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News18
29-05-2025
- Science
- News18
Moon Drifting Away: Will Earth Have 25 Hour Days?
1/9 Our planet currently runs on a 24-hour day, which shapes our daily routines of work, rest, and recreation. But what if we had 25 hours in a day? While that may sound exciting, it's a change that only future generations, far into the future, might experience. Let's explore why. According to a report by The Times of India, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found that the Moon is drifting away from the Earth at a rate of approximately 3.8 centimetres per year. Though this fact has been known for some time, the long-term effects are now attracting more attention. According to experts, as the moon drifts further away, it will slow the Earth's rotation, eventually resulting in a 25-hour day. 3/9 Professor David Waltham, from Royal Holloway, University of London, explains that this is due to tidal forces gradually slowing the Earth's rotation. The Moon's gravitational pull creates tidal bulges on Earth, which act like a brake, slowly reducing the planet's spin. In turn, some of the energy lost by Earth is transferred to the Moon, causing it to slowly recede from us. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and referenced in a Times of India report, also offers insights into Earth's distant past. Around 1.4 billion years ago, when the Moon was significantly closer, a day on Earth lasted just over 18 hours. Since then, as the Moon has moved further away, the length of a day has gradually increased to the 24-hour cycle we know today. The moon plays a vital role in regulating our planet, especially in influencing ocean tides. When the moon is closer, it creates more powerful tidal waves, potentially even daily tsunamis. As it moves away, these tidal effects lessen. The gravitational interplay between the Earth and the moon keeps this balance in check. However, other planets, such as Mars and Jupiter, also exert gravitational pull on the moon, contributing to its continued drift. This change in distance directly affects how fast the Earth spins. The moon's gravitational force drives tidal waves, which help regulate the planet's rotation. As the moon retreats, its influence diminishes, leading to what scientists call "tidal acceleration" a gradual slowing of Earth's rotation, and a reduction in the height and frequency of tides. 7/9 During the Apollo missions, scientists installed reflectors on the lunar surface and used laser beams to measure the moon's distance precisely. These readings confirm the moon's steady movement away from Earth. At present, the Moon is on average about 384,400 kilometres from Earth and takes roughly 27.3 days to complete one orbit. Current estimates suggest that in around 200 million years, Earth could experience 25-hour days. While this shift doesn't currently impact our daily lives, researchers warn of potential future effects on climate, tides, and ecosystems. A longer day could alter our circadian rhythms, affect agriculture, and even disrupt natural behaviours in wildlife.
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Time of India
American YouTuber says he's stuck in Pakistan: 'Pretty crazy feeling...people are unbothered'
US vlogger says he's stuck in Pakistan amid rising tension. American blogger Drew Binsky announced on Instagram that he's stuck in Pakistan amid tensions between India and Pakistan. He said he's doing alright and he loves Pakistan, urging both countries to make peace not war. Binsky is a travel vlogger who was recently in India and experienced "the worst business class" flight. "I'm stuck in Pakistan right now due to the conflict with India, and all airports are closed. Thanks for all your thoughts and messages - I'm doing okay! I love this country and excited to continue exploring the Northern regions until I can get out," Drew Binksy wrote in his post. In the voiceover, he described a protest that was going on at the place where he was when he was taking the video. Operation Sindoor 'Did not want to...': Pak def min gives absurd excuse for army's failure to withstand Op Sindoor Blackouts, sirens & Pak's failed attacks: 10 things that happened in the last 36 hrs '1971 war was not remotely as terrifying': Residents of border areas shell-shocked He also said people are mostly unbothered there though it was "pretty crazy feeling for her" to be in Pakistan this time. 'I'm actually up here in the north, near Kashmir, which is the tense region," he said. 'It's pretty crazy to be here right now. I've been receiving thousands of text messages and calls from you guys from reaching out. Thank you so much. I just want to let you know that I am safe. It's a pretty crazy feeling to be stuck in a country where all the borders are closed," he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Download Chrome Symptomdepot Undo 'People here are pretty unbothered by what's going on. Shops are open… just another day in the life here," he added. He was supposed to fly back to the United States from Islamabad this weekend. In December, Binsky called out Air India as he took a London to Amritsar flight. He aid there were broken seats, unclean surroundings and poor service. "Can you believe I paid $750 to upgrade for this? I'll never be flying Air India again!" wrote Drew in his Instagram post. Drew Binsky was born in Dallas, Texas, and was raised in Arizona. Binsky graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2013 with degrees in economics and entrepreneurship. His study abroad in Prague sparked his travel passion. He also taught English in Seoul, South Korea, for 18 months, traveling to 20 Asian countries and earning a black belt in Taekwondo. He started full-time traveling in 2015 after a solo trip across India. He has visited all 197 UN-recognized countries, completing this goal on October 29, 2021 in Saudi Arabia.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Everything you need to know about bird flu
