Latest news with #European-led
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Erdogan says he's 'optimistic victory will be Iran's' in blistering speech as strikes continue
As the conflict between Israel and Iran enters its ninth consecutive day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he's "optimistic that victory will be Iran's" in a blistering speech at a gathering of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers in Istanbul. Erdogan accused Israel of sabotaging the nuclear talks between Iran and the US — which were ongoing when Israel first launched strikes last Friday, June 13 — adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to "resolve issues through diplomatic means." He urged the diplomats at the OIC meeting to increase pressure on Israel on the basis of international law and UN resolutions. Erdogan's harsh rhetoric comes days before he's due to join a meeting of leaders of the NATO Alliance this week, including US President Donald Trump, who has dismissed a European-led effort to steer parties to the negotiating table. "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us," Trump told reporters in New Jersey late on Friday. "Europe is not going to be able to help in this one." Meanwhile, Israel said its strikes had targeted Iran's nuclear site in Isfahan, and that it had killed three senior commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published in Germany's Bild newspaper on Saturday that Israel has already delayed Iran's nuclear programme by "at least two or three years." Euronews brings you rolling coverage and updates throughout the day.
India Today
14 hours ago
- Politics
- India Today
Trump says it's ‘very hard' to ask Israel to stop airstrikes on Iran amid military gains
US President Donald Trump on Friday indicated that he is unlikely to urge Israel to stop its airstrikes on Iran, despite stalled diplomacy and growing international pressure for de-escalation, including from the United to reporters after landing in Morristown, New Jersey, Trump said Israel's current military advantage made any request for a ceasefire diplomatically difficult.'I think it's very hard to make that request right now,' Trump said. 'If somebody is winning, it's a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing. But we're ready, willing and able, and we've been speaking to Iran, and we'll see what happens,' Trump The president later added, 'It's very hard to stop when you look at it.''Israel's doing well in terms of war. And, I think, you would say that Iran is doing less well. It's a little bit hard to get somebody to stop,' Trump president confirmed that negotiations with Iran are ongoing, but played down expectations of a breakthrough in the near term. He made it clear the US would take its time before deciding whether to support Israel more directly.'We're ready, willing and able, and we've been speaking to Iran, and we'll see what happens,' Trump said. 'I'd say two weeks would be the maximum to see whether people come to their senses.'Trump also dismissed European-led mediation efforts, which failed to produce results during recent talks in doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us,' Trump said. 'Europe is not going to be able to help in this one.' While reaffirming his image as a 'peacemaker,' Trump rejected comparisons between the current standoff and America's 2003 invasion of Iraq—a war he has frequently criticized.'There were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought there were,' Trump said. 'That was somewhat pre-nuclear nothing like it is today.'He added of Iran's current nuclear program, 'It looked like I'm right about the material that they've gathered already. It's a tremendous amount of material.'Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise on both sides. Israel's air campaign has killed 639 people in Iran, including senior military officials and nuclear scientists, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iran's retaliatory missile strikes have killed 24 civilians in Israel, according to local from Associated PressMust Watch
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists are redefining time itself, starting with the second
Scientists have taken a major step toward the ambitious global goal of 'redefining the second' by the end of this decade. A study published this week details how researchers from six different countries simultaneously compared measurements from 10 optical clocks—an advanced form of timekeeping that is up to 100 times more accurate than the best cesium clocks, which are currently used as the global standard. The measurements amount to the largest coordinated comparison of optical clocks to date, and significantly reduced the uncertainty between measurements reported in previous studies. This also means that optical clocks are closer than ever to becoming the new standard for timekeeping, a shift that could have a massive ripple effect on everything from meteorology to our understanding of fundamental physics. Researchers say the findings support 'the advance toward a redefinition of the second and the use of optical standards for international time scales.' In a nutshell, optical clocks are incredibly accurate instruments that measure the frequency of atoms after they've been excited by lasers. The atoms are first cooled to near absolute zero, then lasers are used to detect their vibrations. Those vibrations are called frequency ratios. This precise frequency then corresponds to the 'tick' of a second. Scientists believe this method yields far more accurate results than the cesium atomic clocks, which have been the global standard for the past five decades. For context, researchers say an optical clock would not gain or lose a second for billions of years. In fact, New Scientist estimates you could wait the current age of the universe four times over, and an optical clock would still be off by less than a minute. Compare that to a typical wristwatch, which can drift over just a few months. Optical clocks are incredibly precise, but they are also highly complex. There are just around 100 of them in existence worldwide, largely because they are difficult to build, operate, and maintain—they are also susceptible to breakage. Comparing them against each other is notoriously challenging. Different clocks measure the frequencies of different types of atoms, each with its own unique frequency. This means the only way to establish a consistent, highly precise standard is to directly compare the clocks with one another. That's where these most recent findings come in. Researchers from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Japan collaborated on a European-led project called ROCIT to compare 10 different clocks. The measurements were conducted over a 45-day period in 2022. In the past, smaller-scale optical clock comparisons relied on satellite links to measure differences, but this study used both satellite links and fiber optic cables. That's important because it allows for more accurate measurements. 'Comparing multiple clocks at the same time and using more than one type of link technology provides far more information than the mostly pairwise clock comparisons that have been carried out to date,' VTT MIKES meteorology research center senior scientist Thomas Lindvall said in a statement. Related: [Refining the clock's second takes time—and lasers] The fiber optic cables spanned thousands of miles across Europe, allowing researchers to connect the frequency outputs of the various clocks. They accounted for signal noise and other limitations of the instruments during the process. In total, the comparison produced 38 different frequency ratios measured simultaneously, four of them for the first time. The remaining ratios were measured with greater accuracy than ever before, according to the researchers. 'These measurements provide critical information about what work is still needed for optical clocks to achieve the precision and reliability required for use in international timekeeping,' Instituto Nazionale Di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM) senior researcher Marco Pizzocaro said in a statement. 'Our experiment also showed how optical clocks across Europe can be linked to measure frequency ratios with state-of-the-art precision.' Although more comparisons are needed before optical clocks can officially become the global standard, researchers are optimistic about the future. The benefits go beyond just improved timekeeping. More precise measurements could help scientists test Albert Einstein's theory of relativity with greater accuracy and offer new insights into the still-mysterious concept of dark matter. At the same time, scientists are also making headway on entirely new 'nuclear clocks' that might make opticals look like relics. Last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said they were close to completing a nuclear clock prototype that focuses on vibrations, not from a single atom, but from a single nucleus. 'Imagine a wristwatch that wouldn't lose a second even if you left it running for billions of years,' NIST and JILA physicist Jun Ye said last year following news of the prototype. 'While we're not quite there yet, this research brings us closer to that level of precision.'
