Scientists say ‘city-killer’ asteroid may be on collision course with Moon
A “city-killer” asteroid previously thought to be on a collision course with the Earth could smash into the Moon instead, new data suggests.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 caused global concern after its discovery last year as the space rock’s trajectory indicated a 3 per cent chance of it crashing into the Earth in December 2032. Estimates suggested the collision could shatter structures as far as 80km from the impact zone.
Subsequent observations of the rock reduced the threat to virtually zero.
But new direct observations of the asteroid by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope suggest a nearly 4 per cent chance of the rock smashing into the Moon.
Scientists say that even a 1 per cent chance of a rock this big hitting the Earth may warrant the development of deflection missions. “At this writing, a 2032 impact with the Moon has not been ruled out,” astronomers, including Andy Rivkin from Johns Hopkins University, write in a new study.
“After 2025 May, 2024 YR4 will next enter JWST observing window in the first part of 2026 as a challenging target, which may be worth pursuing to determine whether a lunar impact will occur,” the study, published in the journal RNAAS, notes.
There is still over 96 per cent chance that the asteroid will miss the Moon entirely, Nasa said in a statement on Thursday.
The latest observations also revise the space rock’s size from 40-90m to 53-67m, about the size of a 15-storey structure.
“While we are confident that 2024 YR4 will not hit the Earth in 2032, there is still great value in making these observations and analysing the results,” Dr Rivkin says.
“We expect more possible impactors to be found in coming years as more sensitive asteroid search programmes begin operation.”
Many scientists hope for the asteroid to impact the Moon as it could provide more data to prepare for future planetary defence operations.
“The possibility of getting a chance for an observation of a sizable Moon impact is indeed an interesting scenario from a scientific point of view,” Richard Moissl, head of the European Space Agency’s planetary defence office, says, adding the collision could be “valuable for planetary defense purposes”.
American tourist leaves can of coke on isolated tribe’s island
A 24-year-old American tourist has been detained in India for entering a remote tribal area where islanders have no contact with the outside world, police said on Wednesday.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, whose father is from Ukraine, set foot on North Sentinel Island, a part of India’s Andaman Islands, in an attempt to make contact with the isolated Sentinelese tribe, police said.
He recorded his visit to the island, leaving a can of coke and a coconut on the shore as an “offering” to the people of the tribe.
The influencer, who runs a YouTube channel documenting extreme travel and previously visited Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, travelled nine hours in a small rubber dinghy with an outboard motor to reach the island and used binoculars to survey the area but saw no inhabitants.
He tried to get the attention of native people by blowing a whistle and briefly landed on the shore for a few minutes before leaving. He left the offerings and collected sand samples while recording a video, police said.
He arrived in the capital, Port Blair, on 27 March and was arrested three days later on Sunday after he was reported to police by locals, who saw him taking a boat to North Sentinel Island.
Andaman and Nicobar, a former British penal colony, is a group of 572 islands located more than 1,200km (700miles) from mainland India. The Indian government strictly monitors access to some remote parts of the federal territory, which are home to five known indigenous tribes, some of whom are hostile to outsiders.
These tribes, including the Sentinelese, Jarwa, Onge, Shompens, and Great Andamanese, and are among the world’s last remaining isolated communities.
Indians and foreigners alike are prohibited from traveling within 3 miles (5 km) of the island to protect the Indigenous people from external diseases and safeguard their way of life.
Andaman and Nicobar director general of police HS Dhaliwal said police were alerted after locals spotted the man near Khuramadera Beach in South Andaman, relatively close to the Jarwa Reserve Forest, which is a protected area for the Indigenous Jarwa tribe.
“We are getting more details about him and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area. We are also trying to find out where else he has visited during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We are questioning the hotel staff where he was staying in Port Blair,” the police told Press Trust of India.
Mr Dhaliwal told AFP the American tourist “landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat”.
“A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”
A formal complaint has been registered against him under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and for entering a tribal reserve or restricted area without permission.
Mr Polyakov was reportedly on his third trip to the islands after visiting twice last year. The police said they have informed the home ministry about his detention and that officials there were in touch with the US embassy.
Tribal lands are legally protected under the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956, which prohibits unauthorised entry.
In 2018, American missionary John Allen Chau, 27, was killed by the Sentinelese, an endangered tribe, after illegally trying to enter their territory to preach Christianity. He was allegedly killed after tribespeople shot him with arrows as his boat approached the island.
