See photos of the March partial solar eclipse
A partial solar eclipse, where the moon passes in front of the sun, casts a shadow on parts of the Northern Hemisphere, on Saturday morning.
Astronomy fans caught a glimpse of the solar eclipse in parts of North America, along with sections of Europe, Africa, northern Asia, small parts of South America and throughout Greenland and Iceland.
Only part of the sun was blocked, giving it a crescent appearance. While this wasn't a total eclipse — like the one in 2024 — viewers still needed to use eye protection to safely view the phenomenon.
Below are photos of the partial solar eclipse from across the world.
Musk says some will get more Social Security benefits after DOGE, but many worry about access
Deadly earthquakes rock Myanmar, Thailand
Saturday Sessions: Lucy Dacus performs "For Keeps"
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
11 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Elon Musk finally gets some good news from Jeff Bezos
The future of space transportation is looking increasingly complicated, as the falling-out between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump drags on. After Musk levied strong accusations against Trump and publicly stated he would not have been elected without his support, the president struck back with threats to cancel several SpaceX contracts. This leaves the company's short-term future in a precarious position, jeopardizing Musk's ambitions of colonizing Mars. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Multiple space stocks responded to news of this conflict by surging, as investors looked to capitalize on SpaceX's questionable future. But one of Musk's primary rivals, a fellow privately held space exploration company, also recently revealed some less-than-positive news. Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, recently made an announcement regarding its plans for the future, which could be regarded as good news for SpaceX and Musk. Image source: Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images While they both rose to fame founding companies that aren't direct competitors, Musk and Bezos are clear rivals in the space race. SpaceX and Blue Origin are both privately held and focused on space exploration and rocket technology. Related: Tesla faces new challenge as leader announces exit SpaceX is intended to be Musk's vehicle for colonizing Mars, while Bezos seems intent on cornering the space tourism market, which also includes rivals such as Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. However, the two private companies are considered the leaders in the space exploration field. Blue Origin, though, recently reported what seems to be a setback. The company had been targeting Spring 2025 for the launch of its New Glenn rocket, a 320-foot-tall (98 meters) spacecraft with a reusable first stage, but now it has announced that the new launch will be held no earlier than (NET) August 15, 2025. CEO David Limp posted about to the delayed launch on X, revealing that one of the mission's key objectives would be to land and recover its booster. "This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution," he states, adding that the company is on track to produce GS2s, referring to the second stage of the rocket. Following New Glenn's mostly successful January 2025 mission, the company hasn't indicated more progress toward further launches, even after its leaders initially set high expectations for its rocket launches. Now, as Ars Technica speculates, the August launch may be the only one Blue Origin completes this year. More Elon Musk News: Elon Musk company reveals major leap forwardThe 'anti-Tesla' gives American buyers more good newsElon Musk's DOGE made huge mistakes with veterans' programs While Bezos may not be happy about this launch delay, it is excellent news for Musk, whose own company has seen three rockets explode so far this year. Even before the company's third mission spiraled out of control mid-flight, regulators had expressed concern about possible safety risks for people on the ground. There's no denying that both companies have faced challenges this year, as both race to outmaneuver each other and establish themselves as the leader of the space exploration market. Recent projections show that the space economy is expected to reach a $944 billion valuation by 2033, revealing a lot of room to run for companies. Related: Space stocks soar as Elon Musk and Donald Trump argue The problems plaguing both companies, though, raise the question of which one is better positioned to keep growing. SpaceX has launched several rockets this year, but its track record hasn't been encouraging, given the trend of explosions. And while Blue Origin has delayed its launch, that doesn't mean it will go well when it happens. On top of that, SpaceX still faces the possibility that it may lose out on lucrative federal contracts, unless Musk and Trump's feud is resolved soon. The zero-sum nature of financial markets means that for as long as its prospects appear uncertain, rivals will likely continue to gain. In this case, the list of companies that may benefit from SpaceX's uncertain future includes Blue Origin. Related: Billionaire fund manager, skeptical of AI, backs shocking stock The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump is dismantling science in America. Time to push back, Washington