In early 2024, the bird influenza that had been spreading across the globe for nearly three decades did something wholly unexpected: It showed up in dairy cows in the Texas Panhandle. A dangerous bird flu, in other words, was suddenly circulating in mammals—mammals with which people have ongoing, extensive contact. "Holy cow," says Thomas Friedrich, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. "This is how pandemics start." This bird flu, which scientists call highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, is already at panzootic—animal pandemic—status, killing birds in every continent except for Australia, Knowable Magazine explains. Around the world, it has also affected diverse mammals including cats, goats, mink, tigers, seals and dolphins. Thus far, the United States is the only nation with H5N1 in cows; it's shown up in dairies in at least 17 states. In all of known history, "This is the largest animal disease outbreak we've ever had," says Maurice Pitesky, a veterinary researcher at the University of California, Davis. The virus, which emerged nearly three decades ago, is now creating upheaval in the poultry and dairy industries and making economic and political waves due to the fluctuating price of eggs. But there's more at risk here than grocery-store sticker shock. As it has journeyed around the world on the wings of migrating birds, the virus has infected more than 960 people since 2003, killing roughly half of them. Since the start of 2024, it's infected dozens of people in the United States—mainly farm workers—and it killed its first person stateside in January of 2025. So far, H5N1 flu hasn't acquired the key trick of passing with ease from person to person, which is what could enable a human pandemic. For now, both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization rate the public health risk as low. But the situation could change. "The thing about this virus is, every time we think we know what's going to happen, it does something totally unexpected," says Michelle Wille, a virus ecologist at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, Australia. "And that's the only consistent thing I can say about it." Biologically, H5N1 isn't so different from any other influenza A virus—the type that resides mainly in wild birds, as well as bats, and has occasionally jumped into human populations. It contains eight pieces of genetic material encoding 11 known proteins. Two proteins, the "H" and the "N" ones, stud the virus's exterior. H stands for hemagglutinin: It sticks to a cell's sugars so the virus can gain entry. N is for neuraminidase: It allows newborn viral particles to exit the cell. But there's lots of possible variety. The influenza A virus has at least 19 options for the H protein and 11 for the N protein, most of which are present in the various flu strains infecting wild waterfowl. H5N1 flu has version 5 of the H protein and version 1 of the N protein. There are also variants for the other genes. If two different flu viruses meet in a cell that they've both infected, they can swap genes back and forth, creating new kinds of flu offspring. Thus, all sorts of influenza A viruses infect the guts of wild waterfowl, usually without harm to the birds. But the viruses can cause trouble if they move into other creatures. A few decades ago, scientists thought they had a handle on what would happen if some bird influenza A virus spilled over into other species. In domestic poultry, it could turn nasty, but it was generally a "one-and-done" situation, says Bryan Richards, emerging disease coordinator at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. What happened in past instances was that all the farm birds would die, the virus would run out of hosts—the end. And the leap from birds to humans is not easily made. Scientists had long assumed that to infect people, an avian influenza A virus would have to trade genes with another virus in an intermediate species, like a pig, to adapt to mammalian biology. So back in 1996, when domestic geese in Guangdong province, China, came down with H5N1, it was hardly cause for worldwide alarm. But a year later, in Hong Kong, a 3-year-old boy died after suffering high fever and pneumonia. It took experts from around the world three months to identify the virus. At first, no one believed it was H5N1, says Robert Webster, a virologist and emeritus professor at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, who led one of the teams that made the