A team of deep-sea explorers visited the wreck of the RMS Titanic for the first time in nearly 15 years, and discovered that large portions of the wreck are vanishing as rust and aquatic microbes eat away. The international team, which had previously dove the Marianas Trench, used a submersible to descend to and navigate the two halves of the Titanic, which are spread out over half a kilometer of seabed. The series of five dives to the wreck were used to capture footage for a documentary, as well as…
As part of an escalating diplomatic dispute, South Korea announced on Thursday that it would end the sharing of military intelligence with Japan. The rift between the two nations, usually mediated by US influence, has widened in recent months and has led to a trade war in the Pacific. Tensions were first sparked in this exchange by South Korean court rulings that demanded reparations from Japanese companies that made use of Korean forced labor during the Japanese occupation of Korea in World War Two. Japan largely avoids acknowledging the crimes…
In January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk accused the government of Singapore of being ‘unsupportive’ of a shift to electric vehicles. Now, the Singaporean minister for the environment fired back in a statement that accuses Musk and Tesla of wanting to promote a lifestyle over actual solutions to climate problems. “What Elon Musk wants to produce is a lifestyle,” minister Masagos Zulkifli said on Wednesday. “We are not interested in a lifestyle. We are interested in proper solutions that will address climate problems.” Masagos stated that while it would be possible…
The US 10th Circuit Court announced a ruling on Tuesday that protects electors, the ultimate authority on the allocation of votes in the US presidential elections, who choose to vote against the results of the popular vote in their states. The court ruling holds that electors cannot be compelled to vote in a certain way once selected, cannot be recalled after selection, and cannot be punished for voting in a given way. As a circuit court decision, the ruling has immediate effect in the states of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico,…
A test case for the solar road technology which attracted attention in 2016 has now been declared a failure by the Global Construction Review and France’s Le Monde. A one kilometre solar panel road that was opened in Normandy, near the town of Tourouvre, in 2016, has failed to live up to promised standards of durability or energy production. According to Le Monde reporting from July, the solar panels have degraded to the point that 100 metres of the road had to be removed entirely. Power production only reached half of what was…
A climate change scientist who previously ran health programs at the Centers for Disease Control is now planning to file a whistleblower complaint against the agency, alleging he was removed from his office in retaliation for calling out an illegal misuse of funds set aside for climate work. George Luber ran the climate and health program at the CDC, until his office of 18 people was rolled into a bigger asthma program, which initially was set to include the word climate in its title, but was ultimately named asthma and…
Blogging platform Tumblr was valued at over one billion dollars when Yahoo acquired it in 2013. Now, six years later and with Yahoo’s former assets snapped up by Verizon Media Group, Tumblr has been sold off to WordPress for a miniscule three million. The collapse of the platform’s value is tied to a long history of mismanagement by companies never quite sure how to capitalize on an internet blogging service populated heavily by the millennial audience. Tumblr as a service is comparable to Instagram, leaning heavily on image posting to…
The Russian city of Severodvinsk is in a panic after an explosion at a military testing site Thursday killed two and was followed by reports of high radiation levels in the region. Russia’s defense ministry reported the explosion’s source as being the propellant from a rocket engine test. The ministry further claimed that there were no harmful emissions. However, images began to circulate on social media of emergency personnel wearing hazmat suits and equipped with Geiger counters, alongside claims that victims from the explosion, including defence ministry officials, were being…
On Monday, the Indian government announced the repeal of Article 370 of its constitution, effectively removing the statehood of the region of Jammu and Kashmir after thousands of troops were rushed into the region last week. This action changes the status of the Jammu and Kashmir region to “union territory” placing it under direct control of the central government in Delhi. A further proposal would divide the singular Jammu-and-Kashmir region into two, creating the union territory of Ladakh. The regional constitution is abolished, and local party leaders have been placed…
In the ongoing struggle between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU negotiators over the terms of Brexit, Johnson’s backup plan has consistently been to seek increased trade with the United States should a no-deal Brexit stifle trade with the EU. Despite President Trump’s fondness for Johnson, however, a 54-member Congressional caucus now threatens to block any such trade deal if Johnson continues with current plans to scrap the Irish backstop and threaten the Good Friday agreement between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The Friends of Ireland caucus,…