| North Korean nuclear test site closure raises fears of environmental crisis Posted: 12 May 2018 01:07 PM PDT  Closing down North Korea's nuclear test site at Punggye-ri is going to be more complicated and fraught with risk than has previously been suggested, with analysts suggesting that acting in haste for short-term political gain might lead to an environmental crisis. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, announced during his summit last month with Moon Jae-in, his South Korean counterpart, that he would invite experts and journalists to the Punggye-ri site to monitor its decommissioning. Initially seen as a significant concession on the part of Pyongyang, it was subsequently reported that the six nuclear tests that have been carried out at the site since 2006 have caused serious structural damage to Mount Mantap, making it unsuitable for further tests. Satellite images have revealed landslides on the flanks of the mountain and a group of Chinese geologists have claimed in a study that the most recent nuclear test, in September 2017, turned the interior of the peak into "fragile fragments". Two possible methods of rendering the site unable to conduct further tests have been proposed, The Korea Herald reported. The 60-foot-tall cooling tower, which was later dismantled, is seen at the main Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex Credit: AP One suggestion is to use explosives to seal the entrances to the three tunnels that have been drilled into the mountain, although the concern is that further detonations at the already weakened site could lead to a collapse of internal spaces and the release of massive amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Given the danger, the alternative is to bury the entire site in a mixture of lime and sand. The drawback with this approach is that it would take a long time to completely seal the site, erosion would eventually uncover the site once again and foreign experts would be required to be on-site for an extended period of time, which the North Korean authorities may object to. "Dealing with nuclear waste is an old and difficult question and these are legitimate concerns that must be answered, although my more immediate concern is President [Donald] Trump, who appears to be driving for an agreement without a clear and open policy", said Emanuel Pastreich, head of the Seoul-based Asia Institute. "This administration has no interest in science and has a worrying tendency to ignore people who do understand science", he said. The concern, he added, must be that the US government will choose the quickest option in order to declare a diplomatic triumph for Mr Trump, but with little consideration for the longer-term impact of that decision.
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| NASA will send a tiny helicopter to Mars in 2020 Posted: 12 May 2018 11:20 AM PDT  NASA announced that it's sending a helicopter to Mars in a little over two years. If successful, this aerial Mars explorer, with a body about the size of a football, would be the first helicopter to fly on another planet. NASA hopes to launch the prototype to Mars with the agency's 2020 rover, which is designed to hunt for signs of past life on the red planet. SEE ALSO: SpaceX launches, then lands, a brand new version of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket "After the Wright Brothers proved 117 years ago that powered, sustained, and controlled flight was possible here on Earth, another group of American pioneers may prove the same can be done on another world," Thomas Zurbuchen, the Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted out the announcement Friday just as an upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched to space. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in California, have been working on the Mars helicopter since 2013, but its late addition to the 2020 Mars rover mission came as a surprise. In the world of space exploration, two years is almost like a last-minute addition before an ambitious launch to the red planet. After the rover lands on the red planet in 2021 after its launch in 2020, NASA scientists will use the spacecraft's cameras to scan the Martian terrain and find a suitable, flat place to set the tiny helicopter down. Once the helicopter is settled, the scientists will command it to take off. After that, however, the helicopter will be on its own, flying autonomously. "We don't have a pilot and Earth will be several light-minutes away, so there is no way to joystick this mission in real time," Mimi Aung, the Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL, said in the statement. The Mars 2020 rover.Image: Nasa"Instead, we have an autonomous capability that will be able to receive and interpret commands from the ground, and then fly the mission on its own." NASA will test the drone for 30 days to see how it performs in an environment unlike Earth. The Martian atmosphere is quite thin — just about 1 percent of Earth's — so flying in such low air density is a challenge. If the light, 4-pound craft works, future exploration missions could have similar, though more capable helicopters, which could survey unchartered, alien lands. NASA plans to test the craft up to five times over a 30 day period. "The ability to see clearly what lies beyond the next hill is crucial for future explorers," said Zurbuchen. WATCH: It takes absolute precision to construct Earth's largest telescope, which will peak into far-off alien worlds
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| Monitor: 42 killed by Israeli strikes in Syria this week Posted: 12 May 2018 10:15 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — A wave of Israeli strikes on suspected military positions in Syria this week killed 42 people, including at least 19 Iranians, a Syria war monitor reported Saturday.
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| 'Maverick' John McCain still fighting political battles as senator with cancer 'says goodbye to friends' Posted: 12 May 2018 06:54 AM PDT  On Thursday, a White House official telephoned one of the former prisoner of war's daughters, Meghan McCain, to personally apologise after it emerged she had mocked the senator's glioblastoma, a pernicious form of brain cancer. Earlier in the week, Mr McCain, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he would not support Mr Trump's nomination for the next head of the CIA, Gina Haspel. Mr McCain, a longtime opponent of torture since he endured it during his five years as a prisoner in Vietnam, said Ms Haspel ought not to become head of America's preeminent intelligence organisation as she has failed to explain her oversight of "black-site" CIA operations in which water-boarding and other such techniques were used during George W Bush's so-called war on terror.
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| Michael Cohen Was Made Aware of Eric Schneiderman's Abuse Allegations Years Ago, Lawyer Says Posted: 12 May 2018 03:59 AM PDT  A New York lawyer said he told Donald Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, years ago
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| AP Explains: Unprecedented tension between Iran and Israel Posted: 12 May 2018 02:12 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — In the escalating confrontation between Israel and Iran, Israel's defense minister called on Syria's President Bashar Assad on Friday to rid his country of Iranian forces based there — warning their presence will only cause more trouble to the already war-ravaged country.
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| The Latest: Israel army says car rams into West Bank soldier Posted: 11 May 2018 08:44 PM PDT  GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Latest on Palestinian protests in Gaza that turned deadly when Israeli troops fired into the crowd. (all times local):
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| The Latest: White House says Iran destabilizing Mideast Posted: 11 May 2018 08:09 PM PDT  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Latest on fallout from U.S. withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal (all times local):
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| SpaceX launches most powerful Falcon 9 yet Posted: 11 May 2018 04:38 PM PDT  The rocket is designed to require far less maintenance and refurbishment between flights, and is certified to carry humans to space later this year when SpaceX launches its Dragon crew capsule to the International Space Station. The Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket's main goal for its maiden mission was to propel a communications satellite for Bangladesh, called Bangabandhu Satellite-1, to a geostationary transfer orbit roughly 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Earth.
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| Donald Trump tells Indiana rally US 'is being respected again' and vows to 'secure peace' with North Korea Posted: 11 May 2018 02:32 PM PDT  Donald Trump claimed that "America is being respected again" and vowed to "secure peace" with North Korea as he campaigned ahead of the US's midterm elections. Speaking at a rally in Elkhart, Indiana, the US president said his relationship with the secretive communist state's leader Kim Jong-un was "good", adding that he would meet him "to secure a future of peace and prosperity for the world". Mr Trump was joined at the rally by Vice President Mike Pence, Indiana's former governor and a number of senior members of their Republican Party in the state.
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