ID. A virus with an H5 was supposed to be a chicken virus. But this H5N1 infected 18 people and killed six of them. "This was a nasty bastard," says Webster. Webster and other experts descended on Hong Kong, where they protected themselves by inhaling inactivated H5N1 virus obtained from that first case, as Webster recounts in the Annual Review of Virology. They learned that the boy's family had visited a live bird market, and testing identified more H5N1-infected birds in those markets and on farms. It had apparently arrived in ducks from China. "What blew everyone's mind, in 1997, was that humans clearly got infected with the avian virus, skipping the pig step," says Friedrich. Hong Kong killed all the poultry. That particular viral lineage was snuffed out. But its parent, back in mainland China, remained. And the vast viral lineage it spawned would continue to defy scientists' expectations. "This wasn't the one-and-done," says Richards. "The virus keeps throwing curveballs." H5N1 spread from farm to farm. It continued to infect people, usually those in very close contact with their domestic birds. Then, in 2005, the virus lobbed another curveball: It spilled back into wild birds, by now in a form altered enough to be deadly to them—killing thousands of bar-headed geese, gulls and great cormorants in China's Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. "That," says Richards, "set the stage for where we are today." More birds, likely both wild and domestic, brought H5N1 into Europe and Africa. Through genetic mixing and matching, H5 hooked up with other partners, like N8, for a time. In late 2014, migratory birds brought H5N8 from Asia to the Pacific Coast of North America, where H5 also hooked up with an N2, and the outbreak spread across several states before fizzling out. The virus continued to spread in Asia, Europe and Africa, usually as H5N8, with a bit of H5N6. In 2020, reports of H5-containing virus infections in wild and domestic birds started to rise. A new variant of the H5 gene, called 2.3.4.4b, was first spotted in the Netherlands. Viruses carrying this H5 seem to have a particular ability to cross over and infect mammals, says Friedrich. By 2021, the 2.3.4.4b variety of H5 was back with a form of N1. "From there, we started seeing this mass spread event," says Wille. The virus arrived in North America in late 2021, this time to stay. The panzootic had begun. As birds migrate south for the winter, they bring H5N1 to poultry farms. Most infected chickens will die, and the primary defense is culling. In the U.S., more than 166 million chickens have been culled since 2022, though a lull in cases led egg prices to drop in early March 2025. To prevent spread, biosecurity has become the key watchword. For poultry farmers, that means a variety of things such as limiting human interaction with flocks, washing hands and boots, and wearing face masks. But the virus just keeps spilling over from wild birds into farmers' flocks. Part of the problem, Pitesky says, is that poultry farms are often located near water sources, like lagoons and rain ponds, where migrating birds roost overnight, putting wild and domestic animals in close proximity. It's a gut virus in wild birds, and it spreads easily through their feces. In February 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced allocation of up to $1 billion in additional funds to combat highly pathogenic avian flu, including support for biosecurity, financial relief for farmers and vaccine research. Companies have designed bird vaccines against H5-containing highly pathogenic avian influenza for a couple of decades, updating them as the virus evolved. The USDA announced in January 2025 that it would update its stockpile of vaccines for chickens, and Zoetis of Parsippany, New Jersey, recently created an updated version. It's based on a strain that was circulating in 2022 and has continued to do so, says senior vice president for global biologics research and development Mahesh Kumar, who works in Zoetis' Kalamazoo, Michigan, facility. The vaccine is effective at preventing symptoms and death, but does not prevent infection or viral transmission, Kumar says. Zoetis' past vaccines have been used in a handful of other nations for poultry and one even was used by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to protect California condors in 2023. In early 2025, the USDA granted Zoetis a conditional license for that new formula, but this preliminary licensure is just a step along the way to use, not permission to market or sell the vaccine widely. In fact, the US has never allowed widespread poultry vaccination for highly pathogenic avian flu, though poultry receive a number of other vaccines. There are concerns that vaccination could push the virus to mutate faster. But the big issue blocking vaccination is that doing so could limit international poultry trade, and the U.S. is a major exporter of live poultry. A vaccinated animal could carry the virus without symptoms, and many nations don't want birds that might be invisibly carrying H5N1. To get around that problem, Zoetis' vaccine has a twist. In preparing inactivated virus, the scientists used the N2 neuraminidase, instead of the N1 that H5 has recently