In 2006, two Indian fishermen who accidentally drifted to the North Sentinel Island were killed by the Sentinelese tribe. When an Indian military helicopter later flew low over the island, tribal members fired arrows at it in a show of defiance.
The navy since enforces a three-mile buffer zone around the island, ensuring no outsiders come close.
South Korea court removes impeached president Yoon from office
South Korea’s constitutional court upheld president Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment on Friday and removed him from office.
The country will now hold snap elections to replace Mr Yoon in just 60 days from now.
The court found that Mr Yoon’s decision to impose martial law in December last year, which plunged the country into uncertainty and political turmoil, was not justified.
Justice Moon Hyung-bae, acting president of the constitutional court, said the country was not facing a “national emergency” at the time. “It was a situation that could have been solved through means other than military deployment,” he added.
Mr Yoon’s attorney, Yoon Gap-geun, called the court’s decision “unfair”. He said: “The whole process of this trial itself was not lawful and unfair. And the result is something that we completely don’t understand from the perspective of law.”
He added: “I feel regrettable that this completely is a political decision.”
On Friday, at an anti-Yoon rally near the old royal palace in Seoul, people erupted into jubilant tears and celebrated the court’s ruling. Yoon supporters, meanwhile, are expected to intensity their rallies in the wake of the ruling.
Mr Yoon’s ruling party, the People Power Party, said it accepted the court’s decision and apologised to the Korean people.
The opposition Democratic Party called the verdict a victory for the people, Yonhap news agency reported.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the court’s unanimous ruling “has removed a major source of uncertainty”.
“Korean government institutions have withstood a volatile mix of legislative obstruction and executive overreach that posed the greatest challenge to democracy in a generation. Now begins a compressed presidential election campaign that will stretch, if not tear, the social fabric of the country.”
South Korea’s acting president has issued an emergency order to maintain law and order in the country. Han Duck-soo will serve as the interim leader of the country until elections are held two months from now.
Starmer’s local elections launch shows he knows Farage is real threat
There were two insurgent right-wing populists looming over Sir Keir Starmer’s local election launch on Thursday.
Donald Trump, because the US president’s “Liberation Day” tariffs threaten to blow the PM’s “plan for change” out of the water. And Nigel Farage, who Sir Keir fears will snap up hundreds of local council seats in Reform UK’s first major test since the general election.
The Reform UK leader has promised to field candidates in 99 per cent of the seats up for grabs, and could stamp his party’s authority as a real electoral force, not just a passing fad, in the polls amid anger among voters at Labour’s failings.
Sir Keir addressed the Conservatives’ record in national and local government, with deputy PM Angela Rayner and Labour chair Ellie Reeves both piling in on the Tory party’s failings over its 14 years in power.
But, making his pitch to voters ahead of polling day next month, it was all too clear that Sir Keir is focused on what he sees as the threat of the future – Reform – having vanquished the now dishevelled Conservatives in July.
The prime minister called for voters to get behind Labour nationally and locally, lashing out at “the parties that continue to put themselves before the country”. “I’m not just talking about the Tories,” he said.
He then launched into the most impassioned part of his speech, saying: “They can’t even run themselves. You can literally fit their MPs now in the back of a cab … and they still don’t know where they’re going.”
He went on: “They talk the language of workers’ rights. They talk it all right online, sometimes on the doorsteps. But what do they do? They voted against banning fire-and-rehire. They voted against scrapping exploitative zero-hour contracts.
“They voted against sick leave and maternity pay. That’s what they do. And what about the NHS? They want to charge people for using our NHS. They claim to be the party of patriotism. I’ll tell you this: there’s nothing patriotic about fawning over Putin.”
Sir Keir, Ms Rayner and Ms Reeves also peppered their speeches with references to tangible local matters such as potholes and community issues, with messaging from the anti-populist playbook of the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
Labour has steadily been ramping up its attacks on Reform as the party rises in the polls, with figures in Downing Street becoming increasingly aware of the threat Mr Farage’s party poses.
As well as threatening to pick up hundreds of council seats next month, Reform are frontrunners for the Runcorn and Helsby by-election to replace former Labour MP Mike Amesbury, who stood down after being convicted of punching a constituent.
Sir Keir’s attacks on the right-wing party follow the establishment of a group of 80+ Labour backbenchers to try to halt Reform’s rise. Government figures are also increasingly targeting the party: health secretary Wes Streeting used a recent hospital visit to warn against Reform’s stance on the NHS, with Labour confident they can convince voters that the health service is not safe in Mr Farage’s hands.
