https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1132425

EXCERPTS: Northwestern University-led astronomers have discovered salty skies surrounding the universe’s famous “Pink Planet.”

For more than a decade, the ancient, rosy hazed world kept astronomers guessing. One of the coldest known planetary-mass companions ever directly imaged, the elusive object is too faint for astronomers to dissect its light from Earth. But new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal an atmosphere filled with exotic chemistry — and salty clouds unlike anything seen before.

The observations provide some of the first direct evidence for salt clouds in a cold object’s atmosphere, a phenomenon scientists theorized more than 15 years ago. The discovery also marks an important step toward studying increasingly cold objects, which are too dim to examine with ground-based telescopes.

The study is published in the Astronomical Journal.

“The Pink Planet is the coldest companion ever discovered using ground-based instruments,” said Northwestern’s Aneesh Baburaj, who led the study. “Many teams all around the world performed follow-up observations to study its light, but it was too faint for ground-based instruments. That made it a perfect target for JWST. When we finally obtained its spectrum, it immediately looked interesting. But once we started digging deeper into the data, we realized it was not like anything we have analyzed before.”

[...] “We ran simulations with clouds, and the results aligned with what we know about cold planets,” Baburaj said. “We tried three different types of clouds, and salt clouds fit best. When we accounted for salt clouds, it subdued the signature of molecules hidden deeper in the companion’s atmosphere. Then, the results became physically possible.”

The spectrum also suggested that GJ504b is unusually rich in heavy elements, or metals. However, the mystery of the object’s formation persists, with current data suggesting it could have formed either like a planet or a small star.

Baburaj says the techniques used in the study could help unravel other mysteries surrounding cold, faint planets. Jupiter, for example, hosts clouds made of ammonia ice. While those cloud types remain beyond the reach of current observations, the detection of GJ504b’s salt clouds suggests astronomers are getting closer... (MORE - details)

Ancient Crocodile-Like Babies Challenge What We Know About Tetrapod Evolution
https://www.discovermagazine.com/ancient...tion-49268

EXCERPTS: Life on land likely evolved when one of our ancient fish ancestors developed legs and came ashore. These early creatures, known as tetrapods — creatures with four limbs — would eventually evolve into the birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals of today.

Previous studies suggest that these early tetrapods may have been similar to modern-day amphibians because they likely laid eggs and, when the young hatched, underwent a tadpole-like phase before morphing into their full-grown forms.

New findings of fossilized baby tetrapods may, however, be shaking up our understanding of how these creatures grew into adulthood. Published in the journal Science, these early fossils suggest that these creatures skipped the tadpole phase of their metamorphosis and were not as similar to modern-day amphibians as previously thought.

“When a lot of us were in high school, we were taught this simplified story of evolution: that some fish evolved into amphibians, and some of those amphibians evolved into reptiles, and some of those reptiles evolved into mammals. And our study shows that this basic underlying premise, that the first four-legged vertebrates grew up like amphibians, is wrong,” Jason Pardo, a research associate at the Field Museum in Chicago and the study’s co-lead author, said in a press release.

[...] “We looked at a number of different species that represent different lineages in the transition from fish to tetrapods, and what we found is that none of them have anything that looks remotely like a tadpole. And if you don't have a tadpole, then you don't have a metamorphosis,” Pardo said. “These early tetrapods’ life cycles are more like ours, or like those of fish, than they are like amphibians.”

These results are changing what previous studies have found and rewriting the previously held hypothesis that mammals and reptiles likely evolved from an amphibian-like animal. “The story was that metamorphosis is the tool by which animals made the transition from fossil to land. That story doesn’t work anymore; it’s dust in the wind,” Pardo said... (MORE - missing details)

https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/s...e-concerns

EXCERPTS: Six mysterious Russian satellites launched earlier this year have been creeping toward an observation spacecraft used by Ukraine. Experts worry the complex maneuvers may be a prelude to an attempt to destroy the satellite or disrupt its operations.

