CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: The Webb Space Telescope has captured a pair of intertwined galaxies glowing in the infrared.
The observatory operated by NASA and the European Space Agency photographed the two galaxies 326 million light-years away, surrounded by a blue haze of stars and gas. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.
The pictures, released Friday, marks the second anniversary of Webb’s science operations.
The neighboring galaxies, nicknamed Penguin and the Egg, have been tangled up for tens of millions of years, according to NASA. They’ll eventually merge into a single galaxy. The same interaction will happen to our own Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy in 4 billion years, the space agency said.
Considered the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is the biggest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched. It rocketed away in 2021 and underwent six months of commissioning, before its first official images were released in July 2022.
It’s positioned 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.
“In just two years, Webb has transformed our view of the universe,” NASA’s Mark Clampin said in a statement.
Webb Space Telescope’s latest cosmic shot shows pair of intertwined galaxies glowing in infrared
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Webb Space Telescope’s latest cosmic shot shows pair of intertwined galaxies glowing in infrared
- The Penguin and Egg galaxies have been tangled up and will eventually merge into a single galaxy, according to NASA
Indonesia recovers body of New Zealand helicopter pilot killed in Papua attack
“We suspect that the armed group that shot the pilot was from Nduga district, led by Egianus Kogoya,” Suseno said
INDONESIA: Indonesian security forces on Tuesday recovered the body of a New Zealand pilot who was killed in an alleged separatist attack in the restive Papua region, officials said.
Glen Malcolm Conning, a helicopter pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, was shot dead on Monday by gunmen allegedly with the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, shortly after landing in Alama, a remote district in the Mimika regency of Central Papua province.
The attackers released all six passengers, including two health workers and two children, said Bayu Suseno, the spokesperson of the Cartenz Peace Taskforce, the joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua.
“We suspect that the armed group that shot the pilot was from Nduga district, led by Egianus Kogoya,” Suseno said in a video statement. He described the group as the most dangerous and very active in disturbing the security around Timika, a town that feeds the Grasberg mine which is nearly half owned by US-based Freeport-McMoRan and is run by PT Freeport Indonesia.
“This group is our main target to arrest this year,” Suseno said.
In February 2023, Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, abducted Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air.
Kogoya and his troops stormed a single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in a mountainous village. He said they wouldn’t release Mehrtens unless Indonesia agrees to Papua becoming a sovereign country.
A year and a half later, Mehrtens remains a captive of the rebels.
Security forces found the body of Conning on Tuesday inside his helicopter that was still parked on a small runway in Alama, in a mountainous district that can be reached only by small aircraft, said Lt. Gen. Richard Tampubolon, the Chief of the Joint Regional Command of Papua. He said bad weather conditions halted their search and evacuation operation on Monday.
The rescue operation on Tuesday also evacuated about 13 people, mostly teachers and health workers from Alama, who were traumatized by the incident and fear of their safety.
Tampubolon said the body of the pilot was flown to a hospital in Timika for an autopsy before being returned to his family.
“A preliminary medical examination showed gunshot wounds and slashes from sharp weapons on his body,” Tampubolon said. “We strongly condemned this inhumane killing of a pilot who had made many contributions in providing humanitarian services to remote communities in Papua.”
West Papua Liberation Army spokesperson Sebby Sambom said in a voice message to The Associated Press on Monday that they had designated the area as a restricted zone where civilian aircraft were prohibited from landing. He blamed the pilot for disregarding their warnings.
The kidnapping and killing reflects the deteriorating security situation in Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost region and a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after a UN-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region, which was divided into six provinces.
Flying is the only practical way to access many areas in the mountainous easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua.
Bangladeshi students pick Nobel laureate to lead government as parliament dissolved
- Muhammad Yunus was awarded Nobel prize for helping lift millions from poverty by providing micro loans
- Longtime PM Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country after weeks of deadly protests, 300 killed since July
DHAKA: Leaders of Bangladesh’s student protests said on Tuesday economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus should lead an interim government following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the dissolution of parliament.
Hasina resigned and fled to neighboring India on Monday following protests that started peacefully in early July but soon turned violent as security forces clashed with demonstrators, leaving 300 people dead since last month.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim administration that will preside over new elections.
Student leaders, who have repeatedly said they would not accept military rule, published a video message on Facebook on Tuesday morning, saying that “no government other than the one proposed by the students will be accepted.”
Nahid Islam, coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organizing group, named the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim administration.