buddied up with. That provides a way to check whether birds have antibodies that would indicate they've been exposed to the vaccine's N2, to the real virus's N1, or to both. Still, it is uncertain whether the U.S. would ever broadly deploy an avian flu vaccine. Pitesky says that much of the power rests with farmers who raise broiler chickens for meat and export; broilers make up about two-thirds of U.S. poultry sales. If the broiler farmers aren't on board, he believes it's unlikely the USDA would promote vaccination. The decision might end up being made at a state-by-state level, depending on regional poultry industries, suggests Rocio Crespo, a veterinary researcher at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Kumar says Zoetis could turn stockpiled materials into ready-to-use vaccine in two months or less, depending on how close to finished form the vaccine is in storage. "We want to be ready," he says. And now the poultry industry's catastrophe has become the dairy industry's problem, too. The virus's 2024 appearance in Texas dairies was a surprise for flu experts: "The literature suggested that dairy cows don't get influenza A's," says Pitesky — but, "as the joke goes, cows don't read the literature." Dairies were caught off guard, without the guidelines and support systems that exist for poultry. And according to some reports, they've been slow to adopt biosecurity measures. Cows infected with H5N1 usually survive, though they must be taken out of the regular population and spend weeks in a hospital barn. Inflammation in their udders, or mastitis, turns their milk thick and yellowish; splashes of contaminated milk in the milking parlors create potential for the virus to move from animal to animal. (One study suggested that more widespread or respiratory infection does not occur, and there's no sign yet that beef cattle have been affected.) The USDA now requires the 48 contiguous states to test milk for H5N1. That testing identified two new spillovers of H5N1 into dairy herds, in Nevada and Arizona, reported in February of 2025. And, worryingly, that virus was a different version than the one that infected cows in 2024. That 2024 spillover featured an H5N1 with a particular collection of flu gene sequences, still H5 2.3.4.4b, called B3.13. But flu viruses evolve rapidly, and that H5 2.3.4.4b has shuffled genes with other viruses more than once, creating lots of variants and subvariants. More recently, another variant called D1.1 has been spreading in wild birds. While B3.13 still accounts for most cattle infections, it's D1.1 that hopped into dairies in early 2025. The long-term implications for cattle of D1.1, and avian flu in general, aren't yet clear. "We're really hoping this has just been a unique set of circumstances and that we don't get any more spillover events," says Jamie Jonker, chief science officer of the National Milk Producers Federation in Arlington, Virginia. But, he adds, "we'd like a vaccine to be in the toolbox and to understand how it can be used." Zoetis and other companies are working on H5N1 vaccines for cows, though it's too soon to know if and how such vaccines would be deployed. Even with vaccines, though, "we may not be able to put out this fire," says Gregory Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "It appears, to many of us, that these viruses are going to be endemic, or we say 'enzootic,' for a long time." What kind of risk does all this pose for people? Gray has studied a number of viruses in cattle and other animals, and he says that while spillovers from one species to another are common, it's rare that a virus adapts to spread easily in the new species. As of spring 2025, there are no confirmed cases of human-to-human H5N1 transmission in the United States. "It's not like in the movies," Gray says. "It's going to take continual spillover events for it to get a foothold." But it can happen, as it did in 2009, when an H1N1 influenza A virus with a novel mix of genes jumped from pigs into people, where it then spread widely. This caused a pandemic, killing an estimated 123,000 to 203,000 people worldwide, a death toll grossly eclipsed by the more than 7 million who died of Covid-19. To become adept at infecting humans, the virus would have to change the structure of its hemagglutinin. Its current version sticks to a specific arrangement of sugars on the surface of bird cells. The birdlike sugar arrangement is found in cow udders, explaining the mastitis. Humans do have this birdlike sugar arrangement, but it's buried deep in the lungs, making the virus hard to catch and hard to spread to another person. It's also present in human eyes, which could explain why pinkeye was the most common clinical sign in people who caught bird flu in the U.S. in 2024 (many also experienced fever and respiratory symptoms). But for ongoing person-to-person transmission through coughs, sneezes and sniffles, researchers think H5N1 would have to mutate to recognize a sugar arrangement found in the human upper respiratory tract—the nose, nasal cavity, sinuses, mouth, throat and voice box. It would also have to make changes to the protein that copies its genes, the viral polymerase. This polymerase would need to switch from working well with