Something about the way in which Russia placed into orbit a batch of its Kosmos satellites in late April of this year piqued Greg Gillinger’s interest. Gillinger, the Senior Vice President at space intelligence company Integrity ISR, thought it was strange when Russia used its Soyuz rocket to drop off the first of the satellites at an altitude of 550 kilometers, then dispatched the rest to a different orbital plane using the Volga space tug.

The satellites, numbered 2609 to 2614, weigh about 600 kilograms each. But that’s about as much as Western analysts know about them. For Gillinger, the effort Russia put into fine-tuning its orbits raises alarms.

[...] “My assumption is that you don’t do this by accident,” said Gillinger. “It requires an enormous amount of energy to change orbital inclination. It’s not typical to see reconnaissance satellites or communication satellites or other types of satellites do anything like this.”

[...] Gillinger says that although the Russian sextet doesn’t “do anything dangerous or alarming” at the moment. The close approaches suggest that Russia may want to cause some harm to the ICEYE satellites or disrupt their operations.

“It’s a behavior we haven’t seen before,” Gillinger said. “It could be something as easy as an inspection mission. We don’t know. They might even want to interfere with the ICEYE satellite kinetically or non-kinetically.”

[...] Victoria Samson, the Chief Director for Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation, said that although the Kosmos satellites are not the first Russian spacecraft to sneak up on Western spacecraft in orbit, the incident is a step-up from earlier Russian threats.

“This type of RPO (rendezvous and proximity operations) is not unusual for Russia,” Samson told Supercluster in an email. “Their Luch and Luch 2 satellites have gotten co-planar [orbiting in the same plane] with numerous US intelligence satellites. But this is the first time, as far as I know, that Russian satellites have gotten co-planar with a commercial satellite in low Earth orbit.”

[...] “We might want to start thinking about equipping satellites with their own space awareness capabilities,” he said. “If you really want to be certain what’s going on around your satellites, having an onboard capability to see the surrounding area will become more important..."

[...] Space security experts have been sounding the alarm for years about emerging threats in the space environment. Last year, China sent ripples through the space world by performing close-proximity maneuvers described as satellite dogfighting. U.S. military sources said at that time that five Chinese satellites had been moving around each other “in synchronicity and with control” in a way reminiscent of the acrobatic chases performed during the Second World War between German and British fighter aircraft.

In January this year, Germany’s State Secretary for Defence Jens Plötner said that European satellites experience interference from Russia and China “on an almost daily basis,” according to Euronews... (MORE - missing detail)

'Freddie' is the screen name of a young German soccer-football fan who came to the United States with two friends to see World Cup games.

They rented a car in Atlanta or someplace and set out on an epic road-trip from state to state, across the South, posting everything that he saw and discovered on X as he went.

Freddie couldn't believe that they were selling guns in there, and even had a shooting range in the store! I guess you don't see that in Europe.

They discovered Buc'ees and couldn't believe America had gas stations like this. Or at least the South does (mostly Texas, but Buc'ees is spreading across the region. No Buc'ees in California.)

https://www.itv.com/news/central/2026-06...t-lamppost

EXCERPTS: A recovery truck driver who killed his teenage girlfriend by ramming her against a lamppost with his truck has been found guilty of her murder.

[...] "Within two minutes of the collision, Mohammed Azim has placed Lily back into the recovery truck and he makes a 999 call, during which he fabricates a version of events about what happened to Lily. He says that another car came along and hit Lily and ran her over, causing her injuries, and had driven off."

When he called 999 he repeated the claim that she had been "hit by a car" and didn't offer her any help. He was captured on body camera once again telling emergency crews he had chased after the car he claimed hit Lily as she was crossing the road.

Azim was arrested at the scene.DI Nigel Box said Azim had never shown any remorse in court.

"What was noticeable was that he was really focused on how this had impacted on him and the fact that he was in prison and the fact that he was being made to come and relive the events of that night ... At no point did he acknowledge Lily's family and the devastation that he'd caused them, and he never acknowledged Lily at all."

Lily had been looking forward to life as a mum, in a new flat which she was getting ready for when the baby was ready to come home... (MORE - missing details)

She hadn't received employment in a major production since the mid-2010s, so it's a "slip through the cracks" failure of DEI, diversity hiring, and positive discrimination in the UK (and to a lesser extent the entertainment industry across the pond).
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Who is Emaa Hussen: Hussen is a 34-year-old British actress of Somali heritage who built a small but visible profile in UK screen productions during the 2010s.

