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Paris, France | AFP | by Daniel Lawler The chances have plummeted that a newly-discovered asteroid with the potential to wipe out a city will hit Earth on Feb. 14, 2046, the European Space Agency said on Tuesday. The asteroid, which is named 2023 DW and is estimated to be around the size of a 50-metre Olympic swimming pool, was first spotted by a small Chilean observatory on February 26. It swiftly shot to the […]
by Dessy SAGITA Agence France Presse Pari Island, Indonesia (AFP) Sitting near a wall of stacked rocks, fisherman Mustagfirin looks out to sea from the tiny Indonesian island of Pari, wondering whether his home will exist for much longer. His battered wooden boat is anchored just offshore, where trees and statues that were once on the beach now sit partially submerged about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital Jakarta. “I am very saddened […]
by Etienne Balmer and Harumi Ozawa Agence France Presse Tsuchiyu-onsenmachi, Japan (AFP) With over 100 active volcanos, Japan has the world’s third largest geothermal resources, but also a powerful industry that has steadfastly opposed developing the sector: hot springs. Geothermal is a renewable resource that harnesses heat from deep below the Earth’s crust — a seemingly attractive option for energy resource-poor Japan. But the hot springs or onsens that dot Japan are a major business, […]
by Etienne BALMER / Kyoko HASEGAWA Nobel-winning Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, a leading liberal voice who defended the disenfranchised and challenged the conformity of modern society, has died aged 88. “He died of old age in the early hours of March 3,” publisher Kodansha said in a statement on Monday, adding that a family funeral has already been held. Known for his pacifist and anti-nuclear views, Oe saw himself as part of a generation […]
Dec 2022 A strategic and political challenge, the conquest of space generated intense competition between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In 1957 the Soviets were first to place a satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. A few weeks later a dog became the first living creature in space. Laika did not survive the journey. In 1961 Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. 1963: his compatriot Valentina […]
by Stuart GRAHAM Agence France Presse Shetland, United Kingdom (AFP) — Pollution is taking its toll on seal populations on the Shetland archipelago, known for its rugged coastlines, dramatic cliffs and diverse wildlife. On the edge of a coastal pool on one of Scotland’s Shetland Islands, Pixie, a plump grey seal grunts and rolls towards the water to retrieve a fish that’s been left for its lunch. Pixie is one of hundreds of rescued seals, […]
by Marchio GORBIANO Agence France-Presse WAWONII, Indonesia (AFP) — Three women with machetes stood guard at their farm hilltop on Indonesia’s Wawonii Island, directing their blades towards the nickel miners working in the forest clearing below. “I pointed the machete at their faces. I told them: ‘If you scratch this land, heads will fly, we will defend this land to the death’,” said 42-year-old villager Royani, recounting a recent encounter with some of the miners. […]
by Alex PIGMAN with Glenn CHAPMAN in San Francisco Agence France Presse Washington, United States (AFP) — TikTok’s latest sensation is a real-time filter called Bold Glamour that sashays right past debates over toxic beauty standards on social media, going all in on giving users a new face. Quietly released to the app’s more than a billion users, Bold Glamour convincingly blends a user’s real face with an AI-generated ideal of a supermodel, drawing both […]
by Luca MATTEUCCI Agence France Presse Paris, France (AFP) — With his moustache caked in icicles and frozen droplets, glaciologist Peter Neff shows his 220,000 TikTok followers a sample of old ice excavated from Antarctica’s Allan Hills. The drop-shaped fragment encapsulates tiny air bubbles, remnants of 100,000-year-old atmosphere. The greenhouse gases trapped inside carry precious information on Earth’s past climate, explains @icy_pete as he brings the translucid nugget closer to the camera. A growing number […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru on Thursday returned a collection of 73 Roman coins, some from the second and fourth centuries, to the Italian embassy in Lima, the foreign ministry said. The coins were seized from a Peruvian woman in 2021 at the international airport in Cusco, a tourist hub and gateway to the world renown Machu Picchu Inca citadel. Peru’s deputy foreign minister, Ignacio Higueras, told reporters that the collection of 73 coins “are […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Nearly 200,000 people in Thailand have been admitted to hospital because of air pollution this week, officials have said, with Bangkok shrouded in a harmful haze. The Thai capital, home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, has been blanketed for days by an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning. More than 1.3 million people have […]
Dakar, Senegal (AFP) — At three months old, even future kings of the savannah like to play. In Senegal, a video of three cubs that would have hardly been imaginable a few years ago, has given hope that the revered West African lion, which has been decimated over time, will be revived. The US-based wild cat conservation organisation Panthera has released never-before-seen images of a lioness and three cubs spotted in February by remote cameras […]
