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Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
King Charles' tribute to VJ Day heroes: Monarch echoes his grandfather George VI in inspirational message 80 years on from end of World War Two
The King will tell the nation tomorrow how the sacrifice of the heroes of VJ Day will never be forgotten. In a moving audio message, echoing one broadcast by his grandfather, King George VI, eighty years ago, Charles will describe how those who lived and died in the Far East 'gave us more than freedom; they left us the example of how it can and must be protected'. August 15, 1945, marked not only the cessation of war over Japan but the end of the Second World War as a whole. More than 90,000 British troops were casualties of the Far East conflict, of which almost 30,000 died and over 12,400 were held as prisoners of war, in often horrific conditions. But despite the magnitude and brutality of the conflict, many feel that their contribution was deliberately overlooked at the time and has continued to be forgotten over the years, particularly given the historic significance of events to mark Victory in Europe in May of that year. Now on one of the last major commemorations the dwindling number who served at the time will live to see, the monarch's six-minute audio recording will be played to the nation, Realms and Commonwealth. The message was recorded earlier this month, in the Morning Room at Clarence House. Notably the King will make reference to the experience endured by Prisoners of War, and to the innocent civilians of occupied lands in the region, whose suffering 'reminds us that war's true cost extends beyond battlefields, touching every aspect of life'. His Majesty will also describe how the heroes of V.J. Day 'gave us more than freedom; they left us the example of how it can and must be protected', since victory was made possible by close collaboration between nations, 'across vast distances, faiths and cultural divides'. He will add that this demonstrates 'in times of war and in times of peace, the greatest weapons of all are not the arms you bear but the arms you link.' The King, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will lead the national commemorations by attending a Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire organised by the Royal British Legion tomorrow. Their Majesties will join veterans, members of VJ associations, military personnel and senior politicians for the event. They will lay wreaths at the Armed Forces Memorial, before a national two-minute silence and a flypast from the RAF Red Arrows. There will also be a flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight of historic aircraft. Afterwards they will meet with around 30 surviving veterans who served in the Pacific and Indian Ocean territories, those who were prisoners of war and veterans stationed throughout the UK and Commonwealth, who contributed to the war effort in the Far East. The Prince and Princess of Wales will not be present but plan to share a 'personal message of reflection' to mark the occasion.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump's space order risks environmental disaster while rewarding Musk and Bezos, experts say
A draft executive order from Donald Trump that aims to largely exempt space launches from environmental review is viewed as a gift to commercial space industry players such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others who have long targeted the regulations. But its central components may be illegal and the US president 'is trying to do an end run around' on the law, said Jared Margolis, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has litigated environmental issues around launches. If successfully implemented, the launches could create an environmental disaster, advocates say. Rocket launches create a massive amount of pollution that can contaminate local waterways and air with high levels of mercury, Pfas, particulate matter, and other highly toxic substances. The vibration, sound waves, heat and explosions damage habitat and kill wildlife, some of which are protected by the Endangered Species Act. The executive order directs the US transportation department to 'use all available authorities to eliminate or expedite' environmental reviews. Among the few protections during space launches is the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa) review that considers a wide range of impacts on the environment and human health, and the Coastal Zone Management Act, a federal law that allows states to decide how coastlines are used. The order targets both, and suggests the agency could attempt to circumvent the Endangered Species Act. 'The order is directing the transportation department to do whatever they can to avoid Nepa, but it doesn't mean that's possible, or that they have the authority to do so,' Margolis said. The executive order comes at a time when commercial space activity is spiking. Musk's SpaceX, the largest space company, did 96 launches in 2023, and is targeting 180 this year. That number is expected to continue growing, while other players, like Bezos's Blue Horizon, are quickly increasing launch rates. The US federal government's environmental oversight of the launches has always been weak, public health advocates say. The Trump administration quickly hobbled several of the few regulatory mechanisms that existed, and recently gutted funding for research into stratospheric pollution largely caused by Musk's SpaceX. 'We're accelerating the number of launches and blinding ourselves to the follow up effects that they have on the environment – that spells disaster,' said a space industry employee who does work around Nepa issues, but requested anonymity to talk about the order without retribution. Space companies must obtain a launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which does a Nepa review as part of the process. The reviews are the framework by which federal agencies should assess a project's environmental or human health risks. They take into consideration air pollution, endangered species harms, water pollution, wildfire risk, noise pollution and potential human health risks, among other issues. The FAA has faced criticism from space companies for taking too long to review launch permits – about five months – while environmental groups have lambasted the agency for not using Nepa reviews to require more protections at launch sites. The executive order in part directs the department to classify the launches as 'categorical exclusions', which is the legal term for minor changes to a site that do not require a Nepa environmental review. Among other categorical exclusions are landscaping or lighting alterations. Legal experts who reviewed the order questioned the legality of the claim that a rocket launch has similar environmental impacts as landscaping changes. The plan 'fits with their overall desire to eliminate environmental considerations and reviews,' said Dan Farber, an environmental law attorney with the University of California, Berkeley. 