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A giant gold coin weighing 22lb (10kg) and worth £10,000 has been produced. The Royal Mint said its biggest coin took 400 hours to produce - including four days of polishing. The 8in-wide (20cm) coin was created using traditional skills and innovative technology, it said. It marks the end of the mint's Queen's Beasts commemorative coin collection, inspired by 10 stone statues which lined the Queen's route to Westminster Abbey at her coronation in 1953.
Source: bbc.com
For those who have asked what the point of wasps is, there is now a comprehensive answer. They are voracious predators of pest insects, produce powerful antibiotics in their venom, pollinate plants and even make a nutritious snack. The benefits to humans of the much-hated insects are revealed in the first major scientific review of the ecosystem services they provide. It focused on the 33,000 known species of hunting wasps, which carry stings and live in every corner of the world.
Source: theguardian.com
The number of electric cars, vans, trucks and buses on the world’s roads is on course to increase from 11m vehicles to 145m by the end of the decade, which could wipe out demand for millions of barrels of oil every day. A report by the International Energy Agency has found that there could be 230m electric vehicles worldwide by 2030 if governments agreed to encourage the production of enough low-carbon vehicles to stay within global climate targets.
Source: theguardian.com
At first glance it could be an old scrap of paper that has had blackcurrant juice knocked over it. In reality it is, in terms of size, weight and material, arguably the most valuable object in the world. When it goes to auction in June it is expected to sell for between $10m and $15m – more than a billion times its original value. The scrap of paper is the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, which was created in 1856 and is the most famous and valuable stamp in the world. “It is the Mona Lisa of philately,” said David Beech, a philatelic expert. “It is the one stamp that every philatelist and every collector would have heard about and seen an illustration of.”
Source: theguardian.com
China on Thursday launched the main module of its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long term, the latest success for a program that has realized a number of its growing ambitions in recent years. The Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony,” module blasted into space atop a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan, marking another major advance for the country’s space exploration. The launch begins the first of 11 missions necessary to complete, supply and crew the station by the end of next year.
Source: apnews.com
Eight people have been killed and several others seriously hurt in a fire at an illegal hostel in the Latvian capital Riga, officials say. Firefighters were called to an apartment on the top floor of a six-storey building in the city's Merkela Street in the early hours of Wednesday. At least 24 people were evacuated from the burning building, some suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. Most of the victims are believed to be foreign tourists, Riga's mayor said.
Source: bbc.com
Identified only by the initials KS in court, the refugee was handed the heavy sentence in a Mytiline court on the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday. According to campaigners, KS had crossed from Turkey to the Greek island of Chios by boat with his family, including three young children, and dozens of others in early March 2020.
Source: independent.co.uk
A man in China was detained by police after he was caught throwing coins into a jet's engine for good luck - a superstition that put the lives of the 148 passengers and crew in danger. The passenger, identified only as having the surname Wang, was scheduled to fly from Weifang to Haiku on a Beibu Gulf Airlines flight GX8814 when he tossed a handful of coins wrapped in red paper into the engine. Coins in a plane's engine can damage the blades or even cause a fire. Luckily, runway workers noticed the coins on the tarmac under the plane before it took off and alerted the aircraft's crew.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
A Victorian mother-of-eight now has 10 children, all under the age of 10, after she gave birth to twins unexpectedly this week. Annie Tupou found out she was pregnant at six months, which came as a shock to begin with. But a week and a half after finding out she was having her ninth child, she went into labour and gave birth to twin girls.
Source: 9news.com
Oscar Grau is no longer the CEO of FC Barcelona. Grau joined the club in September 2016 under Josep Maria Bartomeu but will not continue under new president Joan Laporta. New CEO Ferran Reverter told Grau of the news on Tuesday after the decision was made at a meeting on Monday, with Pere Jansa, the director of the club's social area, also let go.
Source: sport.es
A man wielding a knife wounded 18 people including 16 children at a kindergarten in China's southwestern region of Guangxi on Wednesday, state-backed media said. Two of the children were seriously injured in the attack in the city of Beiliu. A suspect was arrested by police.
Source: reuters.com
Microbiologists have devised a sustainable way to remove polluting microplastics from the environment – and they want to use bacteria to do the job. Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) want to use sticky bacteria property and create tape-like microbe nets that can capture microplastics in polluted water to form an easily disposable and recyclable blob. Although these findings are still preliminary, this invention could pave the way for sustainably lowering plastic pollution levels in the long run by simply using something found in nature.
Source: theguardian.com
A monumental painting by Edinburgh-born artist Robert Scott Lauder is the focus of a major conservation project in an empty gallery space in the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA). The grand building, built by William Henry Playfair, has stood in the centre of Edinburgh for almost 200 years, housing many exhibitions over the years. But, at the moment, there is only one painting in it and one person at work. Lesley Stevenson, senior paintings conservator at the National Galleries of Scotland, has been working here on and off over both Covid lockdowns. She has been concentrating on just one painting - Christ Teacheth Humility.
Source: bbc.com
Jamie Spears has been conservator or guardian of the pop singer's affairs since 2008. It is not clear if the pop singer will appear in person or by video but a hearing has been scheduled for 23 June in Los Angeles.
Source: news.sky.com
A former White House senior adviser for the Obama administration who helped found a network of charter schools is accused of allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the schools and attempting to launder the funds in order to get a lower interest rate on a mortgage for a Manhattan apartment, according to federal prosecutors. Seth Andrew was charged by prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York with wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a bank.
Source: cnn.com
Ten years after they found and killed Osama bin Laden, U.S. Navy SEALs are undergoing a major transition to improve leadership and expand their commando capabilities to better battle threats from global powers like China and Russia. The new plan cuts the number of SEAL platoons by as much as 30% and increases their size to make the teams more lethal and able to counter sophisticated maritime and undersea adversaries.
Source: apnews.com
Two Spanish journalists and an Irish national abducted near a nature reserve in eastern Burkina Faso have been killed. The Europeans were part of an anti-poaching patrol that was ambushed by gunmen near Pama Reserve on Monday. Burkina Faso government officials confirmed their deaths on Tuesday. A local soldier was also abducted, but his status is unknown. It remains unclear who carried out the attack.
Source: bbc.com
The family of deceased Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee will pay more than 12 trillion won ($10.78 billion) in inheritance taxes for the estate of the late patriarch. Lee died on Oct. 25. His estate, valued at around 26 trillion won ($23.4 billion) according to local media, included shareholdings in Samsung affiliates valued at $17 billion. The Lee family's handling of the hefty inheritance tax bill - one of the largest ever in both Korea and globally - had been closely watched as it could have resulted in the dilution of the family's controlling stake in Samsung.
Source: reuters.com
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