The extent of sea ice in the Antarctic hit a record low in February, the second such event within five years, a new Chinese study shows.
The study, published on Tuesday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, revealed that on Feb. 25, a few days from the end of the Southern hemisphere’s summer, the extent of Antarctic sea ice dipped below 2 million square km for the first time since the launch of satellite observations of the poles in 1978.
Antarctic sea ice has been enjoying a trend of modest increase of about 1 percent per decade since the late 1970s, although the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is undergoing a rapid decline as a result of global warming.
Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) used sea-ice budget analysis to examine the sea-ice minimum in the summer of 2022.
The researchers suggest that the sea-ice record was due in part to an anomalous low and westward Amundsen Sea Low, a center of low atmospheric pressure over the far south of the Pacific Ocean and off the coast of West Antarctica.
Yang Qinghua, a co-author of the study from Sun Yat-sen University, said the phenomenon should be largely attributed to natural variability, although the role of global warming cannot be excluded without further study.
Russian forces launched a new offensive push along most of Ukraine’s eastern flank on Monday (April 18) and the “Battle of Donbas” has now begun, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and senior officials said.
Ukraine’s army has been bracing for a new Russian assault on its eastern flank since Moscow withdrew its forces from near Kyiv and from Ukraine’s north late last month in order to focus on an assault in the Ukrainian region of Donbas.
“We can now say that Russian forces have started the battle of the Donbas, for which they have long prepared,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.
Russia has been bulking up its forces in the east of Ukraine using troops that it pulled out of Ukraine’s north and neighbouring Belarus, a close Russian ally.
In a post on Facebook, the Ukrainian armed forces command said that Russia’s main military force was concentrating on taking control of the entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the swathe of land known as the Donbas.
“The second phase of the war has begun… Believe in our army, it is very strong,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s reinforcements have set the stage for a protracted battle that military analysts say is certain to inflict heavy losses on both sides as the Russians try to encircle Ukraine’s fighters dug in to defend the Donbas region.
White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell and the State Department’s top official for Asia will travel this week to the Solomon Islands, the White House said on Monday (April 18), amid concerns that the Pacific Island country is making a security pact with China.
Campbell and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will lead a delegation that includes Department of Defense and U.S. Agency for International Development officials to three countries: the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the White House National Security Council said in a statement.
The team will also stop in Hawaii to “consult with senior military officials and regional partners at United States Indo-Pacific Command,” it said, without giving dates for the trip.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said concerns over China would be among the subjects discussed with Solomon Islands officials.
U.S. policy toward the region was about ensuring countries understand the benefits of engagement with Washington and “not about China or any other country,” Price said at a regular press briefing.
“We’ll leave it to them to contrast what we offer from what other countries, including rather large countries in the region, might offer,” he said.
In February, the United States announced it would open an embassy in the Solomon Islands, part of an effort by the Biden administration to commit more diplomatic and security resources to the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s drive for greater influence.
The Solomon Islands said in March that it was creating a partnership with China to tackle security threats and ensure a safe environment for investment in what would be a major inroad for Beijing in a region that U.S. allies Australia and New Zealand have for decades seen as their “backyard.”
After a regional backlash, the Solomon Islands said it would not allow a Chinese military base there.
But U.S. officials remain concerned that the broad nature of the proposed agreement with China leaves the door open for the deployment of Chinese forces on the Solomon Islands, Price said.
“We believe that signing such an agreement could increase destabilization within the Solomon Islands and will set a concerning precedent for the wider Pacific island region,” he added.
China offered to redevelop a naval base in Papua New Guinea in 2018 but Australia’s closest northern neighbour decided to have Australia develop the base instead.
These chopsticks have the potential of making mealtimes more enjoyable for people who have to eat bland food due to health concerns.
Co-developed by Japan’s Meiji University’s School of Science and Technology Professor Homei Miyashita and Japanese beverage maker Kirin Holdings, the chopsticks can enhance the taste of food by using an electrical stimulation waveform.
The eating utensil is connected to a mini-computer device strapped to the eater’s wrist, a weak electric current moves sodium ions, the basis of salty taste in food, in the food that is being consumed.
The chopsticks enable the tongue of the person eating to feel an enhanced taste in their food, Miyashita said.
Miyashita and Kirin have conducted clinical tests on people who follow a low-sodium diet and found that the device enhances the salty taste of low-sodium food by up to 1.5 times.
Kirin office worker, Toshiaki Hyodo, demonstrated the chopsticks by eating low-sodium miso soup at his office. He said when he used the chopsticks, the healthier soup tasted just like the normal version.
According to Miyashita and Kirin, the daily salt intake of Japanese adults is about 10 grams, which is double the amount the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends.
Miyashita and Kirin researchers are currently refining the chopsticks and hope to commercialise them next year.
When Russian soldiers crossed into Sumy, a northern Ukrainian region, they expected to just roll through the streets for a smooth ride over to nearby Kyiv. Instead, the locals took up whatever arms they could get hold of, to drive out the invaders.
