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☆ Russia's Bolshoi, performing in China, vows to return to the West
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, July 26 (Reuters) - The artistic director of Moscow's state-owned Bolshoi Ballet has vowed that his company will eventually perform in the West again, having been subject to a cultural boycott since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The storied ballet company performed at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts on Tuesday in its first international tour since the pandemic. Speaking in Beijing on the eve of the performance, artistic director Makhar Vaziev insisted the troupe was "not suffering" from being unable to perform in the West. Cancellations in other Western cities soon followed, and creative collaboration with Western venues and choreographers evaporated. Several Russian and foreign leading dancers also quit the company in opposition to the Ukraine war, including former principal ballerina Olga Smirnova.

Persons: Makhar Vaziev, Empress Catherine the Great, Don Quixote, Vladimir Putin's, Olga Smirnova, Elizaveta Kokoreva, Laurie Chen, John Geddie, Raju gopalakrishnan Organizations: Bolshoi Ballet, National, Performing Arts, Reuters, London's Royal Opera House, Western, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, Ukraine, Beijing, Russia, Minsk, Oman, Moscow

☆ Unusual type of stellar object discovered beaming out radio waves
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

In those moments, it became the brightest source of radio waves viewable from Earth through radio telescopes, acting like a celestial lighthouse. The object, dubbed GPM J1839−10, released radio waves every 22 minutes. “The object we’ve discovered is spinning way too slowly to produce radio waves — it’s below the death line,” Hurley-Walker said. “Assuming it’s a magnetar, it shouldn’t be possible for this object to produce radio waves. The intense, millisecond-long bursts of radio waves have unknown origins, but magnetars have been pinpointed as a potential cause.

Persons: Tyrone O’Doherty, ”, Natasha Hurley, Walker, Hurley, ” Hurley, it’s Organizations: CNN —, Curtin University, Curtin, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Giant Locations: Australia, Western Australia, South Africa, India, USA

CNN —Russia has a stockpile of cluster munitions and will consider using them against Ukraine “if they are used against us,” President Vladimir Putin said. “Russia has a sufficient supply of various types of cluster munitions,” the Russian leader said during an interview with a pro-Kremlin journalist. What are cluster munitions? Cluster munitions contain multiple explosives that are released over an area up to the size of several football fields. Putin also claimed that Russia has not yet used cluster munitions, despite evidence to the contrary.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, “, ”, Connie Chen, Henrik Pettersson, Joe Biden, Putin, Biden, Jen Psaki Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, Geneva International Centre, US Defense Department, White House, United Nations Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Kyiv, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s

☆ Children addicted to video games ran away from home in the middle of the night to find WiFi when parents turned their internet connection off, says expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Children addicted to video games run away from home in search of WiFi and turn violence, per a doctor. Many games involve loot boxes, typically unknown items unlocked through additional gameplay or paid for with real-world or in-game money. Video game companies EA and Respawn have faced criticism for expensive loot boxes in Apex Legends, with one axe totaling $178 in microtransactions when it was released. "To spend money, these children need to borrow money from parents or use monetary gifts received for birthdays and Christmas. Last year, then-Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries opted not to regulate loot boxes as gambling.

Persons: Henrietta Bowden, Jones, Bowden, Nadine Dorries Organizations: for Gaming Disorders, National Centre for Gaming Disorders, Guardian, EA, Apex, Gambling Locations: microtransactions, Austrian, Belgium, Australia

☆ Putin's comment on funding Wagner shows link to Ukraine -prosecutor
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Anthony Deutsch | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Putin said last week that Wagner and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had received almost $2 billion from Russia in the past year. Among more than 93,000 incidents of potential war crimes Kostin's office was investigating were many atrocities Wagner forces committed, Kostin said. They are "among the most severe crimes against our civilians and our prisoners of war," Kostin said. Kostin appealed to allies, including the U.S. and Britain, to classify Wagner as a terrorist organisation so it can be prosecuted and its assets frozen. "Prigozhin is already a suspect in criminal proceedings in Ukraine, but the main thing is to stop the activity of such groups," he said.

