Why Venus is now a slim crescent and will disappear from the evening sky this weekend

Jamie Carter
Fri, August 11, 2023

Venus as a razor-thin crescent as it nears inferior conjunction with the sun.

You may have noticed in recent weeks that the planet Venus has slipped from the post-sunset sky, slimming into a crescent shape as it drops from view. Its reign as the bright "Evening Star" in 2023 is over, as a relatively rare celestial phenomenon takes shape.

On Aug. 13, Venus will appear to be between Earth and the sun, which astronomers describe as being at inferior conjunction. It's purely a line-of-sight phenomenon, and from Earth's point of view it can only happen to two planets in the solar system — Mercury and Venus — both of which are inferior planets, which means they are closer to the sun than Earth. The outer planets, which lie farther from the sun than Earth, are called superior planets by astronomers.

Another way of understanding Venus at inferior conjunction is to think of it as in its "new" phase, much as a new moon sits between Earth and the sun. Just like a new moon, Venus at inferior conjunction will be virtually invisible to us on Earth. On Aug. 13, the planet will be completely lost in the sun's glare and impossible to observe. This phenomenon happens once every 19 months, according to EarthSky, because Venus' orbit around the sun takes just 225 days (compared with Earth's 365).

As Venus has been approaching inferior conjunction, it's been thinning to a slim crescent, just as the moon becomes a waning crescent on its way to becoming a new moon. Appearing closer to the sun with each passing day, Venus has been sinking lower to the horizon in the post-sunset western sky. As well as losing latitude, it's also been losing light. As the angle between it and the sun has been reducing, on Earth we've been able to see less and less sunlight reflected from Venus.

Venus won't appear to cross the sun's disk on Aug. 13, instead passing just 7.7 degrees to its south and be just 0.9% illuminated, according to BBC Sky At Night magazine. The moment when the planet appears to pass across the disk of the sun as seen from Earth is called a transit of Venus, which last happened on June 5 to 6, 2012. A transit won't happen again until Dec. 10 to 11, 2117.

— The 'man in the moon' may be hundreds of millions of years older than we thought

Venus' trip into the sun's glare will be brief. Venus and Earth are in an 8:13 resonance, so from Earth's point of view, Venus orbits the sun 13 times in every eight Earth years, according to The Planetary Society. A week or two after its inferior conjunction, Venus will have moved sufficiently away from the sun's glare to emerge into the dawn sky and begin its appearance as the "Morning Star". It will reach its highest point in the sky on Oct. 23 as it appears 46.4 degrees west of the sun, according to Astro Pixels. That farthest point from the sun is called its greatest elongation west.

Venus reached superior conjunction (appearing to go behind the sun) on June 4, 2024, achieving its greatest elongation east in the post-sunset sky on Jan. 10, 2025, according to Timeanddate.com.

If you're looking to photograph Venus, the upcoming Perseid meteor shower or the night sky in general, don't miss our guide on how to photograph meteor showers, as well as our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

This story was provided by Livescience.

THE MORNING STAR IS THE EVENING STAR

Instruments for NASA's VERITAS Venus mission get a test in Iceland (photos)

Stefanie Waldek
Fri, August 11, 2023 

a drone alights on the hand of a man standing in the middle of a black lava field with mountains in the background


NASA's VERITAS Venus mission might be on hold, but team members continue to test out its gear here on Earth.

The German Aerospace Center (known by the German acronym DLR), a VERITAS mission partner, is conducting field tests in Iceland this summer, using its airborne F-SAR radar sensor and an infrared imager called V-EMulator to study lava flows. As Venus is expected to have a volcanic surface, the volcanic landscapes of Iceland serve as a strong analog for what VERITAS might find on our neighboring planet.

"Characterizing and measuring the extent and type of volcanic and tectonic processes on Venus is key to understanding the evolution of the surface of Venus and rocky planets in general," Sue Smrekar, the principal investigator for VERITAS at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said in a statement.

Related: Here's every successful Venus mission humanity has ever launched

two people stand on a black lava field with a white insrument on a black tripod

During two weeks of field operations, scientists and researchers from DLR and JPL will use the F-SAR radar system mounted on DLR's Dornier 228-212 aircraft to collect imaging data from Iceland's surface. Simultaneously, teams are collecting data and samples on the ground for laboratory analysis to supplement the radar data.

DLR is also testing V-EMulator, a prototype for the eventual Venus Emissivity Mapper that will be installed on VERITAS (whose name is short for "Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography And Spectroscopy").

"This will be of tremendous help to us in characterizing the mineralogical composition and origin of the major geologic terrains on the Venusian surface when VEM delivers 'true' Venus data during the mission phase," Solmaz Adeli, of DLR's Institute of Planetary Research, said in the same statement.

radar image of a lava field, featuring greenish patches of fresher lava against a dark background of older deposits.

RELATED STORIES:

— Problems with NASA asteroid mission Psyche delay Venus probe's launch to 2031

— NASA Venus mission VERITAS becomes collateral damage amid budget pressures

— Venus may have supported life billions of years ago

NASA intended VERITAS to launch in 2027, but due to institutional troubles at JPL, among other issues, the mission has been delayed indefinitely. It is expected that VERITAS might launch in the early 2030s, though mission funding has been reduced and further delays might occur.