“According to the Russians, they had plans for (to takeover Sumy) in three to five days… Apparently, they knew that in the territory of Sumy region at that time there were almost no regular (army) troops, and there was only territorial defence,” said Dmytro Zhivitskyi, the head of Sumy’s regional and military administration.
The last of the Russian forces finally pulled out of Sumy around only a week ago, leaving a trail of destruction in several towns across the region, but Sumy’s territorial defence, the partisan militia that stayed behind to fight, is preparing for a new onslaught of assaults.
“I think the probability of an attack is high. They are determined and we understand that the number of people in Russia is about 150 million. Tomorrow they will put children into tanks and send them here… so until the tanks and people run out, they will keep sending people here,” said Zhivitskyi.
Sumy locals have grown up hearing tales of valiant partisan movements dating back to the Second World War, and the most recent incursion has only reinforced pride in the tradition. According to local territorial defence members, the volunteer militia numbers over 1,000, but membership is growing. Although there are now some Ukrainian military instalments in Sumy, locals would not give any numbers.
Ihor Hannenko, a former youth worker-turned territorial defence member, joined up on day one of the war. On Friday (April 15), Hannenko and several members of his brigade trained for communication drills, holding training simulations for a raid at an abandoned building on the city’s outskirts.
“There were a lot of situations when we would go on a mission, and we are called and told that there are no Russian columns there because someone had already destroyed them. And we didn’t even know who did it,” said 28-year-old Hannenko.
Russian forces have pulled back after suffering heavy losses and failing to take the capital Kyiv, as it focuses on the south and eastern regions of Ukraine. Moscow has since launched more long-range attacks, hitting targets in Kyiv and other major cities, following the sinking of its Black Sea fleet’s flagship. The attacks followed Russia’s announcement on Friday (April 15) that it would intensify long-range strikes in retaliation for unspecified acts of “sabotage” and “terrorism”, hours after it confirmed the sinking of its Black Sea flagship, the Moskva.
Kyiv and Washington say the ship, whose sinking has become a symbol of Ukrainian defiance, was hit by Ukrainian missiles. Moscow says it sank after a fire and its crew of around 500 were evacuated.
French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen denied being a ‘climate sceptic’ on Sunday (April 17) in response to an attack by President Emmanuel Macron.
On Saturday Macron told supporters in Marseille he would focus his new presidency on making France free of fossil fuels and slammed Le Pen as a “climate sceptic”.
Speaking on France 3 TV, a week ahead of the April 24 runoff, Le Pen said: “I don’t know what he is basing that on, but I’ve never been climate sceptic and have a programme that takes into consideration the environment and ecology.
“I do not see how you can be a climate sceptic when you talk to wine growers… and when they tell you that they themselves see a change of the climate in the production, in their crops.”
She said Macron was trying to exclude her from the environmental debate by portraying her as someone who didn’t care for the ecology.
The presidential race is being fought on the left, with both contenders seeking to attract voters who chose left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, a strong proponent of renewables and protection of the environment, in the first round last Sunday. Melenchon was eliminated, leaving Macron and Le Pen to contest the presidency.
Both support increased investment in France’s nuclear energy sector but Le Pen has called for a moratorium on wind and solar energy, and even for the ‘progressive dismantling’ of existing wind turbines.
Macron has pledged on the contrary to ‘massively deploy’ renewable energy production in France.
The Wentian and Mengtian lab modules will be sent into space this year, and will become the central working area for astronauts in orbit after China’s space station construction is completed, according to a press conference on Sunday.
The Wentian lab module will be launched in July and Mengtian in October, Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Agency, said at the press conference.
Yang Hong, the chief designer of the space station system of the China Manned Space Program at the China Academy of Space Technology, said that both modules are equipped with experiment cabinets and an installation platform for extravehicular payloads. In the two lab modules, astronauts will be able to research space science, space materials, space medicine and space exploration.
The Wentian lab module is equipped with the same astronaut living facilities as the Tianhe core module, including three sleeping areas, a toilet and a kitchen. Wentian and Tianhe can support six astronauts living in space during the rotations of two spacecraft crews.
A small mechanical arm is installed on the Wentian lab module. It can be used alone or work with the larger robotic arm on the Tianhe core module to assist astronauts in extravehicular activities.
An airlock cabin in the Wentian lab module will serve as the main exit-entry point for extravehicular activities once the construction is completed. The node cabin in Tianhe will then serve as a backup.
To ensure the reliability of the space station, Wentian will act as a backup for the management and control of the space station complex if there is an issue with the core module.
In the Mengtian lab module, a cargo airlock cabin and a deployed extravehicular platform will serve future extravehicular research projects. The science equipment that needs to be installed outside will first be sent to the space station by cargo craft, then transferred outside through the cargo airlock cabin, and then installed on the extravehicular platform by mechanical arms or astronauts.
