China announced Monday the discovery of a crude oil reserve estimated at 100 million tons in the northeastern part of the South China Sea, according to a statement from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The reserve was located at the "Huicou 19-6" oil field, situated approximately 170 kilometers off the coast of Guangdong province in southern China. The field lies in waters averaging 100 meters in depth.

CNOOC said test drilling at the site yielded 413 barrels of oil and 68,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day.

As US President Donald Trump prepares to announce reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he calls “Liberation Day,” attention is turning to the potential impact on global trade.

Trump’s tariff plans remain a major source of global uncertainty, with fears that countermeasures from other countries could deepen trade tensions.

His announcement that the US would impose 25% tariffs on car imports has brought renewed attention to Türkiye’s automotive exports to the American market.

According to data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), the US remains a key destination for Türkiye’s automotive sector.

https://archive.ph/H5h3n

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon

The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE have begun dismantling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), beginning with stated plan is to cut half of the agency’s workforce.

Their biggest cuts appear to be in the Large Business and International division, which audits wealthy individuals and companies with more than $10 million in assets. These are essentially the workers that make sure billionaires and corporations pay their taxes.

Musk and Trump claim to be sage businessmen, but it would be hard to find a business owner in America that would dismantle their accounts receivable department when their wealthiest clients still owe them money.

So make no mistake: These cuts will cost taxpayers a lot more than they save.

The coronavirus membrane protein (M) is the main organizer of coronavirus assembly1,2,3. Here, we report on an M-targeting molecule, CIM-834, that blocks the assembly of SARS-CoV-2. CIM-834 was obtained through high-throughput phenotypic antiviral screening followed by medicinal-chemistry efforts and target elucidation. CIM-834 inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 (including a broad panel of variants) and SARS-CoV. In SCID mice and Syrian hamsters intranasally infected with SARS-CoV-2, oral treatment reduced lung viral titres to nearly undetectable levels, even (as shown in mice) when treatment was delayed until 24 h before the end point. Treatment of infected hamsters prevented transmission to untreated sentinels. Transmission electron microscopy studies show that virion assembly is completely absent in cells treated with CIM-834. Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy reveals that CIM-834 binds and stabilizes the M protein in its short form, thereby preventing the conformational

We show that the human brain contains diverse mitochondrial phenotypes driven by both topology and cell types. Compared with white matter, grey matter contains >50% more mitochondria. Moreover, the mitochondria in grey matter are biochemically optimized for energy transformation, particularly among recently evolved cortical brain regions. Scaling these data to the whole brain, we created a backwards linear regression model that integrates several neuroimaging modalities11 to generate a brain-wide map of mitochondrial distribution and specialization.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20241729

Rice University researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called “forever chemicals.” A study led by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and graduate student Phelecia Scotland unveils a method that not only eliminates PFAS from water systems but also transforms waste into high-value graphene, offering a cost-effective and sustainable approach to environmental remediation. This research was published March 31 in Nature Water.

Schools cannot withhold documents that discuss a child’s gender identity from parents, the U.S. Department of Education said in a Dear Colleague letter to educators.

The Friday letter said many schools and states have misinterpreted federal student privacy laws in ways that prevent parents from knowing when their child is going by a different name or pronouns at school.

Advocates for LGBTQ youth say that most schools try to involve parents but not all parents are safe or supportive.

Following months of testing, Plex has started to roll out its redesigned mobile app to Android and iOS devices, and it will arrive to everyone within the next week. The new app comes with an updated navigation system that should make it easier to access different parts of the app and find content to watch, along with a dedicated tab for centralized media libraries.

It also has a button in the top-right corner of the screen for your Watchlist and more artwork across detail pages for shows and movies, as well as cast and crew profiles. In a post on the Plex forum, the company outlines a ton of improvements it has made to the app since the preview, including faster load times and scrolling, the addition of a sleep timer, and picture-in-picture support.

Education officials in Maine declared this week that they will not sign a compliance agreement with the Trump administration, continuing the state’s standoff with President Trump over his political fixation on transgender girls in school sports.

On March 17, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated in a press release that both the Maine Principals’ Association and Maine School Administrative District No. 51 (MSAD 51) had violated Title IX civil rights law by allowing trans girls to compete with cisgender girls in the same school sports leagues. The release said both entities would be offered “an opportunity to voluntarily commit within 10 days to resolve the matter through a signed agreement or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action.”

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Money that had been allocated to state and community health departments and other groups for COVID-19 response is being cancelled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The cancellation of $11.4 billion in grants awarded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, first reported by NBC News, is the latest in a series of funding cuts that have been implemented at federal health agencies by the Trump administration since January. The funds were primarily being used by states to support COVID testing and vaccination, as well as an initiative to put more trained community health workers in communities that have been most affected by COVID-19 and an effort to address COVID-19 health disparities.

Termination notices began on March 24, according to an official with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

We’re fighting to protect and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; lower drug prices; ensure economic justice for all; and guarantee health care as a human right—because everyone deserves to live in dignity.