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Wagner, Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Andriy Kostin, Kostin, Putin's, Anthony Deutsch, Josie Kao Organizations: HAGUE, International Centre, U.S, Thomson Locations: Russia, The Hague, Geneva, Ukraine, Latin America, Africa, Britain

☆ The James Webb Space Telescope found a molecular building block of life hiding in the Orion Nebula
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The James Webb Space Telescope detected a key carbon molecule in space for the first time ever. The methyl cation, or CH3 + , molecule was found in a young star system in the Orion Nebula. Scientists have theorized that methyl cation could lay the foundations for organic chemistry, and possibly life, across the universe. "We can only now prove its existence thanks to the awesome capabilities of the James Webb telescope. Webb's sensitivity to light helps it detect new moleculesAn artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Persons: James Webb, —, Eric Teske, — Webb, Els Peeters, Webb, Marie, Aline Martin, wouldn't, Olivier Berné Organizations: Orion, Service, Western University, James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, Hubble, University of Paris, ESA, CSA, French National Centre for Scientific Research Locations: Toulouse

☆ Webb telescope detects crucial molecule in space for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Astronomers have detected a crucial carbon molecule in space for the first time using the James Webb Space Telescope. Methyl cation is considered a key component that helps form more complex carbon-based molecules. The space observatory detected methyl cation in a protoplanetary disk, called d203-506, swirling around a young red dwarf star. ESA/Webb/NASA/CSAWhile methyl cation doesn’t react efficiently with hydrogen, the most abundant molecule in the universe, it reacts well with a wide range of other molecules. But methyl cation wasn’t detected in space until now.

Persons: James Webb, Webb, ”, Marie, Aline Martin, Olivier Berné Organizations: CNN —, James Webb Space Telescope, Orion, NASA, ESA, Webb, Orion Nebula, University of Paris, Saclay’s, Molecular Sciences, Orsay, French National Centre for Scientific Research Locations: France, Toulouse

☆ Himalayan glaciers could lose up to 80% of their ice by 2100 as temperatures rise, report warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Kathleen Magramo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The report found that glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region melted 65% faster in the 2010s compared with the previous decade, which suggests higher temperatures are already having an impact. With between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius of warming, the world’s highest mountain region stands to lose 30% to 50% of its volume by 2100, the latest report said. Glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region are melting faster than expected. Courtesy Jitendra Raj Bajracharya/ICIMODRapid warming and glacial meltAbout 240 million people live in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, many of their cultures dating back thousands of years, and another the 1.65 billion live downstream. “The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya are a major component of the Earth system.

Persons: Saleemul Huq, Bajracharya, Amina Maharjan, Maharjan, yaks, ”, Izabella Koziell Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, International Centre, Integrated Mountain Development, World Meteorological Organization Scientists, International Locations: Hong Kong, Nepal, Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Asia, Murree Hills

TALLINN, June 20 (Reuters) - Estonia's parliament approved on Tuesday a law to legalise same-sex marriage, making it the first central European country to do so. Same-sex marriage is legal in much of western Europe but not in central European countries which were once under communist rule and members of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact alliance but now members of NATO and, largely, the EU. In the largely secular Baltic country of 1.3 million, 53% of the population supported same-sex marriage in a 2023 poll by the Centre for Human Rights. Same-sex marriage is opposed by the ethnic-Russian minority, which constitutes a quarter of the country, with only 40% of them supporting it. Latvia and Lithuania, the other two Baltic countries which were previously annexed by the Soviet Union, have same-sex partnership bills stuck in their parliaments.

Persons: Kaja Kallas, Kallas, Tomas Jermalavicius, Janis Laizans, Terje Solsvik, Ed Osmond Organizations: NATO, Reuters, Centre for Human Rights, Gay, International Centre for Defence, Security, Andrius Sytas, Thomson Locations: TALLINN, Europe, Moscow, Warsaw, EU, Baltic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Soviet Union, Tallinn, Andrius, Vilnius

The Hindu Kush Himalaya stretches 3,500 km (2,175 miles) across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. At 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2C of warming above preindustrial temperatures, glaciers across the entire region will lose 30% to 50% of their volume by 2100, the report said. At 3C of warming — what the world is roughly on track for under current climate policies — glaciers in the Eastern Himalaya, which includes Nepal and Bhutan, will lose up to 75% of their ice. THE FULL PICTUREScientists have struggled to assess how climate change is affecting the Hindu Kush Himalaya. “We have a better sense of what the loss will be through to 2100 at different levels of global warming.”LIVELIHOODS AT RISKWith this newfound understanding comes grave concern for the people living in the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

Persons: Tika Gurung, “ We’re, we’re, ”, Philippus Wester, Wester, Tobias Bolch, “, “ We’ve, Amina Maharjan, Gloria Dickie, Frances Kerry Organizations: Integrated Mountain Development, United, “, Graz University of Technology, Thomson Locations: Langtang, Nepal, 1.5C, Asia’s, Kathmandu, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, North, Rocky, United States, it’s, Austria, Wester, ”, London

☆ Himalayan Glacier Loss Speeding Up, New Report Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Delger Erdenesanaa | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The report from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu finds that glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region melted 65 percent faster from 2010 through 2019 than in the previous decade. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that the consequences of climate change are speeding up, and that some changes will be irreversible. Nearly two billion people who live in more than a dozen countries within the mountain region or in the river valleys downstream depend on melting ice and snow for their water supply. “Things are happening quickly,” said Miriam Jackson, a cryosphere researcher at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and one of the authors of the report. And I think that’s a surprise for lots of people, that things are just happening so fast.”

