
Ukraine says its forces advance in all directions of counteroffensive
KYIV Ukrainian troops are advancing in all directions of their counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, a senior defence
2023-06-30 17:15

More than 70 million in parts of the South, Mississippi Valley and West are under heat alerts today
A heat wave in parts of the South and Mississippi Valley is peaking and a new one is building in the West on Friday, putting more than 70 million people in those areas under heat alerts ahead of the holiday weekend.
2023-06-30 16:51

Greece migrant tragedy: Survivor accounts say coastguard rope toppled boat
By Karolina Tagaris, Lefteris Papadimas MALAKASA/KALAMATA, Greece (Reuters) -Survivors of a boat disaster that likely killed hundreds of migrants near
2023-06-30 16:46

China Pilots Steps to Lure Foreign Firms to Free-Trade Zones
China rolled out a number of measures to open up its free-trade zones as state leaders go on
2023-06-30 16:45

Amid US pressure, Dutch announce new chip equipment export rules
AMSTERDAM The Dutch government on Friday announced new rules restricting exports of certain advanced semiconductor equipment, a move
2023-06-30 16:29

Russia reducing personnel at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - Ukrainian intelligence
KYIV Russia is gradually reducing the number of personnel at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern
2023-06-30 16:26

France shooting: Policeman charged over teen's traffic stop death
France sees a third night of mass unrest, triggered by Tuesday's police shooting of a teenager.
2023-06-30 15:58

Sri Lanka Seeks to Restructure $19.8 Billion of Local Debt
Sri Lanka is seeking to restructure about $19.8 billion of local bills and bonds, equivalent to half of
2023-06-30 15:26

Scientists discover secret planet hidden in our solar system
There are eight planets in our solar system – plus poor old Pluto, which was demoted in 2006 – but what if there were more? Turns out that might be the case. Astronomers have calculated there is a 7 per cent chance that Earth has another neighbour hiding in the Oort cloud, a spherical region of ice chunks and rocks that is tens of thousands of times farther from the sun than we are. “It’s completely plausible for our solar system to have captured such an Oort cloud planet,” said Nathan Kaib, a co-author on the work and an astronomer at the Planetary Science Institute. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Hidden worlds like this are “a class of planets that should definitely exist but have received relatively little attention” until now, he said.. If a planet is hiding in the Oort cloud, it’s almost certainly an ice giant. Large planets like Jupiter and Saturn are generally born as twins. They have huge gravitational pulls of their own, however, and sometimes destabilise one another. That could have led to a planet to be nudged out of the solar system entirely – or exiled to its outer reaches, where the Oort cloud resides. “The survivor planets have eccentric orbits, which are like the scars from their violent pasts,” said lead author Sean Raymond, researcher at the University of Bordeaux’s Astrophysics Laboratory. That means that the Oort cloud planet could have a significantly elongated orbit, unlike the near-perfect circle Earth tracks around the sun. Trouble is, when things are that far away, they’re pretty difficult to spot. “It would be extremely hard to detect,” added Raymond. “If a Neptune-sized planet existed in our own Oort cloud, there’s a good chance that we wouldn’t have found it yet,” said Malena Rice, an astronomer at MIT not involved in this work. “Amazingly, it can sometimes be easier to spot planets hundreds of light-years away than those right in our own backyard.” Time to crack out the telescope. 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.
2023-06-30 15:26

China’s Economic Woes Are Multiplying — and Xi Jinping Has No Easy Fix
It was meant to be the year China’s economy, unshackled from the world’s strictest Covid-19 controls, roared back
2023-06-30 14:55

Facebook urged to suspend strongman leader over video threatening violence
The oversight board for Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms on Thursday said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen should be suspended from the social media site for six months for posting a video violating rules against violent threats.
2023-06-30 14:50

Shropshire funding boost to house homeless refugees
Shropshire Council announces plans to buy 10 more homes for those who have fled Afghanistan.
2023-06-30 14:28