The agency is also developing another Venus mission, called DAVINCI ("Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging"), which is scheduled to reach the planet in the early 2030s. Europe's EnVision probe, another Venus effort, is expected to get off the ground in that same general time frame as well.

As these three missions show, scientific interest in the second planet from the sun has surged over the past few years. Researchers increasingly view Venus as a possible abode for life, both in the ancient past and in the present day. Life as we know it cannot exist on the planet's scorching-hot surface today, but conditions about 30 miles (50 kilometers) up in the clouds are much more Earth-like.

The largest known asteroid impact structure on Earth is buried in southeast Australia, new evidence suggests

Andrew Glikson

Sat, August 12, 2023 

An artist's depiction of an asteroid hitting Earth.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. 

In recent research published by myself and my colleague Tony Yeates in the journal Tectonophysics, we investigate what we believe – based on many years of experience in asteroid impact research – is the world's largest known impact structure, buried deep in the earth in southern New South Wales.

The Deniliquin structure, yet to be further tested by drilling, spans up to 520 kilometers in diameter. This exceeds the size of the near-300-km-wide Vredefort impact structure in South Africa, which to date has been considered the world's largest.

Related: 10 Earth impact craters you must see

Hidden traces of Earth's early history

The history of Earth's bombardment by asteroids is largely concealed. There are a few reasons for this. The first is erosion: the process by which gravity, wind and water slowly wear away land materials through time.

When an asteroid strikes, it creates a crater with an uplifted core. This is similar to how a drop of water splashes upward from a transient crater when you drop a pebble in a pool.

This central uplifted dome is a key characteristic of large impact structures. However, it can erode over thousands to millions of years, making the structure difficult to identify.

Structures can also be buried by sediment through time. Or they might disappear as a result of subduction, wherein tectonic plates can collide and slide below one another into Earth's mantle layer.

Nonetheless, new geophysical discoveries are unearthing signatures of impact structures formed by asteroids that may have reached tens of kilometers across – heralding a paradigm shift in our understanding of how Earth evolved over eons. These include pioneering discoveries of impact "ejecta," which are the materials thrown out of a crater during an impact.

Researchers think the oldest layers of these ejecta, found in sediments in early terrains around the world, might signify the tail end of the Late Heavy Bombardment of Earth. The latest evidence suggests Earth and the other planets in the Solar System were subject to intense asteroid bombardments until about 3.2 billion years ago, and sporadically since.

Some large impacts are correlated with mass extinction events. For example, the Alvarez hypothesis, named after father and son scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez, explains how non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out as a result of a large asteroid strike some 66 million years ago.

Uncovering the Deniliquin structure

The Australian continent and its predecessor continent, Gondwana, have been the target of numerous asteroid impacts. These have resulted in at least 38 confirmed and 43 potential impact structures, ranging from relatively small craters to large and completely buried structures.

Map of the country Australia with red, green and yellow dots showing circular formations

As you'll recall with the pool and pebble analogy, when a large asteroid hits Earth, the underlying crust responds with a transient elastic rebound that produces a central dome.

Such domes, which can slowly erode and/or become buried through time, may be all that’s preserved from the original impact structure. They represent the deep-seated "root zone" of an impact. Famous examples are found in the Vredefort impact structure and the 170-km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico. The latter represents the impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Between 1995 and 2000, Tony Yeates suggested magnetic patterns beneath the Murray Basin in New South Wales likely represented a massive, buried impact structure. An analysis of the region's updated geophysical data between 2015 and 2020 confirmed the existence of a 520 km diameter structure with a seismically defined dome at its centre.

The Deniliquin structure has all the features that would be expected from a large-scale impact structure. For instance, magnetic readings of the area reveal a symmetrical rippling pattern in the crust around the structure's core. This was likely produced during the impact as extremely high temperatures created intense magnetic forces.

A central low magnetic zone corresponds to 30-km-deep deformation above a seismically defined mantle dome. The top of this dome is about 10km shallower than the top of the regional mantle.

Magnetic measurements also show evidence of "radial faults": fractures that radiate from the center of a large impact structure. This is further accompanied by small magnetic anomalies which may represent igneous "dikes," which are sheets of magma injected into fractures in a pre-existing body of rock.

map of an asteroid impact structure with radial lines

Radial faults, and igneous sheets of rocks that form within them, are typical of large impact structures and can be found in the Vredefort structure and the Sudbury impact structure in Canada.

Currently, the bulk of the evidence for the Deniliquin impact is based on geophysical data obtained from the surface. For proof of impact, we'll need to collect physical evidence of shock, which can only come from drilling deep into the structure.

When did the Deniliquin impact happen?

The Deniliquin structure was likely located on the eastern part of the Gondwana continent, prior to it splitting off into several continents (including the Australian continent) much later.

The Deniliquin structure was likely created in eastern Gondwana during the Late Ordovician.