'Clearly what Trump wants to do is bulldoze through all this procedural stuff,' Farber added. However, there is a more legally plausible route. The Commercial Space Launch Act does include a provision that allows the transportation secretary to attempt to exempt requirements of environmental law if it is determined that the law is not necessary to protect the 'public health and the safety of property', Margolis said. That would be accomplished through a legal rulemaking process. But the provision is in conflict with Nepa, which applies to any federal action that has significant environmental impact, Margolis said. 'We would argue that review is necessary to protect public health and safety, and Nepa applies,' he added. The Nepa reviews provide a valuable legal avenue for challenges to the worst abuses, and Margolis said the order seems to be a response to arguments he made in which the Center for Biological Diversity sued several federal agencies and SpaceX over launches from the Boca Chica, Texas launch site on the Gulf of Mexico. The site sits next to a sensitive habitat for protected species, like the Kemp's ridley sea turtle, which is on the brink of extinction. SpaceX has launched the largest rockets ever made from the site, and several of those exploded, raining down particulate matter, metal and concrete across the region. The debris caused brush fires and covered homes six miles away in dust. Soundwaves from launches have been known to kill birds and other animals, and SpaceX has been cited by state environmental regulators in Texas for spitting wastewater highly contaminated with mercury into adjacent waters. Still, the FAA has done little to mitigate the damage to the environment, and claimed the issues did not warrant an in depth review. Margolis said SpaceX, with the FAA's blessing, had turned the ecologically sensitive area into a 'sacrifice zone', and the litigation is ongoing. The order also seems designed to aid Musk in his fight with California state regulators who have so far stopped SpaceX from expanding the number of launches along the coastline, in part using their authority under the Coastal Zone Management Act. Trump's order would give federal authorities more power to intervene, and restrict state agencies' decision-making powers. Margolis said this part of the order is also illegal because Trump is again attempting to change the law by decree. 'It's a talking point to show he's supporting industry, but at the end of the day it's not something that can happen the way he says it can happen,' Margolis said.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
New type of supernova detected as black hole causes star to explode
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Astronomers have observed the calamitous result of a star that picked the wrong dance partner. They have documented what appears to be a new type of supernova, as stellar explosions are known, that occurred when a massive star tried to swallow a black hole with which it had engaged in a lengthy pas de deux. The star, which was at least 10 times as massive as our sun, and the black hole, which had a similar mass, were gravitationally bound to one another in what is called a binary system. But as the distance separating them gradually narrowed, the black hole's immense gravitational pull appears to have distorted the star - stretching it out from its spherical shape - and siphoned off material before causing it to explode. "We caught a massive star locked in a fatal tango with a black hole," said astrophysicist Alexander Gagliano of the U.S. National Science Foundation's Institute for AI and Fundamental Interactions located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author of the study published this week in the Astrophysical Journal, opens new tab. "After shedding mass for years in a death spiral with the black hole, the massive star met its finale by exploding. It released more energy in a second than the sun has across its entire lifetime," Gagliano added. The explosion occurred about 700 million light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). "The gravitational pulls of the two objects were actually similar because we think they had similar masses. But the star was much larger, so it was in the process of engulfing the black hole as the black hole pulled material off of it. The star was large but puffy, and the black hole was small but mighty. The black hole won out in the end," Gagliano said. The researchers are not certain of the exact mechanism that caused the supernova. "It's unclear if the distortion triggers an instability that drives the collapse of the star, and then the leftover stellar material gets rapidly eaten by the black hole, or if the black hole completely pulls the star apart before it goes supernova," said Harvard University astrophysicist and study lead author Ashley Villar. "The star has been pulled and morphed by the black hole in complex ways," Villar added. The binary system started out with two massive stars orbiting each other as cosmic companions. But one of the two stars reached the end of its natural life cycle and exploded in a supernova, and its core collapsed to form a black hole, an extraordinarily dense object with gravity so strong that not even light can escape. "This event reveals that some supernovae can be triggered by black hole companions, giving us new insights into how some stars end their lives," Villar said. Stars that are at least eight times as massive as the sun appear destined to end their lives with a supernova. Those with a mass at least 20 times that of the sun will form a black hole after the explosion. An artificial intelligence algorithm designed to scan for unusual explosions in the cosmos in real time first detected the beginnings of the explosion, providing an alert that enabled astronomers to carry out follow-up observations immediately. By the time the explosion was completed, it had been observed by numerous ground-based and space-based telescopes. "Our AI algorithm allowed us to launch a comprehensive observational study early enough to really see the full picture for the first time," Gagliano said. Observations of the star dating to four years before the supernova revealed bright emissions that the astronomers believe were caused when the black hole guzzled material sucked off the star. For instance, the star's outer hydrogen layer appears to have been ripped off, exposing the helium layer below. The researchers observed bright emissions in the explosion's aftermath as the black hole consumed leftover stellar debris. In the end, the black hole became more massive and more powerful. Systems grouping two or more companions are quite common. Some of these multiples have a black hole as one of the companions. "Our takeaway is that the fates of stars are incredibly impacted by their companion - or companions - in life. This event gives us an exciting window into how dramatically black holes can impact the deaths of massive stars," Gagliano said.
