Sudan’s army reports that at least 41 people have been killed in the shelling of El Fasher, the last major city in Darfur under government control amidst its conflict with the RSF paramilitary. Besieged since last May, the city faces a devastating toll on civilian lives if it falls. Clashes have intensified this week, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis. Olivia Bizot reports. Source link
Photo by Kelly on Pexels.com Thanks to Trump’s repeated executive order attacks on US clean energy policy, nearly $8 billion in investments and 16 new large-scale factories and other projects were cancelled, closed, or downsized in Q1 2025. The $7.9 billion in investments withdrawn since January are more than three times the total investments cancelled over the previous 30 months, according to nonpartisan policy group E2’s latest Clean Economy Works monthly update. However, companies continue to invest in the US renewable sector. Businesses in March announced 10 projects worth more than $1.6 billion for new solar, EV, and grid and transmission equipment factories across six states. That includes Tesla’s plan to invest $200 million in a battery factory near Houston that’s expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs. Combined, the projects are expected to create at least 5,000 new permanent jobs if completed. Michael Timberlake of E2 said, “Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll. If …
Sign up for Big Think Books A dedicated space for exploring the books and ideas that shape our world. Excerpted from Target Earth: Meteorites, Asteroids, Comets, and Other Cosmic Intruders That Threaten Our Planet by Govert Schilling. Published by The MIT Press. Copyright 2025. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. It’s not something you think about every day, but we owe our existence to a catastrophic cosmic impact. Some 66 million years ago — 10 times farther back in time than the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees — an unimaginable natural disaster put a permanent end to the dinosaurs. This suddenly opened new, rapid evolutionary possibilities for mammals, ultimately including primates. The rest is history, as the saying goes: If the dinosaurs hadn’t become extinct, Homo sapiens would almost certainly never have walked the earth. Dinosaurs appeal enormously to the imagination. It is a fascination that is much older than the blockbuster film Jurassic Park: Even as a small boy in the mid-1960s, I read all the library books on dinosaurs I could find and …
Death toll announced as Israel launches new attack in southern Lebanon, killing one person and injuring three. The United Nations says at least 71 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since a ceasefire was struck at the end of last year. Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said on Tuesday that the death toll included 14 women and nine children. He called for investigations into “each and every military action where civilians are killed”. OHCHR raised concerns about recent Israeli military operations hitting civilian infrastructure, including a strike on April 3 that destroyed a newly established medical centre run by the Islamic Health Society in the southern city of Naqoura. It also noted that at least five rockets, two mortars and a drone have been launched from Lebanon towards northern Israel, according to the Israeli army, and tens of thousands of Israelis remain displaced from the north. “The ceasefire must hold, and any escalation is a risk for stability in general in Lebanon, …
A family of Spanish tourists, including three children, were killed in the crash, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says. Six people, including three children, have been killed after a sightseeing helicopter crashed in New York City’s Hudson River, near Lower Manhattan, the city’s mayor has said. All of those onboard the tourist sightseeing trip, the pilot and a family from Spain, died, including two who were taken to a hospital and later succumbed to their injuries. “At this time, all six victims have been removed from the water. And sadly, all six victims have been pronounced deceased,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told a briefing on Thursday. The helicopter broke apart midair and crashed upside down into the river between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. It was the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the US, following other recent accidents in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia. New York Representative Grace Meng said on social media she was “devastated to learn about the deadly helicopter crash in the Hudson River”. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) …
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani announced that Abu Khadija was killed in an operation by Iraqi intelligence with support from coalition forces. Abu Khadija was one of ISIS’s most active leaders, responsible for operations along the Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin borders. He was seen as the driving force behind ISIS attacks on Iraqi forces. Click here for the full story in Kurdish. Source link
On 21 February, 12-year-old Ayman al-Hammouni was killed, shot by Israeli fire, video footage seen by the Guardian suggests. Two cameras recorded the circumstances of Ayman’s death. The Guardian has used this footage to tell the story of the child’s last moments Source link
A pilot has died after a private jet owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil crashed into another plane at an airport in Arizona. Neil was not on board at the time of the collision, which happened off the runway at Scottsdale Airport on Monday afternoon. Neil’s girlfriend Rain Andreani and her friend suffered injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening. They were taken to hospital with the jet’s co-pilot, who was also injured. Image: Emergency responders work on Vince Neil’s plane after the collision. Pic: AP “While details are still emerging, our hearts go out to the families of both the pilot who lost his life and the passengers who suffered injuries,” Motley Crue said in a statement. “Motley Crue will announce a way to help support the family of the deceased pilot – stand by for an announcement very soon”. Rain Andreani broke five ribs in the crash and the dogs the women were travelling with survived, TMZ reports. Read more from Sky News:Teacher admits stabbing girl, 7, to deathNationwide power outage …
Artist’s impression of a group of Homo floresiensis with a freshly killed stegodon (Stegodon florensis insularis) MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Severe drought caused by climate change may have led to the decline of Indonesia’s pygmy elephants and the “hobbit”-like humans who hunted them. Until about 50,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis, standing about a metre tall, thrived on the South Pacific island of Flores by consuming meat from dwarf pachyderms called stegodons. Researchers originally thought that the tiny hominins – whose bones were discovered… Source link
A woman in her eighties has been killed in a stabbing in the coastal city of Herzliya, Israel, an Israeli hospital said Friday. A 28-year-old suspected of being the attacker was arrested by Israeli police in the occupied West Bank. Source link