Flanked by two other student leaders, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder, Islam said they had already spoken with Yunus and “he agreed to take this important responsibility to protect Bangladesh on the request of the students.”
Yunus, 84, is an economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, who introduced micro loans to help poor people establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency.
Since its establishment in 1983, the bank has advanced to the forefront of a world movement toward eradicating poverty through microlending, and its replicas were launched in more than 100 countries.
In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to “create economic and social development from below.”
Lamiya Morshed, Yunus’s spokesperson and executive director of his think tank Yunus Center in Dhaka, confirmed to the local media that he had “agreed to the proposal of the students.”
“The date of the new election will be decided by the new government. The government will be formed, and then they will take the decision how and when they will conduct the election,” Joynal Abedin, press secretary of the president, told Arab News.
“The process is underway.”
Student protests broke out across the country against a rule that reserved a bulk of government jobs for the descendants of those who fought in the country’s 1971 liberation war.
After the deadly clashes and a week-long communications blackout, the Supreme Court eventually scrapped most of the quotas, but the ruling was followed by a state crackdown on protesters.
The arrests of 11,000 participants of the rallies, mostly students, triggered new demonstrations last week, which culminated in a civil disobedience movement. Bangladesh’s military chief, Waker-Uz-Zaman assumed control on Monday and announced Hasina’s resignation.
India issues safety warning about travel to UK amid riots
- Online misinformation fueled anti-immigrant riots across Britain
- Many Indians are canceling their UK trips, travel agent says
NEW DELHI: India issued on Tuesday a safety warning for nationals visiting the UK in the wake of riots targeting minority communities.
A wave of violent unrest and disorder has engulfed the UK since last week, after a misinformation campaign stoked outrage over a stabbing attack that killed three young girls and injured 10 people — mostly children — in Southport, northern England.
False rumors spread online that the suspect of the incident was a Muslim asylum-seeker, leading to attacks on immigrants and mosques.
India has since joined a growing number of countries — including Australia, Nigeria, and Indonesia — that have issued safety warnings for their citizens in the UK.
“Visitors from India are advised to stay vigilant and exercise due caution while traveling in the UK,” the High Commission of India in London said in a statement.
“It is advisable to follow local news and advisories issued by local security agencies, and to avoid areas where protests are underway.”
The UK is home to over 1.9 million British Indians and a popular destination for many from the South Asian nation, with more than 600,000 Indian travelers visiting Britain just last year.
Ajay Prakash, who is originally from Bihar and now runs a travel agency in London, said his clients are starting to consider canceling their upcoming trips to the UK because of the unrest.
“We are very much concerned. Because of this, we are getting several calls from our own customers who have booked their trips for UK tours specifically… This is impacting our business a lot,” he told Arab News in a phone interview.
Prakash, who is also the secretary of an Indian community association, said many Asians have grown increasingly concerned over how the situation is unfolding in the UK.
“What I can say is that the Asian community as a whole … all are concerned at the moment,” he said. “We are scared.”
More than 120 people died in Tokyo from heatstroke in July as average temperatures hit record highs
- According to the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office, many of the 123 people who died were elderly
- All but two were found dead indoors, and most were not using air conditioners despite having them installed
TOKYO: More than 120 people died of heatstroke in the Tokyo metropolitan area in July, when the nation’s average temperature hit record highs and heat warnings were in effect much of the month, Japanese authorities said Tuesday.
According to the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office, many of the 123 people who died were elderly. All but two were found dead indoors, and most were not using air conditioners despite having them installed.
Japanese health authorities and weather forecasters repeatedly advised people to stay indoors, consume ample liquids to avoid dehydration and use air conditioning, because elderly people often think that air conditioning is not good for one’s health and tend to avoid using it.
It was the largest number of heatstroke deaths in Tokyo’s 23 metropolitan districts in July since 127 deaths were recorded during a 2018 heatwave, the medical examiner’s office said.
More than 37,000 people were treated at hospitals for heatstroke across Japan from July 1 to July 28, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
The average temperature in July was 2.16 degrees Celsius (3.89 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average over the past 30 years, making it the hottest July since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1898.
On Tuesday, heatstroke warnings were in place in much of Tokyo and western Japan. The temperature rose to about 34 C (93 F) in downtown Tokyo, where many people carried parasols or handheld fans.
