a stirring and dramatic programme culminating in Leos Janáček's utterly unique Glagolitic Mass.

Shooting for the Moon

Fifty years ago, on 20 July 1969, the first humans landed on the surface of another world, when the Apollo 11 lunar module touched down on the Moon. A few hours later, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first steps onto an alien surface while Michael Collins orbited overhead in the command module.

Two businessmen have become millionaires through a Lithuanian lottery — without buying a single ticket

Antanas Muraska and Donatas Kazlauskas, the two directors of the Olifeja lottery, have diverted millions of euros into their own pockets, according to an investigation by OCCRP‘s Lithuanian member center, 15min.lt.

"Buddhist", "teacher", predator: dark secrets of the Triratna guru

Lingwood encouraged heterosexual followers to experiment with homosexuality as a means of expanding their minds; he was deeply critical of the nuclear family and of mixed-sex communities in general; he encouraged young men to break away from their families.

...

One Triratna retreat, in Norfolk, where Lingwood was resident for much of the 80s, was described by the member as “more reminiscent of a San Francisco gay bath-house than a Buddhist retreat”.

UNODC Warns of Rising Role of Organized Crime in Southeast Asia

study conducted by the UN Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the methamphetamine market in the region has exploded in size and value, and is now estimated to be worth between roughly US$30 billion and $60 billion. 

Senegal’s Offshore Oil Reserves a Pricey Pawn in Covert Deal

A Romanian-Australian businessman with a history of fraud, corruption, and misleading investors appears to have received at least $650 million from a West African oil and gas deal carried out with the help of well-positioned relatives of two consecutive Senegalese presidents.

Indian/Portuguese names

the high court in Goa overturned a previous ruling, convicting Samson D’Souza of culpable homicide, criminal assault and outraging a woman’s modesty, providing narcotics to a person with knowledge that it could cause serious harm or death, and destruction of evidence.

He was also convicted under the Goa children’s code for not providing a safe environment for a child, according to MacKeown’s lawyer, Vikram Varma. A second man, Placido Carvalho, accused of abetting a crime, had his acquittal upheld

Europeans remember the 1980s

when the United States and Russia quickly built up a combined arsenal of nearly 3,500 nuclear-armed medium-range missiles, all aimed at Europe.

Portugal is the least compliant European country against corruption

Portugal ranks behind Turkey, Serbia, Romania, Belgium, and Croatia, with the Council of Europe criticising the Portuguese State for lacking measures against particularly serious crime.

Moscow braces for renewed protests after opposition politicians excluded from city elections

almost all of the independent candidates standing for election had been told they would not be allowed to run. In contrast, the vast majority of the 216 given the green light were supporters of Vladimir Putin. 

Facebook to be fined $5bn for Cambridge Analytica privacy violations

The (US) Federal Trade Commission has reportedly voted to approve fining Facebook roughly $5bn to settle an investigation into the company’s privacy violations

Tajikistan is one of the world’s most repressive countries

at least three occasions, Tajikistani dissidents have met terrible fates while working with Nikolaev — in two cases, very shortly after their last meetings with him. Several prominent members of the diaspora now accuse him of selling them out.

In mid February 2019, raw from torture, weary from sleep deprivation, and more alone than he’d ever been, Sharofiddin Gadoev waited in the dank basement of a government office in Dushanbe, the capital of his native Tajikistan. Just two weeks earlier he’d thought himself safe, well away from the dangerous politics of his homeland, living in the Netherlands and visiting Moscow

The Pentagon Looks to Virtual Reality to Prepare Troops for Nuclear War

In February, Microsoft employees wrote a letter to executives demanding the company pull out of the contract, saying they “refuse to create technology for warfare and oppression.” 

Horrendous crimes are not to be forgotten

Teresa Costa Macedo, a senior government official, said she informed the country's then president, General Ramalho Eanes, and provided photographic evidence. But the photographs were "lost" by police and Mrs Macedo said she was also intimidated by phone calls from anonymous callers

The Casa Pia affair, which has shaken the very foundations of the Portuguese state, finally goes to trial on Thursday. Former presidents have been accused of turning a blind eye to complaints about systematic abuse over more than a decade, while prosecutors have denied that President Jorge Sampaio was under investigation.

Following the shame of the nation’s Casa Pia child sex abuse scandal which involved all manner of previously respected figures and personalities, stories of institutional child abuse are becoming commonplace in Portugal.

Figures released show that more than 36,000 children have been the victims of child abuse and neglect since 2008.

Twilight II

Ursula von der Leyen set for EU's top job

She studied economics at the universities of Göttingen and Münster before attending the London School of Economics where she used the pseudonym Rose Ladson because she was seen as a potential target for West German leftwing extremists.

Von der Leyen then read for a medical degree, becoming a gynaecologist, and only entered politics at 42. A mother of seven, she has held government positions as labour and family affairs minister, driving forward key policies on gender quotas for company boards and improved maternity and paternity pay and rights.

Rampant deforestation of Amazon driven by global greed for meat

Investigation exposes how Brazil’s huge beef sector continues to threaten health of world’s largest rainforest