Related stories:

— Asteroid impact, not volcanic activity, killed the dinosaurs, study finds
— Fiery meteor that doomed the dinosaurs struck at 'deadliest possible' angle
— How did birds survive the dinosaur-killing asteroid?

The impact that caused it may have occurred during what’s known as the Late Ordovician mass extinction event. Specifically, I think it may have triggered what’s called the Hirnantian glaciation stage, which lasted between 445.2 and 443.8 million years ago, and is also defined as the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event.

This huge glaciation and mass extinction event eliminated about 85% of the planet’s species. It was more than double the scale of the Chicxulub impact that killed off the dinosaurs.

It is also possible the Deniliquin structure is older than the Hirnantian event, and may be of an early Cambrian origin (about 514 million years ago). The next step will be to gather samples to determine the structure’s exact age. This will require drilling a deep hole into its magnetic centre and dating the extracted material.

It's hoped further studies of the Deniliquin impact structure will shed new light on the nature of early Paleozoic Earth.

Acknowledgment: I'd like to thank my colleague Tony Yeates, who originated the view of the Deniliquin multi-ring structure as an impact structure – and who was instrumental to this work.

This story originally appeared on The Conversation.

Virgin Galactic’s first space tourists had a ‘surreal experience’

Ashley Strickland, CNN
Sat, August 12, 2023 

Space tourists (from left) Jon Goodwin, Anastatia Mayers and her mother, Keisha Schahaff, pose for photos ahead of their Thursday flight. 

- Andres Leighton/AP

The dreams we have as children often stick with us for the rest of our lives.

And if your dream involved venturing to the stars, space tourism has opened up another avenue for those who didn’t study to become astronauts — albeit at a hefty price.

Those who have been willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a ticket to ride to the edge of space have also endured a lengthy wait, and for most of them it’s not over yet.

Billionaire Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, and it built up a backlog of 800 paying passengers. After years of missed deadlines, the company finally started delivering on its long-promised journeys with an inaugural commercial launch in June funded by the Italian air force.

Now, three more space travelers have a cosmic tale to tell.

Defying gravity

Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane carried its first group of tourists on a brief trip Thursday.

The lucky trio included the first Olympian and mother-daughter duo to travel to space.

Entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers were the first space travelers from Antigua. They were joined by Jon Goodwin, who competed as a canoeist in the 1972 Munich Summer Games and became the second person with Parkinson’s disease to travel to space.

Mayers said she was “starstruck” by the experience of glimpsing Earth, and Goodwin described the hour-long journey as “a completely surreal experience.”

Separately, Russia and India are in a lunar space race to see which of their respective uncrewed spacecraft will land on the moon first in a couple of weeks.

Virgin Galactic's first space tourists finally soar, an Olympian and a mother-daughter duo

SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and MARCIA DUNN
Updated Thu, August 10, 2023 

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) — Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.

The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after a brief flight that gave passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.

This first private customer flight had been delayed for years; its success means Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic can now start offering monthly rides, joining Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX in the space tourism business.

“That was by far the most awesome thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Jon Goodwin, who competed in canoeing in the 1972 Olympics.

Goodwin, 80, was among the first to buy a Virgin Galactic ticket in 2005 and feared, after later being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, that he’d be out of luck. Since then he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and cycled back down, and said he hopes his spaceflight shows others with Parkinson’s and other illnesses that ”it doesn’t stop you doing things.”

Ticket prices were $200,000 when Goodwin signed up. The cost is now $450,000.

He was joined on the flight by sweepstakes winner Keisha Schahaff, 46, a health coach from Antigua, and her daughter, Anastatia Mayers, 18, a student at Scotland's University of Aberdeen. They high-fived and pumped their fists as the spaceport crowd cheered their return.

"A childhood dream has come true,” said Schahaff, who took pink Antiguan sand up with her. Added her daughter: “I have no words. The only thought I had the whole time was ‘Wow!’ ”

With the company's astronaut trainer and one of the two pilots, it marked the first time women outnumbered men on a spaceflight, four to two.

Cheers erupted from families and friends watching below when the craft’s rocket motor fired after it was released from the twin-fuselage aircraft that had carried it aloft. The rocket ship’s portion of the flight lasted about 15 minutes and it reached 55 miles (88 kilometers) high.

It was Virgin Galactic's seventh trip to space since 2018, but the first with a ticket-holder. Branson, the company's founder, hopped on board for the first full-size crew ride in 2021. Italian military and government researchers soared in June on the first commercial flight. About 800 people are currently on Virgin Galactic’s waiting list, according to the company.

In contrast to Virgin Galactic’s plane-launched rocket ship, the capsules used by SpaceX and Blue Origin are fully automated and parachute back down.

Like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin aims for the fringes of space, quick ups-and-downs from West Texas. Blue Origin has launched 31 people so far, but flights are on hold following a rocket crash last fall. The capsule, carrying experiments but no passengers, landed intact.

SpaceX, is the only private company flying customers all the way to orbit, charging a much heftier price, too: tens of millions of dollars per seat. It’s already flown three private crews. NASA is its biggest customer, relying on SpaceX to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station. since 2020.

