Rocky planet LHS 1140b, just 49 light-years away, shows signs of an atmosphere and could have water reserves, a Harvard-led team says Astronomers have detected an atmosphere on a rocky planet within a potentially habitable zone outside the Solar System for the first time, according to a new report by a Harvard-led team of scientists. The findings stemmed from analyzing data on the super-Earth LHS 1140b , which circles a red dwarf 49 light-years from Earth in a temperature zone that theoretically allows liquid water to exist. The discovery, published in the journal Science on Thursday, was based on traces of helium escaping the planet. “An atmosphere is essential for a planet to support life as we know it,” Collin Cherubim, the study’s lead author and a planetary scientist who works at the University of Chicago, said. “This is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky...
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The German chancellor has criticized a new US State Department funding program for Europe launched ahead of September’s federal vote German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned the administration of US President Donald Trump against interfering in his country’s elections. Germany is due to hold federal elections in September, with immigration expected to be among the campaign’s defining issues. “It is illegal to finance political parties in Germany from abroad,” Merz said on Wednesday. “And I assume that our friends around the world, in particular, will also abide by these legal rules that we have established in Germany.” Merz’s remarks came after the US State Department launched a grant program on Monday worth nearly $5 million to support projects aimed at strengthening democratic resilience, the rule of law, freedom of speech and the press, and human rights in...
Veteran White House staffer Gabriel Perez is believed to have made more than $100,000 by exploiting advance knowledge of the US president’s remarks US President Donald Trump’s veteran teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez is under investigation over an alleged insider betting scheme tied to the president’s speeches. The aide is believed to have earned thousands of dollars by placing bets on the contents of Trump’s remarks on prediction market Kalshi, a platform where users trade contracts on the outcome of future events. Perez has served as one of Trump’s teleprompter operators since the president’s first campaign in 2016 – a role former aides have described as very challenging due to Trump’s tendency to improvise. Perez was one of only a few people with advance access to Trump’s speeches and was known to receive last-minute edits directly from Trump. Accordin...
The US president has accused Beijing of stealing 220 million US voter files China has rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Beijing masterminded the theft of 220 million American voter files to meddle in the 2020 election. Trump’s explosive remarks came ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to Washington in late September and amid a tentative trade truce between the two countries. In a prime-time address to the nation on Thursday, Trump accused Chinese intelligence services of illicitly acquiring 220 million voter files containing names, addresses, phone numbers, and party affiliations, claiming that Beijing assigned a dedicated unit to exploit the data. He called the alleged breach “an unprecedented election security nightmare” and the “largest compromise” of election data in US history. Read more ...
The attacks targeted military-industrial facilities in Kiev and port infrastructure in Odessa and Yuzhny, the Defense Ministry said Russia carried out precision strikes overnight on Ukrainian military-industrial and port infrastructure, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday. According to the ministry, the strikes targeted defense industry facilities in Kiev involved in producing and storing drones, as well as infrastructure at the ports of Odessa and Yuzhny used to receive and store military cargo and fuel. Five fuel storage tanks intended to supply the Ukrainian military were also hit. Among the targets in Kiev was an industrial site operated by logistics company Rapid PJSC, which the ministry said assembles and stores medium- and long-range fixed-wing UAVs and foreign-made components used in their production. Read more Europe’s position on...
The legislation, which has faced fierce opposition from the clergy and right-wing parties, will now be reviewed by the Constitutional Council France’s lower chamber of parliament has given final approval to a controversial bill legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide. The legislation, which has been criticized by the clergy and was rejected three times by the conservative Senate, is now in the hands of the country’s top constitutional body. The left-leaning National Assembly greenlit the bill on Wednesday 291 votes to 241, capping what its author, former lawmaker Olivier Falorni, called a legislative “marathon with hurdles.” Support for the bill in the chamber has steadily eroded with each reading: The Assembly passed the text 305-199 in May 2025, 299-226 in February 2026, and 295-232 on June 30. Read more Macr...