The mission of Social Security Works is to,

Protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations Safeguard the economic security of those dependent, now or in the future, on Social Security Maintain Social Security as a vehicle of social justice

Funding for Social Security Works comes from donations from the public, and grants from foundations including the Open Society Foundations, the Retirement Research Foundation, CREDO, and the Civic Participation Action Fund. Social Security Works was founded with a generous grant from Atlantic Philanthropies.

Now, thousands of protesters have been detained and government-owned media appears to be running a blackout on any coverage of the protests. A number of journalists have been arrested and a BBC reporter has even been deported after his reporting of demonstrations.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have gathered across Turkey in what was initially to express opposition to Imamoglu’s arrest, but have quickly bloomed into wider anti-government gatherings. However, Turkish state media has been accused of censoring any coverage of the protests. The Guardian reported that government owned channels broadcast interviews with ministers unrelated to the protests and that:

Substantive coverage of the protests has instead been the preserve of the small slice of newspapers and cable channels that exist outside the well funded and slick pro-government broadcasting networks.

Meanwhile, in 2023, there was a massive jump in arms exports to Europe. Overall, the value of UK companies’ arms export contracts to Europe more than quadrupled between 2013–17 and 2019–23, reaching £16.15 billion in the latter period. This reflects a trend towards European rearmament that has been going on for many years, but which greatly accelerated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Then, despite not being as high as in previous years, sales to human rights abusing regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar remain high. In 2023, the UK issued single licenses worth £515m (10.4% of the total) to Saudi Arabia, and £351m (7.1% of the total) to Qatar.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/41174963

The journalism world has been reeling from news that a BBC correspondent was deported from Turkey, after he was “covering the antigovernment protests in the country” and was “detained and labeled ‘a threat to public order’” (New York Times, 3/27/25). Turkey has an abysmal reputation for press freedom (CPJ, 2/13/24; European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, 10/5/23), placing 158th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders index, so as distressing as this news is, it’s in character for a country many think of as illiberal and authoritarian (Guardian, 6/9/13; HRW, 1/29/15). Journalists have been arrested in the latest unrest in Turkey (AP, 3/24/25).

Meanwhile, a Turkish citizen is going through a similar kind of hell for expressing political ideas a government dislikes. Except in her case, the government doing the repression isn’t Turkey, it’s the United States. In chilling video footage (New York Times, 3/26/2

Hegseth’s visit to the Philippines comes in the midst of a critical mid-term election, scheduled to be held on May 12, that is functioning for the elite as a referendum on the geopolitical allegiance of the Philippines. The tariffs, spending freezes, and volatility of the Trump administration have thrown into sharp relief the question of Manila’s loyalty to its former colonial ruler. The Marcos administration, functioning as a proxy of US imperialism, has brought the Philippines to the brink of war with China.

The opposition to Marcos is headed by the Duterte family, which has sought to improve relations with China by distancing Manila from Washington. Over the past month, the Marcos government has overseen the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the arrest and extradition to The Hague of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, on charges of crimes against humanity. The current political situation in the Philippines is deeply unstable.

Hegseth announced that the T

The refusal of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) leadership to come to the immediate and unconditional defense of award-winning Hamdan Ballal (Palestinian co-director of No Other Land), savagely attacked by Israeli settlers and soldiers Monday, has provoked a significant crisis in the filmmaking world.

A full two days after the beating and arrest, and only in response to criticisms from No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham, the Academy leadership broke its silence on the brutal episode and issued a perfunctory comment. That elicited an angry international reaction.

The size and character of the angry opposition to the Academy management’s kowtowing to the Zionist lobby and the Trump administration demonstrate the depth of the worldwide opposition to the mass murder and accompanying criminality going on in Gaza and the West Bank.

In an accompanying “fact sheet,” HHS said the staff reductions would come from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with 3,500 full-time jobs cut; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with 2,400 full-time jobs cut; the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with 1,200 full-time jobs cut; and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with 300 full-time jobs cut.

Meanwhile, a study by The Commonwealth Fund and the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University is predicting that the DOGE cuts to Medicaid will lead to the loss of 477,000 healthcare jobs in 2026 alone. The US House of Representatives passed a budget bill in February that calls for $880 billion in cuts over 10 years, the majority of which would come from Medicaid.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that makes a wide-ranging attack on democratic rights, combining voter suppression and attacks on immigrants. The order bears the title, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” but it would be better named, “Promoting the Myth of the ‘Stolen Election’ and Undermining Birthright Citizenship.”

Of the dozens and dozens of executive orders signed by Trump since he took office January 20, the election order might be the most brazenly illegal and unconstitutional. The US Constitution gives the president zero role in the administration and oversight of elections, assigning that power to the states, but subordinating their actions to legislation passed by Congress, as with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The executive order seeks to evade this obvious Constitutional difficulty by using the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent federal agency set up in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential elec