People have been taking on adventure travel for decades, the risks underscored by the recent implosion of the Titan submersible that killed five passengers on their way down to view the Titanic wreckage. Virgin Galactic suffered its own casualty in 2014 when its rocket plane broke apart during a test flight, killing one pilot. Yet space tourists are still lining up, ever since the first one rocketed into orbit in 2001 with the Russians.

Branson, who lives in the British Virgin Islands, watched Thursday's flight from a party in Antigua. He was joined by the country's prime minister, as well as Schahaff's mother and other relatives.

"Welcome to the club,” he told the new spacefliers via X, formerly Twitter.

Several months ago, Branson held a virtual lottery to establish a pecking order for the company's first 50 customers — dubbed the Founding Astronauts. Virgin Galactic said the group agreed Goodwin would go first, given his age and his Parkinson’s.

___

This story has been updated to correct introductory price to $200,000, not $250,000.

___

Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

'Quantum superchemistry' observed for the 1st time ever

Stephanie Pappas
Sun, August 13, 2023 

Illustration of atomic orb.

For the first time, researchers have observed "quantum superchemistry" in the lab.

Long theorized but never before seen, quantum superchemistry is a phenomenon in which atoms or molecules in the same quantum state chemically react more rapidly than do atoms or molecules that are in different quantum states. A quantum state is a set of characteristics of a quantum particle, such as spin (angular momentum) or energy level.

To observe this new super-charged chemistry, researchers had to coax not just atoms, but entire molecules, into the same quantum state. When they did, however, they saw that the chemical reactions occurred collectively, rather than individually. And the more atoms were involved, meaning the greater the density of the atoms, the quicker the chemical reactions went.

"What we saw lined up with the theoretical predictions," Cheng Chin, a professor of physics at the University of Chicago who led the research, said in a statement. "This has been a scientific goal for 20 years, so it's a very exciting era."

Related: What is quantum entanglement?

"What we saw lined up with the theoretical predictions," Cheng Chin, a professor of physics at the University of Chicago who led the research, said in a statement. "This has been a scientific goal for 20 years, so it's a very exciting era."

The team reported their findings July 24 in the journal Nature Physics. They observed the quantum superchemistry in cesium atoms that paired up to form molecules. First, they cooled cesium gas to near absolute zero, the point at which all motion ceases. In this chilled state, they could ease each cesium atom into the same quantum state. They then altered the surrounding magnetic field to kick off the chemical bonding of the atoms.

These atoms reacted more quickly together to form two-atom cesium molecules than when the researchers conducted the experiment in normal, non-super-cooled gas. The resulting molecules also shared the same quantum state, at least over several milliseconds, after which the atoms and molecules start to decay, no longer oscillating together.

"[W]ith this technique, you can steer the molecules into an identical state," Chin said.

The researchers found that though the end result of the reaction was a two-atom molecule, three atoms were actually involved, with a spare atom interacting with the two bonding atoms in a way that facilitated the reaction.

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— 'Quantum time flip' makes light move simultaneously forward and backward in time

— Does consciousness explain quantum mechanics?

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This could be useful for applications in quantum chemistry and quantum computing, as molecules in the same quantum state share physical and chemical properties. The experiments are part of the field of ultracold chemistry, which aims to gain incredibly detailed control over chemical reactions by taking advantage of the quantum interactions that occur in these cold states. Ultracold particles could be used as qubits, or the quantum bits that carry information in quantum computing, for example.

The study used only simple molecules, so the next goal is to attempt to create quantum superchemistry with more complex molecules, Chin said.

"How far we can push our understanding and our knowledge of quantum engineering, into more complicated molecules, is a major research direction in this scientific community," he said.

This article was provided by Live Science.

Could white holes actually exist?
Paul Sutter
Sun, August 13, 2023 

graphic illustration showing a black hole above and a white hole below.

Black holes seem to get all the attention. But what about their mirror twins, white holes? Do they exist? And, if so, where are they?

To understand the nature of white holes, first we have to examine the much more familiar black holes. Black holes are regions of complete gravitational collapse, where gravity has overwhelmed all other forces in the universe and compressed a clump of material all the way down to an infinitely tiny point known as a singularity. Surrounding that singularity is an event horizon, which is not a physical, solid boundary, but simply the border around a singularity where the gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.

We know how the universe forms black holes. When a massive star dies, its immense weight crushes onto its core, triggering the creation of a black hole. Any matter or radiation that wanders too close to the black hole gets trapped by the strong gravity and pulled beneath the event horizon to its ultimate doom.

Related: What happens at the center of a black hole?

We understand this process of black hole formation, and how black holes interact with their environments, through Einstein's theory of general relativity. To arrive at the concept of a white hole, we have to recognize that general relativity doesn't care about the flow of time. The equations are time-symmetric, meaning the math works perfectly fine running forward or backward in time.

So if we were to take a movie of the formation of a black hole and run it in reverse, we would find an object streaming radiation and particles. Eventually, it would explode, leaving behind a massive star. This is a white hole, and according to general relativity, this scenario is perfectly fine.