Yang said the Wentian lab module has completed integrated assembly and testing in Tianjin and is ready for launch. The Mengtian lab module has completed part of its integrated assembly and testing, and is currently undergoing further testing as planned.
Zhong Hong’en, deputy chief designer of the China Manned Space Program’s space utilization system, said that the container-free experiment cabinet and high-quality microgravity experiment cabinet in the Tianhe core module have achieved world-leading conditions to carry out frontier research.
In addition to these cabinets, the space station will have another 12 experiment cabinets installed, said Zhong, who is also a researcher at the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Every cabinet serves as a miniature space lab.
Three large payload hanging points and two experimental exposure platforms will also be deployed, along with the Xuntian space telescope, which will fly in the same orbit as the space station.
Zhong said that the research facilities aboard China’s space station will help researchers make breakthroughs in fundamental and cutting-edge scientific issues and promote China’s space science research and applications to reach a new level.
Hao Chun noted at the press conference that crewed spaceflights, which can promote economic and social development, are closely related to the national economy and the people’s livelihoods.
Hao said that the Beijing Winter Olympics adopted many aerospace technology achievements, from its opening and closing ceremonies to athlete training equipment.
Since China launched its crewed space program 30 years ago, more than 4,000 technological achievements have been widely used in various industries of the national economy, driving technological innovation and industrial upgrading, Hao said.
He said that more space technology progress will be transferred to civil fields to improve the lives of the people, such as using crystallized protein in space to develop new drugs that fight osteoporosis and muscle atrophy.
In the future, China’s space station will carry out scientific experiments and technology verification related to the life sciences, material science, microgravity fluid physics, aerospace technology and aerospace medicine, Hao said.
“We believe that more space technologies will serve social and economic development and people’s livelihoods,” he said.
China’s space station will enter a new phase of application and development that will span more than 10 years after the completion of its construction this year, according to a press conference on Sunday.
The initial plan is to launch two manned spaceships and two cargo spacecraft every year during the new phase, Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Agency, said at the press conference.
Astronauts will stay in orbit for a long term, carry out space scientific and technological experiments, and maintain the space station, Hao said.
In order to further improve the comprehensive capabilities and technological level of the country’s manned space program, a new generation of carrier rockets and manned spacecraft will be developed, Hao said. The new-generation carrier rockets and the return capsule of the new manned spacecraft will be reusable.
The new-generation manned spacecraft will be capable of carrying seven astronauts, and its payload capacity will also be greatly improved.
In the application and development phase, larger-scale space research experiments and new technology tests will be conducted in fields such as space life science and human body studies, microgravity physics science, space astronomy and Earth science.
In 2023, China plans to launch its first large space survey telescope to carry out wide-area space surveys. “We will conduct cutting-edge scientific research on the formation and evolution of the cosmic structure, dark matter and dark energy, exoplanets and solar bodies, and expect to achieve a number of major innovations,” Hao said.
Hours before a ban on their vehicles comes into effect, Russian and Belarusian truck drivers were stuck in a long queue near the Kukuryk-Kozlovichi border crossing in Poland on Saturday (April 16).
Drone footage captured a long line of freight trucks backed up on the road from Poland into Belarus.
“There are still many kilometres to drive… so it’s unrealistic,” said Dmitry, a truck driver from Belarus on his chances of crossing the border in time.
“I don’t know how long it will take. We’re moving forward but very slowly,” he added.
European Union countries sharing borders with Russia and Belarus have barred some cargo vehicles registered in the two countries from entering since Friday (April 8) due to sanctions, the Russian customs service said on Saturday (April 9).
Vehicles used as international transport that have Russian and Belarusian number plates will not be able to move goods on EU territory, the Russian customs service said.
Russian and Belarusian trucks were given time until the end of Saturday (April 16) to exit the bloc’s territory. Due to the trucks being backed up for kilometres, thousands of vehicles are at risk of not crossing the border in time.
Unsure of how the sanctions coming into force will affect him, Dmitry said: “We are not alone here, there are (drivers from) Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, standing in the queue. And we can’t say how it will turn out.”
Belarus on Friday (April 15) announced a ban on trucks registered in the European Union from entering its territory, Interfax news agency quoted the transport ministry saying.
The head of the Russian navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, has met with crew members from the sunken missile cruiser Moskva and said they would continue to serve in the navy, the defence ministry said on Saturday (April 16).
On Thursday (April 14), Russia said the Moskva sank after an ammunition explosion. Ukraine said it hit the vessel, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, with a missile.
The Russian defence ministry released a 26-second video showing Yevmenov and two other officers standing outside in front of around 100 sailors on a parade ground. It showed them speaking to one man.
The ministry did not say when the meeting took place.
Russia has said all of the 500 crew were rescued after the blast late on Wednesday (April 13).
Ukrainian officials have said some of those on board died but have provided no evidence for the claims.
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