“I feel every year the hot period is getting longer,” said Hidehiro Takano from Kyoto. “I have the aircon on all the time, including while I’m sleeping. I try not to go outside.”
Maxime Picavet, a French tourist, showed a portable fan he bought in Tokyo. “It works very, very well,” he said. “With this temperature, it’s a necessity.”
The meteorological agency predicted more heat in August, with temperatures of 35 C (95 F) or higher.
“Please pay attention to temperature forecasts and heatstroke alerts and take adequate precautions to prevent heatstroke,” it said in a statement.
Kamala Harris picks Minnesota’s Tim Walz for vice president – US media
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive policy champion and a plain speaker from America’s heartland to help win over rural, white voters, US media have reported.
Walz, a 60-year-old US Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the US House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018.
As governor, Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.
Walz has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the US House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights.
Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is adding a popular Midwestern politician whose home state votes reliably for Democrats in presidential elections but is close to Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial battlegrounds.
Such states are seen as crucial in deciding this year’s election, and Walz is widely seen as skilled at connecting with white, rural voters who in recent years have voted broadly for the Republican Donald Trump, Harris’ rival for the White House.
The Harris campaign hopes Walz’s extensive National Guard career, coupled with a successful run as a high school football coach, and his Dad joke videos will attract such voters who are not yet dedicated to a second Trump term in the White House.
Harris, 59, has revived the Democratic Party’s hopes of an election victory since becoming its candidate after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his failing reelection bid under party pressure on July 21.
Walz was a relative unknown nationally until the Harris “veepstakes” heated up, but his profile has since surged. A popular member of Congress, he reportedly had the backing of powerful former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in persuading Biden to leave the race.
Harris and Walz will face Trump and his running mate JD Vance, also a military veteran from the Midwest, in a Nov. 5 election.
Stumping for Harris, sometimes in a camouflage baseball hat and T-shirt, Walz has attacked Trump and Vance as “weird,” a catchy insult that has been picked up by the Harris campaign, social media and Democratic activists.
A ‘UNICORN’
Walz gave the nascent Harris campaign the new attack line in a late July interview: “These are weird people on the other side: They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room,” referring to book bans and women’s reproductive consultations with doctors.
Walz has also attacked the claims by Trump and Vance of having middle class credentials.
“They keep talking about the middle class. A robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don’t know who we are,” Walz said in an MSNBC interview.
That approach has struck a chord with the young voters Harris needs to reengage. David Hogg, the co-founder of the gun safety group March for Our Lives, described him as a “great communicator.”
Walz is “somewhat of a unicorn,” said Ryan Dawkins, a political science professor at Minnesota’s Carleton College — a man born in a small town in rural Nebraska capable of conveying Harris’ message to core Democratic voters, and those that the party has failed to reach in recent years.
Dawkins praised his ability to connect with rural voters. It is a group the Biden administration has tried to reach with infrastructure spending and other pragmatic policies, but with little show of messaging success so far.
In the 2016 election, Trump won 59 percent of rural voters; in 2020 that number rose to 65 percent even though Trump lost the election, according to Pew Research.
In the 2022 governor’s race, Walz won with 52.27 percent to his Republican opponent’s 44.61 percent, although swaths of rural Minnesota voted for the opponent.
While Walz has supported Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues ranging from legalized abortion and same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, he also racked up a centrist voting record during his congressional career.
He was a staunch defender of government support for farmers and military veterans, as well as gun-owner rights that won praise from the National Rifle Association, according to The Almanac of American Politics.
He subsequently registered a failing grade with the NRA after supporting gun-control measures during his first campaign for governor.
Walz’s shift from a centrist representing a single rural district in Congress to a more progressive politician as governor may have been in response to the demands of voters in major cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul. But it leaves him open to Republican attacks, Dawkins said in a telephone interview.
“He runs the risk of reinforcing some of the worst fears people have of Kamala Harris being a San Francisco liberal,” Dawkins said.
Walz has a ready counter-attack.
“What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn and women are making their own health care decisions,” Walz said in a July CNN interview. “So if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.”
As the state’s top executive, Walz mandated the use of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic and signed a law making marital rape illegal. He presided over several years of budget surpluses in Minnesota on the road to his 2022 reelection.
During that campaign, Walz touted the backing of several influential labor unions, including the state AFL-CIO, firefighters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), teachers and others.
His tenure was marked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder. Walz assigned the state’s attorney general to lead the prosecution in the case, saying people “don’t believe justice can be served.”