White holes would be even stranger than black holes. They would still have singularities at their centers and event horizons at their borders. They would still be massive, gravitating objects. But any material that entered a white hole would immediately get ejected at a speed greater than that of light, causing the white glow to shine ferociously. Anything on the outside of a white hole would never be able to get inside it, because it would have to travel faster than the speed of light to cross inward through the event horizon.

But if white holes are allowed by the math of general relativity, then why don't we suspect that they exist in the real universe? The answer is that general relativity is not the only word on the cosmos. There are other branches of physics that tell us about the inner workings of the universe, like our theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics.

Within thermodynamics, there is the concept of entropy, which is, very roughly speaking, a measure of the disorder in a system. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the entropy of closed systems can only go up. In other words, disorder always increases.

As an example, say you throw a piano into a wood chipper. Out comes a bunch of pulverized debris. Disorder in the system has increased, and the second law of thermodynamics has been satisfied. But if you throw a bunch of random pieces into that same wood chipper, you won't get a fully formed piano out of it, because that would cause disorder to decrease. (Highly ordered systems, like life, can arise on Earth — but they come at the cost of increased entropy within the sun. You're still not getting pianos out of wood chippers, no matter how you construct your system.)

We can't simply run the process of black hole formation in reverse and get a white hole, because that would cause entropy to decrease — stars don't miraculously appear out of gigantic cosmic explosions. So, while general relativity is agnostic about the reality of white holes, thermodynamics gives the concept a hard no.

The only way to form a white hole would be to have some exotic process operating in the early universe that baked the existence of a white hole into the fabric of space-time itself. That way, the white hole formation process would bypass the trouble with decreasing the entropy — the white hole would simply be there, existing, since the beginning of time.

a fuzzy donut shape with a dark center and blurry orange ring.

The Event Horizon Telescope, a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration, captured this image of the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy M87 and its shadow. Here M87 is viewed in polarized light. (Image credit: EHT Collaboration)


RELATED STORIES:

— 'White holes' may be the secret ingredient in mysterious dark matter

— 5 sci-fi concepts that are possible (in theory)

— Where do black holes lead to?

Unfortunately, white holes would also be fantastically unstable. They would still gravitate and pull material toward them, but nothing would be able to cross the event horizons. As soon as anything, even a single photon (particle of light) approached a white hole, it would be doomed. If the particle approached the event horizon, it would not be able to cross it, sending the energy of the system skyrocketing. Eventually, the particle would have so much energy that it would trigger the collapse of the white hole into a black hole, ending its existence.

So, as fun and mind-bending as white holes appear to be, they do not seem to be features of the real universe — just ghosts haunting the mathematics of general relativity.

REWILDING

UK
Kettering 'unloved' meadow transformed into wildlife haven

Alex Pope - BBC News, Northamptonshire
Sun, August 13, 2023 

Slade Brook has been re-aligned to flow into the River Ise in Kettering


An "unloved, unutilised and inaccessible" flood meadow has been reconnected to a river to become a wildlife haven.

Nene Rivers Trust said the Slade Brook, on land owned by Wicksteed Park in Kettering, Northamptonshire, now flowed to the River Ise.

Viktor Tzikas, from the charity, said land once with "no value" would become a wetland full of biodiversity.

Wicksteed Park said the area had been "transformed" and was now accessible.

Lewis Mitchell, Wicksteed's park ranger, stood on the South Meadow after the reconnection work was completed

Mr Tzikas said its £150,000 flagship project to South Meadow, which started in September, had been completed.

"It was one of the biggest schemes we've worked on in recent years. We're very proud," he said.


"We now hope it will create a more diverse habitat for fish, birds and vegetation - a wetland full of biodiversity and a wildlife haven.

"It was unmanaged land with no value. It was taken on by Wicksteed Park, who didn't know what they could do with it, so they approached us and the Environment Agency, asked for advice and it then snowballed."

During the project, gravel was put in the River Ise to speed up its flow

He said the meadow used to be connected to the River Ise until it was realigned for a railway line in the late 1800s.

It could never be built on, but now could "be brought back to its most natural use", he said.

Building work started in September and went on for several months

Mr Tzikas said the site would work as another flood defence as it could store more water and take the pressure off the area upstream.

Robert Hunt, director of Wicksteed Park, said: "After many years of neglect the park, working alongside many partners, we've worked to reinstate many of the historic landscape features within the estate."

He said the meadow, once owned by the now defunct Kettering Borough Council, was handed over to the park.

"It's an uplifting example of collaboration and environmental stewardship that has transformed a practically unloved, unutilised and inaccessible piece of wasteland into a vibrant and open habitat for wildlife and the public."

Water can now flow from the Slade Brook straight into the River Ise, as it did hundreds of years ago

He added it would now be a "place that nobody walks to become a place to visit".

Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 0800 169 1830

UK

Endangered lapwing returns to County Down bog

BBC
Mon, August 14, 2023 

An endangered bird has returned to a County Down bog thanks to conservation efforts.

For the first time in years, two breeding pairs of lapwings have been spotted at Lecale Fens special area of conservation, just outside Downpatrick.