bird proteins to working well with human ones. It has done that, to some extent: Some versions of H5N1 have acquired relevant mutations that help it replicate in mammal cells. But as of spring 2025, none of the viruses that have jumped from cows to humans have hemagglutinin mutations that are predicted to support person-to-person transmission, Friedrich says. H5N1 could either evolve on its own, or trade genes with another human-infecting flu. The latter possibility is particularly concerning at times of high rates of seasonal flu, such as during the 2024-25 winter. The more flu virus floating around, the more chances for two kinds to meet in the same cell in the same animal and exchange genes, to birth something new and potentially dangerous. Factors beyond the virus itself influence pandemic risk, too. "There are a lot of things that have to align, not only on the virus side, but also on the people side," says Valerie Le Sage, a virologist at the University of Pittsburgh who cowrote an overview of barriers to flu transmission in the 2023 Annual Review of Virology. One of them is disease history. From recent experiments with ferrets, which get and transmit the virus similarly to the way people do, Le Sage suspects that people who've had flu before—that's most people over the age of 5—might have enough immunity to stifle the worst consequences of H5N1 flu. In her experiments, ferrets earlier exposed to the 2009 H1N1 swine flu were protected from the worst symptoms and death when later exposed to H5N1 from Texas cattle. Ferrets that were just given H5N1 flu got sick and died. "I can't tell you exactly how long this protection lasts, but it is nice to see," says Le Sage. Also good news is the observation that the virus isn't hitting anywhere near the reported 50 percent mortality rate in recent U.S. infections. Such rates are imperfect calculations, Friedrich notes, as they are based on people who were sick enough to get tested for H5N1; people who didn't get very ill would not be tallied as survivors. That would artificially inflate the death rate, though it's unclear how much this has affected calculations. Asymptomatic infections may not be uncommon, at least in current U.S. cases: A recent CDC study found that three dairy veterinarians had antibodies to H5N1, indicating they'd been infected, but had never noticed symptoms. The other gene variants that H5N1 has acquired also seem to be a factor, and here the news may be less good. The earlier B3.13 virus seemed to cause mild infections, says David Hamer, a public health epidemiologist at the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. From 2024 through spring 2025, the CDC had tracked 70 H5N1 cases, of any type, in the U.S., and most have been mild. The one person who died was over 65 and had underlying health conditions—but he also had the newer D1.1 strain, as did a teen in Canada who became severely ill. Although it's not fully clear what D1.1 means for people, it could be bad news, speculates Friedrich. "I have this gut feeling, and colleagues of mine do too, that something about the D1.1 genotype may be more permissive for mutations that adapt the virus to humans," he says. For the general public, the main advice experts offer is to not consume raw milk or undercooked poultry products. Though no human infections from raw milk or undercooked food have been reported to the CDC as of spring 2025, the virus may have been transmitted via raw poultry products in a small number of cases in Southeast Asia, and it has infected cats that drank unpasteurized milk. Pasteurization kills the virus; so does cooking of eggs, chicken and beef. The U.S. does have some protections ready, including a stockpile of personal protective equipment, antiviral medication—Tamiflu reportedly works on this virus—and the ingredients for making human vaccines. Those ingredients include virus bits, as well as chemicals that help stimulate the immune system. These are stored in bulk, and could be assembled into ready-to-use vaccine doses within weeks to months. Although those vaccine materials were designed using versions of H5N1 flu from the early 2000s, a recent study suggests that they create an antibody response to the newer 2.3.4.4b versions that have spread globally since 2020, and include both B3.13 and the newly circulating D1.1. Scientists are also working on updated vaccines that would more closely match the virus circulating now. Social factors could also influence the detection of, and response to, a potential pandemic. Many farm workers are undocumented immigrants, making many reluctant to be screened or seek medical attention. "The population we should be surveilling the most is the population we're probably not surveilling at a robust enough level," says Pitesky. And Friedrich notes the great paradox of the Covid-19 pandemic: It spawned a society that's less prepared to manage the next outbreak. "The pandemic eroded public trust in science," he says. "There has been a backlash against the power of public health agencies to do what they need to do to control an outbreak." In early 2025, publication of a CDC report on H5N1 flu spreading from cattle to people was delayed. USDA personnel working on bird flu response were laid off; the