Persons: ”, Miriam Jackson, “, there’s Organizations: International Centre, Integrated Mountain Development Locations: Nepal, Kathmandu

Shareholders of Credit Suisse and UBS were not granted a vote on the deal that was sealed over one weekend in March. Officials for QIA, UBS, the Swiss finance ministry and Credit Suisse declined to comment. QIA's investment in Credit Suisse dates back to the global financial crisis of 2008. The sovereign wealth fund had increased its stake in Credit Suisse to just under 7%, only trailing largest shareholder Saudi National Bank's roughly 10% stake, according to a January filing. Among them, Middle Eastern backers which own more than 20% of Credit Suisse face the largest hit.

☆ How a deadly bat virus found new ways to infect people
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

Scientists found bats with Nipah virus roosting near Sabith’s home. A search of the neighborhood led to a colony, near their house, of flying foxes, a common fruit bat. NETTING NIPAH: Researchers in Bangladesh use nets to catch bats and collect samples to find the Nipah virus in the wild. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainWhether Sabith ate contaminated fruit or somehow came into direct contact with a bat, the virus entered his cells. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainA year later, Chua’s team found the same strain of Nipah virus in flying foxes.

☆ Controversial 'Homecoming' film director attends Cannes premiere with cast
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film "Le retour" (Homecoming) in competition - Red Carpet Arrivals – Cannes, France, May 17, 2023. Director Catherine Corsini, producer Elisabeth... Read moreCANNES, May 17 (Reuters) - French director Catherine Corsini appeared on the Cannes Film Festival's red carpet flanked by a cluster of cast members on Wednesday for the premiere of her drama "Homecoming," which has been the subject of some controversy in recent months. The director walked between producer Elisabeth Perez and actor Aissatou Diallo Sagna, who won France's Cesar award for best supporting actress in Corsini's 2021 film "The Divide." The movie had faced controversy after concerns were raised about an intimate scene involving minors. Wednesday's red carpet appearance was briefly interrupted by a protester at the barricades in a red dress, who flashed her pregnant stomach with the word "Surrogacy" and a barcode on it.

[1/5] Teacher Inese Rudzite stands in front of Russian citizens during the Latvian language learning class in Riga, Latvia May 2, 2023. Speaking Russian instead of Latvian has not been a problem until now, but the war in Ukraine changed the picture. He said the test was needed because Russian authorities justified their invasion of Ukraine by the need to protect Russian nationals abroad. "I think that learning Latvian is right, but this pressure is wrong," Sevastjanova said. But now I end up learning Latvian instead.

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskiy visits war crimes court in The Hague seeking justice
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Tosterling Bart H. Meijer | Bart H. Meijer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AMSTERDAM, May 4 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday visited the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for suspected deportation of children from Ukraine. Zelenskiy, dressed in his trademark khaki, was welcomed at the court by its president, judge Piotr Hofmanski. In his first official trip to the country, Zelenskiy was due to deliver a speech later in the morning, also in The Hague, titled "No Peace Without Justice for Ukraine". The Ukrainian leader has visited several foreign capitals including London, Paris and Washington since Russia's 2022 invasion. The ICC can prosecute genocide in Ukraine but has no jurisdiction over alleged crimes of aggression by Russia there.

☆ Carnivorous Plants Use a Smelly Trick to Catch Their Prey
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Veronique Greenwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pitcher plants supplement their diets with this one strange trick: eating flesh. Usually found growing in relatively poor soil, the plants sprout pitcher-shaped cups with pretty, frilly tops that obscure their true purpose: trapping hapless insects. Look inside the pitchers and you’ll find the half-digested bodies of the plants’ victims. While studies suggest that the plants’ colors and its nectar may attract prey, some scientists think pitchers’ scent may play a role as well. Humans tend to describe a pitcher plants’ scent as floral or herbal, said Laurence Gaume, a scientist the French National Centre for Scientific Research and an author of the new paper.