The bird is red-listed on the Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland and is a Northern Ireland priority species.

The breakthrough comes after efforts by Ulster Wildlife working with local farmer John Crea.

The number of lapwings has declined over the last 40 years due to the loss of wetland habitat and changes in farming practices.

The bird requires a range of habitats to breed, preferring boggy open areas with bare ground or short vegetation, avoiding areas of dense cover.

Innovative solutions

Since 2018, Ulster Wildlife has been working with specialist contractors and the farmer to eliminate invasive species and scrub, such as rhododendron, from Lecale Fens, using amphibious machinery.

Simon Gray, peatland conservation officer with Ulster Wildlife, said conservation efforts have been ongoing for five years.

"In the past, this area was managed by grazing or burning to stop scrub taking over and drying out the fen, but given climate concerns associated with peat burning and risks to livestock from deep water we had to come up with new and innovative solutions," he said.

"Five years later and we're thrilled to see our restoration efforts reap rewards for biodiversity, with Lecale Fens moving towards a healthy condition again."

Mr Gray said the changes would have a knock-on effect for other wildlife such as dragonflies, snipe and silver hook moth.

Mr Crea said he was delighted to see the lapwing back on his farm.

"It's brilliant to see these birds doing so well and we hope they come back again next year to breed," he said.

Ulster Wildlife is working with landowners across Northern Ireland to restore designated peatland sites along with large-scale peatland areas in need of restoration.

The aim is to help bring back the rich diversity of species these sites once supported, as well as the host of benefits peatlands provide from flood prevention to carbon sequestration.

Mr Gray added: "With over 75% of land in Northern Ireland farmed, it is vital that farmers and landowners are properly supported to help restore nature on a landscape scale with peatland sites, such as this, playing a vital role in helping to tackle the nature and climate crisis."

UK

Preston farmer's battery plant plan approved

BBC
Mon, August 14, 2023 

A Lancashire farmer's field is to be turned into a battery plant to store renewable energy until it is needed by the national grid.

Sixty four storage units will be built on rural land off Green Lane in Barton, Preston, near the M6.

They will enable power generated from wind and solar to be saved for periods of high demand.

City councillors approved the "novel" plans although a planning officer said there was a potential risk of fire.

There were no comments submitted to the authority in response to the proposed development, situated to the north of Mount Pleasant Farm, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The meeting heard the technology involved was "novel" and council planning case officer Jonathan Evans said there was "the potential risk of fire".

Two voted against the plans.

Harry Landless, Conservative councillor for Preston Rural East, described the proposals as a "doomsday scenario" and predicted a "proliferation of these [sites] all over our countryside".

Fellow Tory councillor Stephen Thompson for Preston Rural North added an industrial site in open countryside "shouldn't be allowed" and also expressed concern over what he said was technology that was "very early on" in its development.

In documents submitted by Baron Battery Storage, the company said it was a "sustainable development" and the risk of major accidents was "very low" and there was "no risk to human health" as a result of its plans.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service recommended Baron Battery Storage produce a risk reduction strategy and Preston planning committee was told the resultant document was considered by the fire brigade to be "satisfactory".

National Highways initially placed a holding objection on the plans in part because of the potential impact of a fire on the M6.

After the applicant engaged with roads bosses and produced a fire safety strategy it withdrew its objection subject to the submission of an emergency response plan.

Mark Dixon: A global ‘Democratic Market’ is needed to protect democracy

Mark Dixon
Fri, August 11, 2023 

Putin has shot himself in the foot. His recent expropriations of Western companies will actually help the West by damaging the Russian economy.

Expropriating the Russian assets of French company Danone and Danish company Carlsberg's Baltika subsidiary is reprehensible, but Putin is unwittingly actually harming Russia. He has bitten the hand that feeds him.

The more links that are cut between Russia and the West, the more the Russian economy will suffer. Russia will find it more difficult to finance its aggression, and Russian people will become more disillusioned with the Russian regime as they become poorer.

It doesn’t matter whether the Russian economy is disconnected by Western government sanctions, Western companies’ ethical voluntary exits, or by Putin expropriating the assets of unethical companies. They all lead to Russia becoming disconnected from the global economy.

Read also: Ukraine, allies must do more to hit Russia’s economy, says Moral Rating Agency head

Desert island economy

Russia should have been unplugged economically when it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Western governments failed to implement widespread sanctions, and the companies that have been embarrassed out of Russia are helping to make up for this failure.

Anything Putin does to disconnect Russia from Western investment and markets actually helps us finish the job we have failed to do fully ourselves.

In addition to actual expropriations, Western companies will assess the risk of being expropriated on top of the embarrassment of being seen to profit from Russia. Russia is steadily moving in the direction of becoming a “desert island economy.”

If we can make Russia a “desert island economy,” it will be destroyed financially because Russia is more dependent on exports than any other major nation as a percentage of its GNP, producing vastly more oil, gas, and minerals than its needs. This dependence on the West is Russia’s “Achilles’ heel.” If unplugged, it will not be able to survive as a stand-alone economy.