Sir Keir again referred to Reform in his Q&A with journalists, repeating the well-worn lines about Reform’s stance on Putin, workers’ rights and the NHS.
It was clear from the local election launch who Sir Keir sees as the real challenge next month, but if Mr Farage can ride out internal party rows and criticism over his closeness with Mr Trump, it looks unlikely that attacks from the PM will be able to halt his momentum.
Girl, 13, dies in house fire near Liverpool as seven others escape
A 13-year-old girl has died in a house fire near Liverpool.
The blaze was found in the first-floor rear bedroom of a mid-terraced house in Kingsway, Prescot, late on Wednesday evening, Merseyside Police said.
A man, a woman and five children escaped unharmed but the teenage girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
The fire had been put out by around 12.30am on Thursday and neighbouring properties were checked for fire and smoke, police said.
A joint investigation involving the force and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service is ongoing.
Detective Inspector Steven O’Neill said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the young girl at this very sad time.”
Celebration destination: Enjoy life’s biggest moments in the Caribbean
With its turquoise-coloured waters, reliably blue skies, and unparalleled natural beauty, the Caribbean is one of the most desirable destinations for a special getaway. From Antigua to Saint Vincent, St Lucia and Barbados, each island offers something a little different – whether you’re looking for a romantic honeymoon retreat, the perfect place to celebrate a milestone birthday, or a fun spot to enjoy a week (or two) of active pursuits with family and friends.
Sandals’ all-inclusive, adult-only resorts are the perfect way to enjoy the islands in luxurious surroundings. Dotted across the Caribbean, each resort has its own unique identity while staying true to the five-star Sandals ethos. But which one do you choose for your own personal celebration?
Here we look at a range of celebrations worthy of an unforgettable holiday and the perfect Sandals resorts to enjoy them in.
If you like your holidays to be as adventurous as they are relaxing, you’re sure to love the many activities offered at Sandals Grande Antigua and Sandals Saint Vincent. Explore the ocean bed with Sandals’s very own comprehensive PADI® Certified scuba diving programmes, and see beautiful reefs and shipwrecks up close alongside the professional supervision of PADI® certified staff and Newton dive boats. There’s also a wealth of water sports available including kayaking and paddleboarding or, if dry land is more your thing, why not spend your days playing beach volleyball, croquet, and tennis? All activities are included at either resort making your trip hassle free and flexible.
If you’re looking for somewhere to make a real occasion of a celebration or simply hide away on a romantic getaway, the Royal Barbados resort is one of Sandals’s most elegant options. The resort offers an extra level of extravagance that makes every day an unforgettable experience – from swim-up suites, Rolls Royce transfers from the airport when you stay in select suites, to a rooftop pool and restaurant, and catamaran cruises. There’s even a bowling alley if you fancy some good old-fashioned fun, or an alternative option for a date night.
On the beautiful island of Curaçao, lies the Sandals Royal Curaçao resort nestled within the heart of Leeward Antilles. The resort has plenty of opportunity for more intimate stays in its seaside butler bungalows complete with private pools and soaking tubs, while private cabanas and local tours leave you plenty of options for making an anniversary or birthday feel extra special. The parties around the pool or on the beach also make this a fun destination for celebrating a loved one.
Jamaica plays host to a number of Sandals resorts that make the perfect destination for honeymoons and group trips alike. The Sandals Royal Caribbean, for instance, offers over-the-water private villas complete with glass floors, hammocks and butler service, on the resort’s own private island. Ocean-view and swim-up rooms also offer a first-class experience for groups and friends spending time together. Alternatively, it’s hard to imagine a more romantic stay than at Sandals South Coast, where you can stay in spectacular, luxurious overwater villas arranged in the shape of a heart, offering an unmatched connection to the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea and rich marine life below.
Meanwhile, the Sandals Ochi resort in Jamaica offers the best of both worlds for honeymooners and party goers (or those wanting to enjoy both) with private butler villas, white sand beach, and 11 unique bars. Its vibrant atmosphere is ideal for those wanting to relax and party during their stay.
While every Sandals resort offers a luxurious experience, if you’re really looking to splurge and treat yourself, the re-imagined Sandals Royal Bahamian should be on your wishlist. Located in Nassau in the Bahamas, it has everything you could dream of from a holiday destination. Swim-up suites with butler service will help you leave the stresses and strains of everyday life behind, while pristine-white beaches, an award-winning Red Lane spa and 10 specialty restaurants will make your stay as enjoyable as it is relaxing. A short trip by boat will also take you to the Sandals private island with its own bar, restaurant and pool. Luxury adventure tours around the island will also make exploring the rest of the island easy and convenient.