NBC News
11-06-2025
- Science
- NBC News
European probe snaps first images of the sun's south pole
From the spacecraft's observations, scientists discovered that magnetic fields with both north and south polarity are currently present at the sun's south pole. This mishmash of magnetism is expected to last only a short time during the solar maximum before the magnetic field flips. Once that happens, a single polarity should slowly build up over time at the poles as the sun heads toward its quiet solar minimum phase, according to ESA. 'How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective,' said Sami Solanki, director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany and lead scientist for Solar Orbiter's PHI instrument, which is mapping the sun's surface magnetic field. Scientists have enjoyed close-up images of the sun before, but before now, they have all been captured from around the sun's equator by spacecraft and observatories orbiting along a plane similar to Earth's path around the sun. But Solar Orbiter's journey through the cosmos included close flybys of Venus that helped tilt the spacecraft's orbit, allowing it to see higher-than-normal latitudes on the sun. The newly released images were taken in late March, when Solar Orbiter was 15 degrees below the sun's equator, and then a few days later when it was 17 degrees below the equator — a high-enough angle for the probe to directly see the sun's south pole. 'We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations — the sun's poles are literally terra incognita,' Solanki said in a statement. Solar Orbiter was launched in February 2020. The European-led mission is being operated jointly with NASA. In the coming years, Solar Orbiter's path is expected to tilt even further, bringing even more of the sun's south pole into direct view. As such, the best views may be yet to come, according to ESA. 'These data will transform our understanding of the sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity,' said Daniel Müller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist.
Sinar Daily
07-06-2025
- Science
- Sinar Daily
Earliest proof of humans using whale bone tools discovered
The bones, found on the northern Spanish coast in the Bay of Biscay, show that we have been underestimating our prehistoric ancestors, the European-led team of scientists said. 07 Jun 2025 04:01pm There was a boom in whale bones between 17,500 and 16,000 BC, when tools have been found as far away as Germany. - Photo illustrated by Sinar Daily PARIS - Scientists announced they have discovered the earliest evidence of humans using whale bones, finding weapons made from the remains of the massive mammals dating back more than 20,000 years. The bones, found on the northern Spanish coast in the Bay of Biscay, show that we have been underestimating our prehistoric ancestors, the European-led team of scientists said. Some of the bones were collected more than a century ago but were misidentified. The researchers used carbon-dating, as well as spectrometry analysis to determine what species the bones were from. - Photo illustrated by Sinar Daily Southwest Europe was much colder during the Upper Palaeolithic period, and the Atlantic Ocean was 120 metres (400 feet) lower than its current level. As the seas rose over the millennia, it destroyed or buried much of the proof that these hunter-gatherers interacted with the marine world, French prehistoric archaeologist Jean-Marc Petillon told AFP. This led to a "biased" vision that they only hunted inland beasts such as reindeer, bison and horses, the lead author of a new study in Nature Communications said. "Fortunately for us, people at the time transported a number of marine products inland," he added. Perched on a cliff, these humans would likely have been able to see blue, sperm, bowhead and other whales relatively near the shore, looking for food. Among their discoveries, the researchers found more than 60 fragments of whale ribs or vertebrae. These huge bones were carried up to five kilometres (three miles) to the top of a steep cliff, possibly to extract their oil. "These bones are very rich in fat," Petillon explained. Most of the bone tools were parts of weapons, such as the tips of spears. But it is "extremely unlikely" these ancient humans were able to hunt whales, the study said, adding that it was more likely that the huge animals had simply washed up on the beach. Some of the bones were collected more than a century ago but were misidentified. The researchers used carbon-dating, as well as spectrometry analysis to determine what species the bones were from. There was a boom in whale bones between 17,500 and 16,000 BC, when tools have been found as far away as Germany. "Then it stopped quite abruptly" for reasons that are not clear, Petillon said. The people of the time did not run out of bones, nor did they lose the bone-working techniques. "It could be a choice... like a fashion that lasts a millennium or two and then, at some point, stops," Petillon said. - AFP More Like This