Read also: Risk of ‘big disruptions’ high in grain markets, says Black Sea expert

Why economic separation is good

The West should not pull its punches but do everything to weaken the Russian economy. We are already fighting a proxy war with Russia militarily and are fighting an open war for values. By any measure, Putin is an enemy of every democratic nation and person, and its market must be treated like an “enemy economy.”

The West should encourage the nascent trend toward two economic blocs in the world.

Russia will become more and more dependent on China, which is a much less rich market than OECD nations. If China supports Russia with excess trade to fill the gap, it will be doing something that hasn’t been economically optimal to date, just as Eastern bloc nations were forced to trade with each other before the break-up of the USSR.

The pain of this inferior economic opportunity will be suffered either by Russia taking the hit on pricing or by China having to subsidize Russia, which will only serve to weaken one or both of these undemocratic nations.

Read also: Kenneth Rogoff: Europe must lead Ukraine’s reconstruction

The end game

Unplugging Russia is the first step to separate the world into two economic blocs: a “Democratic Market” and an “Undemocratic Market.” Autocratic and totalitarian countries like Russia and China will cooperate with each other due to a lack of alternatives and become poorer and less powerful together.

The “Democratic Market” will be many times larger and will make democratic nations much richer than countries run by dictators. This would eventually consist of free trade between the U.S., EU, U.K., India, and every democratic country, which would impose barriers to the totalitarian and autocratic world.

We need to shift the wealth gap from dividing people and from dividing developed and developing economies, and intentionally apply it to democratic and undemocratic nations.

If an undemocratic nation wants to escape economic decline, it will need to become democratic. Its people will be motivated to remove their dictator so they can be welcomed into the “Democratic Market.” This will be a free market in which economic survival is the reward for democratic behavior and economic failure is the consequence of undemocratic or autocratic behavior.

The way we play our economic cards will determine whether we give democracy a long-term chance on the planet or we continue to finance totalitarianism to the point where it overpowers democracy in the end.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION 4 BLASPHEMY

Iran arrests 9 members of Baha’i faith on charges of smuggling medicine and financial wrongdoing

Associated Press
Mon, August 14, 2023 



TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s intelligence ministry arrested nine members of the Baha’i faith on charges of smuggling medicine and financial wrongdoing, state media reported on Monday.

State IRAN newspaper said the arrested people, mostly members of one family, had roles in smuggling medicine though a network of dozens of pharmacies. It said they bribed medics to send clients to the pharmacies and were involved in money laundering and tax evasion.

Iran bans the Baha’i religion, which was founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by his followers, and from time to time has arrested and prosecuted members of the faith on spying and security charges.

Muslims consider the Prophet Muhammad the highest and last prophet.

In 2013, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, urged Iranians to avoid all dealings with the Baha’i. Khamenei’s fatwa, or religious order, supported similar fatwas in the past by other clerics.

In 2022, authorities arrested several members of the faith on spying charges.

The Baha’i say they’ve been persecuted by Shiite clerics in Iran since their religion’s founding — something that’s grown more intense since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Prisoner deal heralds Iran-US thaw, but no nuclear deal seen

Shaun TANDON
Fri, August 11, 2023 

US President Joe Biden speaks in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 10, 2023 (Jim WATSON)


Two and a half years into Joe Biden's presidency, and after exhaustive diplomacy with Iran's clerical leadership, his administration has reached a first deal -- to free five detained Americans.

The delicate agreement heralds an easing of tensions between the longtime adversaries, and experts and diplomats believe it could bring further, quiet efforts to address concerns including Iran's nuclear work.

Few people, however, expect major agreements anytime soon, with the clock ticking to the 2024 US presidential election.

"I think both sides have an interest in using this initial agreement as the gateway to get back to dialogue, but not necessarily to a deal," said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, which promotes conflict resolution.


European-led talks collapsed last year on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, which constrained Iran's contested program in return for promises of sanctions relief but was trashed by former president Donald Trump.

Biden himself, in a caught-on-camera encounter at a campaign stop late last year, said the nuclear deal was "dead" in all but name, at a time when the Islamic republic was putting down massive protests led by women.

- De-escalation seen -

A source familiar with the negotiations said the prisoner agreement was separate from the nuclear issue. But he also said diplomacy has been effective in lowering the temperature with Iran, pointing to the truce that has held unofficially for more than a year in war-ravaged Yemen, where Huthi rebels are backed by Iran.

Attacks by Iranian-linked Shiite militias against US troops have also appeared to subside in Iraq, noted a diplomat from a US ally.

"The tensions are still very much there but the two governments are communicating, and that makes a difference," the diplomat said.

US and Iranian officials reopened diplomacy in May in indirect meetings arranged by Oman, with some talks exploring measures to cap Iran's nuclear program that stop short of fully restoring the nuclear deal, according to diplomats.

"I think the de-escalatory context already exists," said Vaez, who helped outside efforts to bridge gaps to reach the 2015 accord.

But he doubted the Biden administration has the appetite on a new nuclear deal with the election season opening.

