Author: Team_Benjamin Franklin Institute

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory aims to make heavier elements by firing titanium particles at a metal targetMarilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab The race to discover new chemical elements will heat up in 2025, resulting in the heaviest one so far and a new row added to the periodic table if successful. “Patience will be the biggest challenge,” says Jacklyn Gates at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California. Gates and her colleagues are one of a number of teams attempting to produce element 120, also currently known as unbinilium. Attempts to forge such synthetic substances, which don’t exist naturally on Earth,… Source…

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A 14-year-old boy killed in a summary execution.Girls as young as 4 and women as old as 82 subjected to sexual violence. A priest brutally beaten, then stripped naked and forced to parade naked through the streets of his village for an hour.These were among the nightmarish findings of a new UN-backed report released Thursday that found Russia has committed war crimes and likely crimes against humanity during its yearlong invasion of Ukraine.The three international experts appointed to serve as investigators with the Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russia was guilty of grave violations…

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A total of $2.2bn (£1.76bn) in cryptocurrencies has been stolen this year, with North Korean hackers accounting for more than half that figure, according to a new study.Research firm Chainalysis says hackers affiliated with the reclusive state stole $1.3bn of digital currencies – more than double last year’s haul.Some of the thefts appear to be linked to North Korean hackers posing as remote IT workers to infiltrate crypto and other technology firms, the report says.It comes as the price of bitcoin has more than doubled this year as incoming US president Donald Trump is expected to be more crypto-friendly than…

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This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereGood morning and welcome back to the last FirstFT before we take a brief Christmas Day break. Here’s what’s on the agenda today:The world’s top private equity firms have found themselves trapped in China, unable to sell or list their China-based portfolio companies this year, as Beijing has cracked down on initial public offerings and the economy slows.Among the 10 largest global private equity groups with…

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Credit: Screenshot via CBS Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger, Republican from Texas, had been absent from public view for six months. She was recently discovered living in a dementia care home. Granger, a venerable figure in the Republican Party and a representative of Texas’s 12th Congressional District since 1997, had not been seen casting a vote since July. She is 81 years of age. Her disappearance from the political scene was initially shrouded in silence. But a reporter for the Dallas Express decided to start asking questions. What he found was nothing short of shocking. After calls to Granger’s office went…

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To be clear, such a public persona is gender neutral. Recall former talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, another “good” celebrity revealed to be the opposite. Allegations about her mistreatment of employees and toxic work environment, contrary to her talk show’s “be kind” mantra, eventually led to her controversial exit from TV. In both cases, their personal branding driving “impactful change” was an intentional strategy, not a fandom’s wishful projections.  Unlike DeGeneres’ fervent advocacy to be kind that had a tendency to feel a little contrived, Baldoni didn’t intend to be seen as perfect. He often acknowledged how societal…

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Singer Britney Spears is once again opening up on her experience of being forced into psychiatric care against her will during her conservatorship.In a fiery rant on social media, the “Ooh La La” vocalist detailed the long-term effects she continues to suffer from and noted how her oft-criticized dance videos are her way of bringing a level of normalcy into her everyday life.Article continues below advertisementBritney Spears Details The ‘Horrible Experience’ She Lived ThroughMEGATaking to Instagram on Thursday, Britney Spears first addressed those who question and criticize the many dance videos she posts.“So many people had something to say about…

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More targets bombed in Yemen; another missile fired at Tel Aviv.Israel bombed Yemen yet again, hitting the main airport and port city. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned there is more to come. In response, another Houthi missile was fired at Tel Aviv. So, how dangerous are these escalating hostilities? Presenter: James Bays Guests: Mustapha Noman – Former Yemeni deputy foreign minister Yossi Beilin – Former Israeli cabinet minister Elijah Magnier – Military and political analyst and Middle East specialist Hussain al-Bukhaiti – Pro-Houthi journalist and political commentator Source link

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On multiple occasions ahead of Christmas, angry New York Giants fans paid to fly banners over MetLife Stadium before games in an attempt to embarrass team co-owner John Mara into moving on from head coach Brian Daboll and/or general manager Joe Schoen amid the club’s disastrous 2-13 season. It appears the conditions in East Rutherford, NJ, will give Mara a break when his Giants host the 7-8 Indianapolis Colts this Sunday. “High Exposure Aerial Advertising has canceled orders for three banner-carrying planes to fly over MetLife Stadium before the Giants’ home finale at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Colts,” Ryan Dunleavy of the New…

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Rubin Observatory’s commissioning camera (ComCam)Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/H. Stockebrand Sometime in May or June, as the southern hemisphere winter sets in beneath the skies of the Chilean Atacama desert, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will open its dome and the largest digital camera in history will capture its first science-grade image of the cosmos. Under the Atacama’s pristine and stable atmosphere, Rubin will begin a 10-year mission to provide humanity with an extraordinary new vision of the cosmos with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Twenty-four years in the making, the observatory is a brand new astronomical facility.… Source link

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