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With the tragedy and horror wreaked in Morocco last week, it's unsurprising that people’s focus hasn’t been on the skies. And yet, Friday’s devastating earthquake, has also sparked renewed interest in a mysterious aerial phenomenon. Footage shared to social media just moments before the 6.8-magnitude tremor struck the High Atlas mountains appears to show blinding lights flashing across the sky. Experts have suggested that the jaw-dropping sight is evidence of an enigmatic natural occurrence called “earthquake lights”. Reports of these bright flashes go back centuries. And yet, very little is known about them, to the point that scientists aren’t even sure they’re real. Indeed, some experts have concluded that there isn’t sufficient proof to support their existence, the United States Geological Survey notes. Nevertheless, “people have wondered about them forever," Karen Daniels, a physicist at North Carolina State University, told the New York Times. "It's one of those persistent mysteries that hang around and never quite get nailed." The issue with studying earthquake lights is that since earthquakes are impossible to predict, so are any preceding celestial pyrotechnics. Not knowing when or where they will occur means researchers can’t preemptively install the necessary equipment needed to detect them. Essentially, the only evidence we have comes from eyewitness accounts and, more recently, video recordings. And there is an abundance of the former, with a 2014 study noting that aerial luminous phenomena were reported in relation to 65 earthquakes which occurred in Europe and America over a period of 200 years. These descriptions of earthquake lights vary in their details, with some recalling on-and-of lightning-style flashes, and others minutes-long glows of different colours. “All of these have been reported by observers,” John Ebel, a seismologist at Boston Collegel told the NYT. “Which ones are actually true, and which ones are products of their imagination, we can’t really say.” One theory behind the formation of earthquake lights is that they are the result of friction between tectonic plates generating electricity. However, most experts are unconvinced by this hypothesis, including Dr Daniels. She told the NYT: “Rock on rock is not a situation where people have been able to generate large charge separation. And so it just doesn’t seem like a very good explanation for what people see.” Other scientists have suggested electrical arcing from power lines shaken by earthquakes could be responsible for the sky flares. But Dr Daniels acknowledged it’s still possible that there’s no link at all between the lights and tectonic events. “We’re comforted by things that we can understand, and we’re scared by things we don’t,” she pointed out. “I think that’s part of the reason we’re so fascinated by this phenomenon.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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The indictments against Donald Trump may help him get the Republican presidential nomination, but they’re harming his prospects of winning the general election against President Joe Biden. That’s among the results of a new poll from Politico Magazine and Ipsos which has revealed that the American people are taking the cases against Mr Trump seriously, with the survey revealing the electorate’s particular focus on the 2020 election subversion proscution brought by the Department of Justice. The poll also shows that most Americans remain sceptical of Mr Trump’s arguments that the cases against him have no merit and that they’re part of a politically motivated witch hunt and a weaponization of the justice system. Compared to a previous Ipsos survey from June, the numbers are moving in a negative direction for Mr Trump, specifically regarding the timeline of a trial and whether Mr Trump should be imprisoned if he’s convicted. The more recent poll was conducted between 18 and 21 August, about two and a half weeks after the second federal indictment against Mr Trump was handed down and some days following the former president being charged on 13 counts in Fulton County, Georgia. With 1,032 respondents, the poll had a margin of error of 3.2 per cent. The poll also found that most Americans think Mr Trump should stand trial before the 2024 election. Federal prosecutors have suggested a trial date of 2 January 2024 for the DoJ’s 2020 election case while Mr Trump’s lawyers have argued that the trial should wait until April 2026, the latter giving Mr Trump ample time to attempt to get re-elected, possibly return to the West Wing and shut down the case against him. The American people as a whole agree with the timeline of the Department of Justice — 59 per cent said they think the trial should occur before the GOP primaries and 61 per cent said they think it should take place before the general election. There’s a large partisan split between the parties with 89 per cent of Democrats saying the trial should take place before the general election, but only 33 per cent of Republicans agreeing. And among the most important group to win over in an election — independents — 63 per cent say the trial should happen before the election. After Mr Trump’s indictment in Florida regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents, only 48 per cent of independents said the trial in that case should happen before the election. Mr Trump has similar problems when it comes to the number of Americans who believe he’s guilty in the federal election subversion case — 51 per cent believe he is. That includes 88 per cent of Democrats, 14 per cent of Republicans and 53 per cent of independents. Forty-four per cent of Americans said that a conviction of Mr Trump in the federal election subversion case wouldn’t affect their willingness to support Mr Trump, while 32 per cent said the outcome of the trial would affect how they voted, meaning that Mr Trump may lose support in a highly polarized race. Meanwhile, 13 per cent — a group made up mostly of GOP voters — said a conviction would make them more likely to vote for Mr Trump. Another potential issue for the former president is that there are still many Americans who know little about the allegations against him, meaning that his polling figures may worsen as voters tune into the news ahead of the election. Between a quarter and a third of respondents in the poll said they don’t understand the charges against Mr Trump well. If Mr Trump is convicted in the federal election subversion case, 50 per cent of Americans say he should go to prison, including 87 per cent of Democrats, 11 per cent of Republicans and 51 per cent of independents. When asked if the federal election subversion case was based on a “fair evaluation of the evidence”, 59 per cent of Americans agreed. Twenty-three per cent of Republicans said the indictment was fair, while the figure for Democrats was 89 per cent and 64 per cent for independents. While Mr Trump has been arguing that the Biden administration has been weaponizing the justice system, more Americans think Mr Trump is guilty of this. Fifty-three per cent of Americans said that the Trump administration used the Department of Justice to go after political enemies without evidence, compared to 45 per cent who said the same about the Biden White House. But 44 per cent of Americans — 20 per cent of Democrats and 40 per cent of independents — said the indictment of Mr Trump was an attempt to get an advantage for Mr Biden. The poll also measured the approval ratings of Mr Trump and Mr Biden in connection to the cases against the former president. Mr Trump received a net favourability rating of -31 per cent while Mr Biden received -9 per cent. Read More Eric Trump denies report of $422m Mar-a-Lago sale days before his dad’s Georgia arrest Kanye West’s latest link to Trump is captured in a grinning mug shot Trump cashes in on historic mug shot with ‘never surrender’ merch as last co-defendants booked at jail: Live

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