St Lucia is one of the most beautiful and picturesque islands of the Caribbean, and our top destination for visiting with parents. Resorts such as the Grande St Lucian sit on their own peninsula with 360 degrees of volcanic mountains and crystal-clear ocean views to enjoy. As such, it’s the perfect place for making mum or dad feel truly appreciated. In addition to five grande pools, there’s also a Cap Estate Golf & Country Club for serious parental bonding time, not to mention a range of outdoor activities including reading road trips where guests meet children from the island, Catamaran sunset cruises, and carnival experiences.
Discover Sandals’s full range of Caribbean resorts here
What is the Chagos Islands deal with the UK that Trump has approved?
According to No 10, Donald Trump has “signed off” on the highly controversial Chagos Islands deal, drawing to a close the tortuous process of securing the future of the UK-US military base that has been operating on Diego Garcia since 1965.
It means formal sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) will be ceded to Mauritius, and comes as something of a shock to opponents who fully expected Mr Trump to reject the change. The long saga may be coming to a close…
Some of the basics are still unknown, especially as regards money, but the position will be that the BIOT – comprising the Chagos Islands and the military base – will be transferred to Mauritian sovereignty. In return, the UK has been promised a 99-year lease on the islands, with military use by the US part of the deal, in return for an annual fee. The fee has not yet been disclosed, but is thought to be some £90m per annum, inflation-linked.
The small matter of international law. Successive appeals by Mauritius to the UN and the International Court of Justice have left the status of the BIOT in doubt, generally favouring the Mauritian position.
The islands are plainly a colonial possession, acquired from France in 1814 after the Napoleonic Wars. As such they are subject to UN resolutions and decolonisation. The islands were carved out of what was then the crown colony of Mauritius as part of its 1968 granting of independence, but such coercion also violated international law. The UK could carry on ignoring the situation, but this would leave the legal status of the joint base in doubt and thus at risk. In a worst-case scenario, Mauritius could transfer sovereignty of “their” islands to, say, China or India. Generally, civilised nations are expected to abide by international law.
They’ve been shabbily treated for decades, having been forcibly evicted to make way for the base in the 1960s. The diaspora principally lives in Mauritius, the Seychelles and near Gatwick Airport, and have had no vote on the deal. Foreign secretary David Lammy insists they have been consulted throughout.
Not quite. Trump has approved it but the formality of Mauritius and the UK signing the agreement has yet to take place, after which the treaty will need to be approved by parliament and all the costs and clauses will be made public. Given the government’s majority and the backing of the White House, the deal is bound to be ratified.
The Conservatives and Reform UK describe it as such, and object to public money needed for vital services being transferred to Mauritius – but that seems to be the price for settling this long-running dispute. What financial contribution, if any, the US will make is not known. In the current wider context of defence and economic tensions between the UK and the US, the Chagos leasing costs might be considered a useful sweetener in the national interest.
No. Those few empire loyalists who feel passionately about the issue are a minority and would never vote Labour anyway, some because they haven’t forgiven Clement Attlee for giving up India. The often exaggerated cost of the lease (adding inflation over a century to invent a bogus cost in today’s money) is no more than a right-wing debating point. The Conservatives are compromised on this argument because they were in talks to “surrender” the BIOT for years, and no one thinks the deal can be reversed unless the Americans demand it.
It doesn’t feel like it, and the government says not. Nonetheless, there are parallels in their disputed colonial status. Before the 1982 Falklands War, a transfer and leaseback arrangement was freely raised by Britain as a way of ending the arguments in the South Atlantic.
The big shift in both these cases has been Brexit, with one EU member, Spain, having a vital interest in steering EU diplomacy towards regaining Gibraltar and a friendlier stance towards the Argentinian claim on the Falklands. The UK can no longer rely on the EU to back it up at the UN and elsewhere; indeed, the Brexit treaty gives Spain a special role with regard to Gibraltar, and the territory’s land and air border arrangements still haven’t been finally sorted out.
Like it or not, the sun has not fully set on the British empire.
Starmer is right to maintain dignity – and avoid upsetting Trump
The prime minister’s insistence that, in framing the UK’s response to the Trump tariffs, “We will always act in the national interest” was wise and reassuring. The mood at the moment is to “keep calm and carry on negotiating”, and if there is to be a response, it needs to be weighed, and to represent a fully informed choice. Hence the meeting of business leaders convened in Downing Street in the immediate aftermath of the US president’s announcements.