department later struggled to reinstate them. And $590 million in funding for an RNA-based vaccine (of the kind that proved successful during the Covid pandemic) was put under review. The changes continue, with the resignation of a top vaccine official within the US Food and Drug Administration in March and movements starting in April to lay off thousands of federal health workers. Regardless of whether H5N1 jumps from person to person sooner, later or never, it's raging in wild animals. In the U.S., thousands of birds of more than 160 native species, including mallards, sparrows, pigeons and bald eagles, have been infected. So have hundreds of mammals of more than two dozen native species, including raccoons, bears and opossums. Some of these get sick, and some die. Many of these infections are "dead ends," Richards notes: They don't pass the virus on. It's mainly far-flying ducks that have done that. By late 2022, H5N1 had entered South America and was thundering down the continent's Pacific coast. "It then traveled the 6,000-kilometer spine of South America in six months, so that's very fast for a virus that's not assisted by planes," says Wille. It hit the tip of South America and jumped to Antarctica. En route, it killed 40 percent of Peruvian pelicans, at least 24,000 South American sea lions and more than 17,000 southern elephant seal pups. Wild birds have been affected around the world, and even waterbirds, which normally harbor influenza A without symptoms, have suffered. Though a full census is lacking, individual examples are sobering. The population of great skuas, found primarily in Scotland, is down by a reported 75 percent. An outbreak in California condors in 2023 killed 21 animals, in a species with fewer than 1,000 in existence. "An event like that could change the course of a species," says Wille. "Are they going to come back or not?" H5N1 hasn't reached Australia or New Zealand, but Wille thinks it's just a matter of time. For the world, the future of this virus, with its propensity to defy expectations, is up in the air. "I think we're on the precipice of something," says Wille. "What that something is, I'm not sure." This story was produced by Knowable Magazine and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- The Guardian
Deported over a speeding ticket? Dozens of US students' visas abruptly revoked
Lisa was eating takeout at a friend's place when the email from her university landed. She clicked into her inbox and skimmed the message: 'ISS [International Student Services] is writing to inform you that your SEVIS record was terminated…' The wording felt unfamiliar. She read it again, but it still sounded like a scam – absurd and unreal. Lisa is an international student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, just one month away from graduation. She asked to use a pseudonym due to concerns about retaliation and an ongoing legal case. Before going to bed, she found someone posted a similar notice on social media. It was through these posts that Lisa understood what the email had actually meant: with her Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record terminated, she was now considered out of status in the US. Staying could mean violating immigration laws. The Department of Homeland Security maintains the Sevis database that tracks international students and scholars on F, M and J visas. Once a Svis record is terminated, a student's legal status becomes immediately invalid. They must either leave the US within the grace period, typically 15 days, or take steps to restore their status. Otherwise, they risk deportation and future visa restrictions. She dug through comment sections. Joined group chats. Searched for patterns. One emerged: most of the affected students had been fingerprinted. Some had been cited for non-criminal offenses, but the messages they received said they had criminal records. That's when she remembered: a year ago, she was driving home when she got two speeding tickets: one for speeding and another for failing to stop. She hadn't seen the police car behind her until it was too late. To get the charges dismissed, she showed up in court, where she was fingerprinted. Lisa is one of several students across states who found their legal status revoked by the US government on 4 April, without prior notice or clear explanation. University statements show that at least 39 students have been affected, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, Stanford, Ohio State, the University of Tennessee, the University of Kentucky, Minnesota State University and the University of Oregon. An online self-reported data sheet created by affected students suggests the issue may be more widespread. Students from 50 universities reported their visas were canceled around 4 April, with many noting that they had prior records, some limited to citations or non-criminal offenses. This secret wave of revocation came a few days after US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced the revocation of 300 or more student visas. 