"Any substantive deal with Iran requires significant sanctions relief that will be extremely politically controversial in the US," he said.

"On the Iranian side, given the proximity of US election, it doesn't make sense to them strategically to give away most of their leverage not knowing who the next US president is," he said, with Trump or another Republican likely to tear apart any new deal.

Republicans have gone on the offensive over the prisoner deal, accusing Biden of enriching a hostile regime.

In an agreement that Biden officials insist is not final, South Korea will unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue blocked over US sanctions, with the funds transferred to an account in Qatar for humanitarian purchases.

In an initial step, Iran moved five US citizens, one of them arrested nearly eight years ago on spying charges he strongly denies, from prison to a guarded hotel.

- Poor sign to Iran protesters? -

Holly Dagres, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, agreed that the prisoner deal amounted to "a confidence-building measure and could revive talks over Iran's nuclear program."

"But this also signals to Tehran that it can get relief from its hostage-taking model, which may prompt it to continue the status quo given that it can also sell oil due to weakly enforced sanctions," she said.

She also questioned the timing of the agreement. September 16 marks one year since death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the clerical state's morality police for not wearing the mandatory headscarf.

Her death prompted mass demonstrations in one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic republic established after the overthrow of the pro-Western shah in 1979.

"Doing a deal with the United States around such a sensitive period is, in essence, communicating to protesters that Washington doesn't care about their plight," Dagres said.

sct/acb

US offers caution on Iran prisoner release: ‘This deal is not done’

BY LAURA KELLY - 08/11/23 

The flag of Iran is seen in front of the building of the IAEA Headquarters. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter)


The Biden administration is in active negotiations with Iran to bring home five jailed Americans released to house arrest in anticipation of a reported prisoner exchange and the release of $6 billion in oil revenue for the purchase of critical life goods.

White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby on Friday cautioned that “the deal is not done” and that active discussions on how to bring home the five Americans are taking place.

Kirby also defended the deal from GOP criticism, saying the release of $6 billion will be tightly controlled for the purchase of food, medicine and medical equipment that does not have a dual military use.

“There would be a rigorous process of due diligence and standards applied with input from the U.S. Treasury Department,” he told reporters in a briefing call.

GOP critics have accused the administration of paying out a hefty ransom that will encourage adversaries like Russia and China to target Americans.

“While I welcome home wrongfully detained Americans, unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets dangerously further incentivizes hostage taking and provides a windfall for regime aggression,” tweeted Senator Jim Risch (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“The Biden Administration must punish those who use Americans as political pawns and work to end this practice.”

Democrats argued the concessions are a necessary step to rescue Americans unjustly detained.

“Agreements with hostile regimes to release hostages are never easy. They involve tradeoffs. Tough tradeoffs,” tweeted Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Middle East.

“But we are America and we bring our people home. Period. Stop. Biden made the right call.”

President Biden prioritized the release of Americans imprisoned abroad and in Iran, in particular.

Those released to house arrest included Siamak Namazi, who was given a 10-year prison sentence for “collaborating with enemy states,” but has been in prison since 2015; Emad Sharghi, who was sentenced in 2020 to 10 years in prison on charges of spying; and Morad Tahbaz, arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years on charges of spying.

Two other Americans are also part of the deal, U.S. officials have said, but they have not released their names out of respect for their privacy.

“There is more work to be done to actually bring them home,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference Thursday. “My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare and the nightmare that their families have experienced.”

The $6 billion stems from Iranian oil profits in South Korean banks that were frozen in 2019 following a decision by the Trump administration to revoke exceptions for certain countries to purchase oil from Iran while it was under U.S. sanctions.

The move was aimed at trying to bankrupt Tehran and bring its oil exports to zero, part of the former administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign that included former President Trump’s exit from the nuclear deal with Iran.

The Biden administration will reportedly transfer those funds to a bank account in Qatar controlled by the Qatari government, which will regulate Iranian purchases.


The successful return of Americans from prison in Iran – reportedly in exchange for five Iranians serving sentences in U.S. jails for sanctions violations – could prove an important confidence building measure between Washington and Tehran related to Iran’s nuclear program.

The New York Times reported in June that U.S. officials were in talks with Iran on an informal agreement where Tehran would limit its enrichment of nuclear-weapon fuel, expand cooperation with international nuclear inspectors, halt lethal attacks on U.S. contractors in Syria and Iraq by its proxy forces and hold back from selling ballistic missiles to Russia.

The U.S., in turn, the Times reported at the time, would release the billions in frozen oil profits and hold back on further tightening existing sanctions.

The reports drew intense pushback from GOP lawmakers who celebrated Trump’s pullout of the deal in 2018.

Kirby on Friday said that the administration is not focused on talks to renew the nuclear deal with Iran, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but said it would be welcome if Tehran took deescalating steps surrounding its nuclear program.

“If Iran were to take deescalating steps with respect to their nuclear ambitions again, that would all be to the good,” he said. “We are not in active negotiations with Iran, akin to the Iran deal, we’re not in active negotiations about the nuclear program. But certainly, those sorts of steps if they were to be true, would be welcome.”