In the coming days, the full scale and nature of international retaliation will become clearer; so too will Donald Trump’s thinking. From his rambling presentation of the new tariff schedules in the White House Rose Garden, it is not obvious whether these punitive import taxes are designed to kickstart a more benign process involving a global relaxation of trade restrictions, or if they are part of a permanent policy shift aimed at restoring American manufacturing and providing trillions of dollars for the US Treasury. There is, in other words, no need for a rush to action.
Sir Keir Starmer is right to try to maintain the dignity of the nation, as well as to avoid upsetting the combustible Mr Trump, by limiting himself to vague remarks about having “levers at his disposal”. Businesses are being consulted on possible retaliatory actions, but that is all – at least for the time being.
However, with the US economy approximately seven times as large as that of the UK – and Britain still heavily reliant on America for its defence – those levers are not especially powerful ones. Unlike, say, China (in concert with Japan and South Korea), the European Union, Mexico or Canada, the UK lacks the necessary heft to inflict much material damage on American producers and exporters. Any effort to join in with an international assault on Mr Trump’s policy would risk attracting the imposition of even higher tariffs on UK exports, with the corresponding harm to British jobs and economic growth – and to European security and the Ukraine peace talks.
Far better, then, for the British government to keep a “cool head”, as Sir Keir suggests: not only does it suit the prime minister’s general demeanour, but it will help to preserve his unusually warm relationship with a man almost precisely his ideological opposite. Britain is set to watch how things develop, and will continue to engage with American officials on trade, investment, and wider economic relations. If an old and valued friend unexpectedly decides to have a spat, the most rational response is not to hit them back and escalate an argument into a violent rift.
Fanciful as it may seem, this crisis can be turned into an opportunity. As the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the Commons, a trade deal of some sort could be mutually beneficial, even if that isn’t immediately apparent to President Trump, who is more “zero sum” in his approach to life (as might be expected from his time in real estate).
Sir Keir says that talks are continuing. He should be encouraged by the fact that the UK is to be subjected only to the lower “baseline” tariff of 10 per cent, albeit with the higher charges on cars, steel and aluminium bringing the trade-weighted average up to 13 per cent. When the two leaders met in the White House, Mr Trump expressed the hope that a deal could be done. Despite intense activity, such an agreement couldn’t be reached in time to avoid the new tariffs, but the process – which has been in train since Theresa May launched post-Brexit talks with the US – has begun.
The outlines of such a deal can already be discerned. Negotiables could include a radical cut in the tariffs on US goods, such as cars and agricultural produce, and easier access for qualified, skilled workers through mutual recognition. The UK might have to compromise on its high standards of animal welfare, hygiene, and environmental protection, but that is a tough choice that could be made, in the expectation that consumers would exercise their right to choose.
More difficult, if not impossible, would be meeting the usual demands for improved – inflated – prices to be paid by the NHS to the US pharmaceutical giants. The American negotiators would also have to be properly briefed on the reality of free speech in the UK, which is protected as a human right by law, save for incitement to hatred against specified vulnerable groups.
The real question is whether the achievement of some sort of economic agreement with America – an outcome that would certainly yield benefits – is worth the sacrifices and concessions that are likely to be demanded by Mr Trump. That includes the effect that any such pact would have on our relationship with the EU, in light of the “reset” promised by Labour at the general election.
Even the possibility of such an agreement with the United States is being touted as a “Brexit bonus”, as is the “favourable” 10 per cent tariff. Needless to say, this is highly debatable. Were it still part of the EU, the UK would probably have been treated more harshly, but it would have had the full weight of the largest single market in the world behind it, along with better access to the EU markets that it has lost since Brexit.
As a member state, the UK would also have been able, ironically, to control its own laws on free speech, as well as to protect the NHS and farmers. In other words, a trade deal with America would have to be radically better than currently envisaged in order to make Brexit remotely worthwhile, even in purely financial terms.
And there remains the terrible truth that the US has downgraded its commitment to Nato, and “switched sides” to align with Russia on the matters of Ukraine and European security.
On balance, Sir Keir can best serve the British national interest by pursuing closer relations with Europe, while declining to enact futile retaliatory measures against America and salvaging as much as possible of the US-UK special relationship. The hope is that the Trump era might ultimately pass more smoothly. In any case, balancing and nurturing Britain’s most crucial relationships won’t be easy.