'We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,' he said at a news conference on 27 March, referring to students he described as national security threats. Lisa's university had included a screenshot of her Sevis record in the message. Termination was logged on 4 April by a system administrator, with a note: 'Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked.' Shenqi Cai, a California immigration attorney and managing attorney at Lashine Law, said she got the first call from a student on 3 April. 'At the time, we thought it was a one-off. It seemed strange.' But by Friday, more cases kept coming in. She contacted designated school officials at several partner universities and confirmed that the terminations were visible in the Sevis system. Cai said this round of Sevis terminations appeared to be unprecedented. 'Students weren't given any chance to explain their situation. As long as the system flagged them, what we believe is a kind of criminal screening trigger, they were terminated under one broad directive.' Based on the information collected so far, Cai said around 90% of the affected students had been fingerprinted. But she explained that the criteria used to flag students can vary by state. 'Each state defines these triggers differently. The thresholds are inconsistent. A student may be arrested in one state, but that doesn't mean they'll be convicted, because the power to decide guilt or innocence lies with the judge.' David, a Chinese student who completed his undergraduate degree, was immediately unable to continue working. He requested a pseudonym due to fears of retaliation and an ongoing legal case. In 2024, David was reported to police after a verbal argument with his partner. When officers arrived, they were still arguing, but there was no physical contact, he said. Because of a language barrier, his partner couldn't clearly explain what had happened. David was detained overnight and later ordered to appear in court. 'My partner wrote a statement to the prosecutor explaining it wasn't domestic violence,' he said. The charge was eventually dropped. Court records show the case was dismissed with prejudice, and the judge ordered the arrest record and biometric data to be destroyed. Three years later, David received a Sevis termination notice. Unlike enrolled F-1 students, David is working under Optional Practical Training, a work authorization linked to the Sevis system. Once a Sevis record is terminated, that authorization ends and is nearly impossible to recover. David was nearing the end of his first year of employment when he got the notice on Friday. He scheduled a lunch meeting with his manager, who said the company would try to help him relocate to Canada. But because the termination took effect immediately, he was subjected to the 15-day departure rule. 'I told my family, and they felt just as powerless,' he said. 'But we don't come from wealth, and there's not a lot they can do.' Bill is facing the same dilemma. He graduated in December 2024 and is currently job-hunting. He asked not to use his real name due to a pending case. In early 2025, Bill hit another car while making a turn. At the time, his driver's license had just expired. Police cited him for driving with an expired license. After renewing it, he followed the instructions and appeared in court. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'I went with a temporary license. The court staff were friendly,' he said. 'One even joked, 'this is no big deal, handsome,' while taking my fingerprints and photos. It felt like a scene out of a movie.' His initial appearance only involved ID verification. When he asked if the hearing could be held that day, a staff member told him it was scheduled for May and suggested he come back then. 'I thought it was fine. My license was updated, I just had to show up again.' But on 3 April, he suddenly received a notice from the school that his Sevis record had been terminated. Now, Bill has no idea what to do. Legally, he should leave the country immediately, but his case is still open and he's required to appear in court in May. He doesn't know whether showing up would put him at risk of detention. On 4 April, he met with his university's international office. Staff there were willing to help, he said, but had few tools. They asked him to write a personal statement, which they promised to pass along to university leadership. The only formal support offered was a referral to a discounted lawyer – $150 an hour. 'The dust of history falls on me, and it becomes a mountain. That's all there is to it,' he said. By Sunday evening, the panic had spread. Three hundred students joined a Zoom info session hosted by Brad Banias, a federal court immigration litigator and former justice department trial attorney. Questions poured into the chat box: 'Should we leave our apartments right now in case ICE shows up?' 'Will an unpaid parking ticket be a problem?' Banias called the terminations a political move, not a legal one. 'It makes me angry to see 19-year-olds just trying to study, and suddenly a parking ticket they didn't even know about shows up on a criminal background check,' he said. 