British actress accused of trying to smuggle $208 million worth of meth into Australia in charcoal bags
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emaa-hussen...-charcoal/

INTRO: A British actress has been charged with attempting to smuggle 700 pounds of methamphetamine into Australia from West Africa, according to CBS News' partner network the BBC.

Emaa Hussen, 34, who appeared in the 2013 action thriller "Redemption" with Jason Statham, and a spin-off of the U.K.'s long-running series EastEnders in 2010, appeared in a Sydney court Thursday to face accusations of trying to bring $208 million worth of meth into the country.

Police have said the drugs were hidden in bags of charcoal loaded into shipping containers sent from Ghana, according to the BBC. The maximum penalty Hussen could face is life imprisonment.

The drugs seizure "has prevented a potential 3.2 million deals from reaching Australian streets," Acting Superintendent Trevor Robinson, of the Australian Federal Police, said in a statement.

"Criminal syndicates will go to great lengths to disguise illicit drugs, including embedding them in everyday goods like charcoal, but our highly skilled officers are trained to see beyond these attempts," said Border Force Superintendent Jared Leighton... (MORE - details)

(UK) Preston Davey's paedophile dads 'totally naive' to horrors that await them in jail
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pr...n-37315621

INTRO: A giggly child with gorgeous curls and a bright smile, Preston Davey's spark was cruelly stamped out by the men tasked with keeping him safe. The 13-month-old tot died at the hands of his evil adoptive father Jamie Varley, after months of sexual abuse, physical assault and psychological torment. Varley's partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, also played a part Preston's death and joined in on the sickening abuse.

This week, Varley was handed a whole life order for his despicable crimes - a sentence so rare that it is reserved for the worst of humanity. McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, was sentenced to 25 years for allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual assault of a child. He will serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars.

After showing no remorse in the dock, the monstrous pair are in for a rude awakening about how peadophiles and child killers are treated behind bars, a convicted murderer tells the Mirror... (MORE - details)
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Moment three of UK's most dangerous inmates storm child killer's cell and murder him
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mo...s-37321030

INTRO: Chilling CCTV footage captures the moment three of the UK's most dangerous inmates entered the cell of infamous child killer Kyle Bevan before stabbing him 25 times in a five-minute knife frenzy - and then stood around laughing.

Mark Fellows, a gangland assassin known as 'The Iceman,' Lee Newell who had already killed one child murderer in prison and David Taylor, who stabbed a detective in a police interview, gathered to launch their knife attack on Bevan, 33, in his cell at HMP Wakefield last November. After leaving the cell they are seen laughing and joking with each other.

Infamous Bevan was serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years for murdering his partner's two-year-old daughter, Lola James, in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020.

The three men were seen on CCTV following Bevan into his cell shortly after 5.30pm on November 4 and emerging less than five minutes later in "a satisfied, job-done mood", prosecutors said... (MORE - details)

Burnham is one-half Co-operative Party (not fully Labour), so I guess that explains the bizarreness of him telling Starmer to step down when he's actually an instance of a "Labour candidate" winning while Starmer is PM.
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Step aside Starmer
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/...de-starmer

INTRO: No more messing about — read the room and get out, the labour movement told Sir Keir Starmer today after Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election. Mr Burnham will now call for the Prime Minister to quit in the wake of his larger than expected majority in the poll, seeing off hard-right Reform by more than 20 per cent of the vote. Trade union leaders and Labour MPs united in demanding that Sir Keir depart in the near future, opening the way for Mr Burnham to take over. Celebrating his victory, the Greater Manchester mayor had billed it as Labour’s “final chance to change” and pledged a “new path” for Britain... (MORE - details)

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MICHAEL HEAVER
https://youtu.be/GH6UjsZnZOc

Cabinet to Starmer: Time to go...

Labour goes into utter meltdown.. https://youtu.be/GH6UjsZnZOc
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GH6UjsZnZOc