For US scientists like myself, the months since President Donald Trump's inauguration have been an onslaught of chaos. Trump's executive orders and DOGE have consistently targeted scientific institutions — through multi-pronged attacks on universities, research funding and government scientists. As a result, U.S. scientists are facing an unprecedented loss of job opportunities and any semblance of career stability, not just for a few months, but for decades. Research job cuts are already widespread, with resulting impacts on state and local economies across all 50 states, in urban and rural areas. For most scientists, the personal devastation is compounded by recognition of the long-term, permanent damage to US research, innovation and technology development. As scientists and Americans, our job is to speak out and make these costs unmistakable to the public. Although science and technology are integrated into every moment of our lives, the work that goes into them is often invisible: successful medical treatments are based on decades of plodding bench research and trials, and engineering innovations get commercialized by companies after years of initial development in universities. Scientific discoveries — especially those that benefit the public — are largely nurtured in universities, supported by federal funding. The most promising eventually find their way out, through university partnerships with government, non-profits, and industry. In fewer than five months, Trump's executive orders and DOGE have attacked every aspect of science and research: revoking funding overnight, politicizing scientific peer review, attacking universities, terminating tens of thousands of active projects, mass firing of federal scientists and revoking international student visas. Many executive orders and actions impacting scientific fields have been legally challenged. However, eventual court rulings on legality will mean little for the hundreds of thousands of scientists who have lost jobs, research and student programs already cut, and projects that have had to cancel experiments and data collection. In practical terms, much long-term damage is already done. Terminations of research grants alone have resulted in widespread devastation. Across just two agencies, the number of canceled contracts is staggering: 2,100 National Institute of Health projects ($1.9B in lost funding), and 1,700 projects funded by the National Science Foundation ($1.4B in lost funding). Most people don't realize it, but scientists that get federal grants have invested years — often unpaid — gaining specialized expertise that allows them to be competitive for these grants. These canceled projects represent several generations of America's best innovation — in medicine, environment, public health and engineering. Losses of federal government scientists, who are among the most experienced in their disciplines, are another existential blow to US innovation and research. On June 14, Trump will spend $60 million in taxpayer dollars on a birthday parade for himself. As a scientist, what I see is $60 million in lost science, lost engineering, lost innovation. If you don't already have a reason to join a #NoKings protest on June 14, please get out in support of US science and scientists! We want to do great work: unraveling mysteries, making lives better and powering the future economy. Lauren Kuehne lives in Bremerton, where she has done environmental research for over 15 years, with NOAA, at the University of Washington and then as small business owner and consultant. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
NOAA firings, cuts will reduce services used to manage Alaska fisheries, officials say
Fishing boats are seen in Kodiak's St. Paul Harbor on Oct. 3, 2022. Deep job cuts at NOAA Fisheries will negatively affect the scientific work normally done to support fishery management, agency officials warned. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Trump administration job cuts in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will result in less scientific information that is needed to set and oversee Alaska seafood harvests, agency officials have warned fishery managers. Since January, the Alaska regional office of NOAA Fisheries, also called the National Marine Fisheries Service, has lost 28 employees, about a quarter of its workforce, said Jon Kurland, the agency's Alaska director. 'This, of course, reduces our capacity in a pretty dramatic fashion, including core fishery management functions such as regulatory analysis and development, fishery permitting and quota management, information technology, and operations to support sustainable fisheries,' Kurland told the North Pacific Fishery Management Council on Thursday. NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which has labs in Juneau's Auke Bay and Kodiak, among other sites, has lost 51 employees since January, affecting 6% to 30% of its operations, said director Robert Foy, the center's director. That was on top of some job losses and other 'resource limitations' prior to January, Foy said. 'It certainly puts us in a situation where it is clear that we must cancel some of our work,' he told the council. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Newport, Oregon, sets harvest levels and rules for commercial seafood harvests carried out in federal waters off Alaska. The council relies on scientific information from NOAA Fisheries and other government agencies. NOAA has been one of the targets of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has been led by billionaire Elon Musk. The DOGE program has summarily fired thousands of employees in various government agencies, in accordance with goals articulated in a preelection report from the conservative Heritage Foundation called Project 2025. NOAA's science-focused operations are criticized in Project 2025. NOAA Fisheries, the National Weather Service and other NOAA divisions 'form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity,' the Project 2025 report said. The DOGE-led firings and cuts leave Alaska with notably reduced NOAA Fisheries services, Kurland and Foy told council members. Among the services now compromised is the information technology system that tracks catches during harvest seasons — information used to manage quotas and allocations. 