'Don't let them convince you it's reasonable to leave the country over a parking ticket.' For Lisa, the future was just starting to take shape. She is about to graduate in one month, with a job offer and grad school acceptance. But now, she said she wasn't even sure if she should go to class on Monday. Back in April 2024, she was pulled over in Madison for speeding. She hadn't noticed the patrol car behind her right away, and by the time she stopped, two officers approached. One told her not to worry – it was her first offense, and all she needed to do was pay the fine. But the other issued two citations: one for speeding, the other for failing to stop. They told her it was just a miscommunication, something she could clear up in court. But that never really happened. 'My first court date was just for ID,' she said. 'They fingerprinted me, took a photo, measured my height. The judge barely said anything. No hearing, just a new court date.' She asked if the case could be resolved sooner and was told to schedule an online meeting. She did. During that meeting, the case was dropped. No record. They asked if she accepted. She said yes. Everything after that went smoothly: her work visa was approved, the company background checks cleared, and she had no trouble leaving and re-entering the country. She thought it was behind her. Then the email came. 'I don't know if I'm still allowed to graduate,' she said. 'If I don't get my degree, does the grad school still take me? Does the company push back the offer? Worst case, I don't graduate. I go home and start college again. Four more years. And then what?'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
This is the rarest kind of sunset you can see. Here's how to spot them in Arizona
We all know sunsets are prettier in Arizona. If you happen to be out and about on a day when the sunset is especially vivid, the sight may stop you in your tracks. The striking hues of warm reds and oranges bathe the environment — be it the sprawling city, rocky mountains or sandy desert washes — in a magical light. But did you know, some sunsets are rarer than others? The science of sunsets explains why. Here's what to know about the rarest sunsets, how they form and the best places to spot them around the Sunset State, as Arizona is sometimes called. The rarest type of sunset is one with violet or indigo colors. To understand why thought, you have to know a little bit about the science of sunsets. The bright evening colors come when small particles in the atmosphere cause light to scatter, explained Steven Ackerman, professor of meteorology at University of Wisconsin–Madison, in an online article. As the light scatters, the color of the light is affected by the size of the particle and the wavelength of light. Blue and violet are scattered by air molecules more than other colors. During sunset, the sun's position on the horizon means there is more opportunity for the light to scatter. This means that the violet and blue light is most affected. 'If the path is long enough, all of the blue and violet light scatters out of your line of sight," Ackerman said. "The other colors continue on their way to your eyes. This is why sunsets are often ' This explains why Arizona, which already has prime conditions for vivid sunsets, tend to be yellow, orange, and red, though it is not entirely uncommon to see sunsets with pink and purple shades. Arizona city the sunniest in the world: Hint: it's not in metro Phoenix The time of sunset varies by the time of year. Here are the most common sunset times by month, according to January: 5:31 to 5:59 p.m. February: 6 to 6:24 p.m. March: 6:25 to 6:48 p.m. April: 6:49 to 7:10 p.m. May: 7:11 to 7:32 p.m. June: 7:33 to 7:42 p.m. July: 7:28 to 7:42 p.m. August: 6:54 to 7:27 p.m. September: 6:13 to 6:52 p.m. October: 5:36 to 6:11 p.m. November: 5:20 to 5:35 p.m. December: 5:20 to 5:31 p.m. Metro Phoenix, which was rated a top spot to see the sunset by Fodor's Travel, has many great places to sit back and enjoy the view. Here are a few popular spots: Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert: This hidden gem in the East Valley is an oasis and a birding hotspot. Throw in a beautiful sunset, and you're sure to have an unforgettable experience. Lost Dutchman State Park: The Arizona State Parks says that one of the more popular sunset viewing spots is Lost Dutchman State Park in the Superstition Mountains near Apache Junction. San Tan Mountain Regional Park: The San Tan Mountains are another excellent sunset viewing location, especially for those in the southeast Valley. Try a short hike, bring a picnic or go biking while you wait for the sun to dip. Papago Park: Hole in the Rock has long been a popular sunset spot, but there are more scattered throughout the park. You can't beat watching the sun descend behind the downtown Phoenix skyline. You can even watch it from the Desert Botanical Garden, which is inside the park. South Mountain: Even if you aren't looking to take a hike, you can always drive up to Dobbins Point for a stunning sunset view. The lookout point offers a 360-degree view of metro Phoenix. Tempe Town Lake: If you want to see the sunset over the water, try stopping by Tempe Town Lake for a different kind of sunset view. You can enjoy the sunset's reflection on the water from the pedestrian bridge or even rent a boat for an extra calm experience. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: This is the rarest kind of sunset. Here's how to spot it in Arizona