☆ Carnivorous plants may lure their insect prey with specialized scents
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Kate Golembiewski | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Sarracenia pitcher plants, found in bogs throughout eastern North America, look like trumpet-shaped flowers, often in purplish or reddish hues. Different kinds of Sarracenia pitcher plants tend to eat different kinds of insects — some species trap more ants, while others feast on bees and moths. But recently opened pitcher plants that don’t stink of rotting bug carcasses provide an opportunity to identify the scents, she explained. The biggest challenge with the study, honestly, is that they did it in France,” rather than in the Sarracenia pitcher plants’ native North American bogs. It’s important to study pitcher plants due to the unique role they play in their increasingly fragile ecosystems, he added.

☆ War of the worms: Polish politicians give each other a mouthful over edible insects
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WARSAW, March 3 (Reuters) - Polish voters were given food for thought on Friday, as politicians from the two main parties traded accusations that the other side planned to push meat-loving citizens into eating worms ahead of elections this autumn. "For the upcoming elections, PO politicians should write on each poster 'Instead of chicken eat a worm', because this is their real election programme," PiS lawmaker Bartosz Kownacki told reporters. State-run broadcaster TVP Info accompanied Kownacki's press conference with a news ticker reading "The opposition's proposals for Poles: worms instead of meat". TVP Info has been regularly criticised by the opposition as being a mouthpiece for government propaganda. However, PO politicians and city hall officials say this does not mean proposals to force people to lower meat consumption and eat worms are under consideration.

WHO IS INVESTIGATING WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE? Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors are working with mobile justice teams supported by international legal experts and forensic teams. A total of 296 individuals have been charged with war crimes. War crimes can be defined under customary international law or national law. A number of mostly European states have universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to prosecute Ukrainian war crimes.

☆ The return of El Nino could make the world even hotter — endangering a critical climate threshold
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The El Nino Southern Oscillation system is composed of El Nino and La Nina — two opposite states of fluctuation in the Earth's climate system, which can have significant consequences on weather, wildfires, ecosystems and economies across the world. An El Nino event is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term average. The warmest year ever recorded, 2016, started off with a powerful El Nino that helped to boost global temperatures. This lagged effect is why forecasters believe 2024 could be the first year that humanity surpasses 1.5 degrees Celsius. Weather conditions are likely to be drier than average in Indonesia during an El Nino event as rainfall moves out to the Pacific Ocean.

☆ Germany has evidence of war crimes in Ukraine 'in three-digit range' - prosecutor
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Germany has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the country's prosecutor general said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, adding that he saw a need for a judicial process at international level. So far, prosecutors have pieces of evidence in the "three-digit range", he added, without elaborating. Germany began collecting evidence in March 2022 to prosecute possible war crimes, including by interviewing Ukrainian refugees and evaluating publicly available information, Frank said, adding that German prosecutors were not yet investigating specific individuals. Ukraine is pushing for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian military and political leaders it holds responsible for starting the war. Moscow has rejected allegations by Kyiv and Western nations of war crimes.

☆ An unexpected force may be speeding up glacier melt across the globe: colorful algae blooms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Now he sees bright pink and red algae blooms every year. Dr. Matt DaveyScientists like Maréchal think these algae blooms are getting larger and more frequent as rising global temperatures melt glaciers worldwide. Glacier algae seems to be booming, but scientists have a lot to learnResearcher Matt Davey samples snow algae at Lagoon Island, Antarctica. Ice algae and snow algae are different types of microorganisms, and different fields of study, but they both affect glaciers. A strip of "blood snow" filled with red algae cuts across a dark bloom of purple algae in Greenland.

☆ Is Patagonia the end game for profits in a world of climate change?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Trevor Laurence Jockims | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

As far back as 1985, Patagonia deployed portions of its profits to the environment, via an "Earth tax." "The Patagonia model is a little more sophisticated." It often is very attractive from a corporate tax perspective, too, which has been noted of both the Ikea and Patagonia business models. One hundred percent of Patagonia profits are now committed to its new non-profit Holdfast Collective — which owns all of the company's non-voting stock (98% of the total stock). "What people fail to understand about Patagonia, both the past and the future, is that we are unapologetically a for-profit business, and we are extremely competitive," Ryan Gellert said.

☆ COP27 summit to begin with plea to discuss climate compensation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The U.N. climate summit, COP27, opens in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday amid growing calls for rich countries to compensate poorer nations most vulnerable to climate change. Much of the tension surrounding COP27 is expected to relate to loss and damage -- compensation funds provided by wealthy nations to vulnerable lower-income countries that bear little responsibility for climate-warming emissions. Diplomats from more than 130 countries are expected to push for the creation of a dedicated loss and damage finance facility at COP27. "I'm hopeful that it will get on the agenda," Matthew Samuda, a minister in Jamaica's economic growth ministry, told Reuters. "We know the Europeans are supporting us," said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development.

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