'We really have less than a skeleton crew at this point in our IT shop, so it's a pretty severe constraint,' Kurland said. Also compromised is the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's ability to analyze ages of fish, which spend varying amounts of years growing in the ocean. The ability to gather such demographic information, an important factor used by managers to set harvest levels that are sustainable into the future, is down 40%, Foy said. A lot of the center's salmon research is now on hold as well. For example, work at the Little Port Walter Research Station, the oldest year-round research station in Alaska, is now canceled, Foy said. 'We're talking about the importance of understanding what's happening with salmon in the marine environment and its interaction with ground fish stocks,' he said. Much of the work at Little Port Walter, located about 85 miles south of Juneau, has focused on Chinook salmon and the reasons for run declines, as well as the knowledge needed to carry out U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty obligations. As difficult as the losses have been, Kurland and Foy said they are bracing for even more cuts and trying to figure out how to narrow their focus on the top priorities. Despite the challenges, Foy said, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center has managed to cobble together scheduled 2025 fish surveys in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, which produce the stock information needed to set annual harvest limits. Some of the employees doing that work have been pulled out of other operations to fill in for experienced researchers who have been lost, and data analysis from the fish surveys will be slower, he warned. 'You can't lose 51 people and not have that impact,' he said. It was far from a given that the surveys would happen this year, Foy said. The science center team had to endure a lot of confusion leading up to now, he said. 'We've had staff sitting in airports on Saturdays, not knowing if the contract was done to start a survey on a Monday,' he said. At the same time the Trump administration is making deep cuts to science programs, it also is pushing fishery managers to increase total seafood harvests. President Donald Trump on April 17 issued an executive order called 'Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness' that seeks to overturn 'restrictive catch limits' and 'unburden our commercial fishermen from costly and inefficient regulation.' Federal fishing laws, including the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, require careful management to keep fisheries sustainable into the future. Unregulated fisheries have collapsed in the past, leading to regional economic disasters. Part of the impetus for the executive order, a senior NOAA official told the council, is the long-term decrease in overall seafood landings. Prior to 2020, about 9.5 billion pounds of seafood was harvested commercially each year, said Sam Rauch, NOAA Fisheries' deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs. Now that total is down to about 8.5 billion pounds, Rauch said. He acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the reduction, as did economics. At their Newport meeting, council members raised concerns that the push for increased production might clash with the practices of responsible management, especially if there is less information to prevent overharvesting. Nicole Kimball, a council member and vice president of a trade organization representing seafood processors, cited a 'disconnect' between the goal of increased seafood harvests and the 'drastically lower resources' that managers normally rely upon to ensure harvest sustainability. The typical approach is to be cautious when information is scarce, she noted. 'if we have increased uncertainty — which we'll have with fewer surveys or fewer people on the water — then we usually have more risk, and we account for that by lowering catch,' she said at the meeting. In response, Rauch cited a need to cut government spending in general and NOAA spending in particular. That includes the agency's fishery science work, he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'We have to think about new and different ways to collect the data,' he said. 'The executive order puts a fine point on developing new and innovative but also less expensive ways to collect the science.' Even before this year, he said, NOAA was struggling with the increasing costs of its Alaska fish surveys and facing a need to economize. The agency had already been working on a survey modernization program prior to the second Trump administration. The Alaska portion of the program, announced last year, was intended to redesign fisheries surveys within five years to be more cost-effective and adaptive to changing environmental conditions. Foy, in his testimony to the council, said job and budget cuts will now delay that modernization work. 'I can almost assuredly say that this is no longer a 5-year project but probably moving out and into the 6- or 7-year' range, he told the council. Since Alaska accounts for about 60% of the volume of the nation's commercial seafood catch, it is likely to have a big role in accomplishing the administration's goals for increased production, council members noted. Alaska's total volume has been affected by a variety of forces in recent years. Those include two consecutive years of the Bering Sea snow crab fishery being canceled. That harvest had an allowable catch of 45 million pounds in the 2020-2021 season but wound up drastically reduced in the following year and shot down completely in the 2022-23 and 2023-2024 seasons because of a collapse in the stock. Another factor is the shrinking size of harvested salmon. Last year, Bristol Bay sockeye salmon were measured at the smallest size on record. The total 2024 Alaska salmon harvest of 101.2 million fish, one of the lowest totals in recent years, had a combined weight of about 450 million pounds. Past years with similar sizes harvests by fish numbers yielded higher total weights. The 1987 Alaska salmon harvest of 96.6 million fish weighed a total 508.6 million pounds, while the 1988 Alaska salmon harvest of 100.6 million fish weighed in at 534.5 million pounds, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
