German City Offers Night Taxi Vouchers to Women for Safe Journeys Home

Cologne city offers €10 night taxi vouchers to women for safe travels, following other German cities. The Women's Night Taxi program provides 1,500 vouchers worth €10 each for journeys between 10 pm and 6 am with one company until August next year. Munich started a similar program in 2020, inspiring cities like Stuttgart and Mannheim to follow suit. While some question the voucher value, initiatives promoting women's safety are gaining popularity across Germany.

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Perseverance Rover Discovers Unusual Iron-Nickel Meteorite on Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover is still rolling across Mars, doing what it does best—checking out rocks. But this time, it has come across a peculiar find in the Jezero Crater. Meet Phippsaksla, an 80-centimeter-wide rock that’s turning heads at NASA. Scientists noticed something unusual about Phippsaksla right away. Its composition of iron and nickel suggests it might not be from Mars at all but could instead be a meteorite. These types of meteorites usually form from the core of large asteroids, which makes Phippsaksla a potential cosmic traveler that crash-landed on Mars long ago. Perseverance has been equipped with some high-tech gear to study Martian geology. Using one of its Mastcam-Z cameras, the rover took detailed photos of Phippsaksla from various angles. Then it got to work with its SuperCam instrument, employing lasers and spectrometers to measure the rock’s chemical makeup. The results? A significant presence of iron and nickel. While this find is exciting, it's not entirely unexpected. Scientists have found similar iron-nickel meteorites on Mars before. What’s surprising is that Perseverance hadn't encountered one until now. To confirm Phippsaksla's extraterrestrial origins, further analysis will be necessary. If confirmed as a meteorite, it would mark another milestone for Perseverance in understanding Mars’ history. One of Perseverance's standout features is its ability to collect Martian rock samples using an onboard drill. It also carries a mini-laboratory to analyze these samples directly on Mars. If NASA decides that bringing a piece of Phippsaksla back to Earth is worthwhile, they’ll need another spacecraft to retrieve it since Perseverance can't handle return trips solo. Since landing on Mars in February 2021, Perseverance has explored ancient lake beds and volcanic regions and even set records for traveling distances on another planet. While there's no end date set for its mission, this little rover seems poised to continue making groundbreaking discoveries for some time yet.

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Startup Develops Incredible Tech To Pull Water From Unexpected Source

Imagine if the water inside fruits and vegetables could help ease drought conditions. It might sound far-fetched, but Botanical Water Technologies (BWT) is making it a reality. This agricultural start-up has teamed up with Ingomar Packing Company, a tomato processor in California's San Joaquin Valley, to tackle water scarcity. Tomatoes are mostly water—95 percent, in fact. But when processed into paste or canned, much of this moisture is lost. BWT saw an opportunity here and developed Water Harvest Units (WHUs). These units capture steam and wastewater during processing, purify it, and make it safe for reuse. The company calls this "the world's first plant-sourced pure water." The San Joaquin Valley is crucial for U.S. agriculture, producing a significant portion of the country's fresh foods. However, it’s also one of the areas hardest hit by drought. In 2022 alone, over 1,000 wells dried up in this region. This problem isn’t just local; more than 4 billion people worldwide struggle with access to clean water due to rising temperatures and reduced rainfall and groundwater levels. While WHUs won’t solve everything, they offer a promising solution. Each unit can generate about 570,000 liters of repurposed water daily. Through their partnership with Ingomar Packing Company, these water savings are directed to farmers and communities within the Central California Irrigation District. It's not just about providing more water; it's about economic benefits and maintaining healthier ecosystems by keeping natural waterways fuller for wildlife. BWT aims to expand its reach further into California's vast fruit, vegetable, and wine sectors to enhance water resilience across these industries. The company is also launching similar initiatives in India and Australia. "This is just the beginning of what's possible when industry collaborates to grow water," said Terry Paule, Founder and CEO of BWT.

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Scientists Harness AI To Build Most Detailed Milky Way Model Ever Created

In a leap forward for both astrophysics and AI, scientists have created the most detailed simulation of the Milky Way ever made — one that models the galaxy’s 100 billion stars individually, and runs 100 times faster than previous techniques. Led by Keiya Hirashima at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences, the team used deep learning to dramatically accelerate how galaxy-scale physics is computed. The result: a simulation that captures 10,000 years of galactic evolution at true star-by-star resolution, compressing what would have once taken decades into just hours. For decades, modelling the Milky Way has involved compromise. The sheer complexity of the physics — from gravity and gas flows to chemical enrichment and supernova explosions — forced scientists to group stars into clusters, smoothing over the fine-grain details. But that meant missing the smaller-scale events that ultimately shape the galaxy. This new method changes that. By blending physics-based modelling with a deep learning surrogate trained on high-resolution simulations of supernovae, the team created an AI that understands how gas disperses in the 100,000 years following a stellar explosion — a notoriously difficult process to simulate. That shortcut allowed the main model to skip the slowest, most computationally intensive steps without losing physical accuracy. Running on Japan’s powerful Fugaku supercomputer and the University of Tokyo’s Miyabi system, the simulation can now process 1 million years of galactic evolution in just 2.78 hours. At that pace, scientists can model an entire billion-year history of the Milky Way in under four months — a task that would have previously taken 36 years. “This marks a fundamental shift in how we tackle multi-scale, multi-physics problems across the computational sciences,” Hirashima said. “It shows that AI-accelerated simulations can move beyond pattern recognition to become a genuine tool for scientific discovery.” Beyond space science, the implications are wide-ranging. The same hybrid AI-physics methods could be applied to climate and weather simulations, black hole dynamics, turbulence, and even Earth system modelling. Researchers say these approaches may lead to faster and more accurate models in fields where complexity and scale have long been barriers. As for the Milky Way itself, this is the first time scientists can track the movement and interaction of every single star across millennia — a breakthrough that could help explain how our galaxy formed, how elements that make up life were distributed, and how structures like spiral arms and stellar nurseries change over time. The next step for the team will be scaling the method even further — and possibly using it to model entire regions of the universe, not just the stars in our own backyard.

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4 Hunters Rescued With Their Dogs After Getting Lost in California Mountains

Four hunters and their dogs were rescued after getting lost in a mountainous area of Placer County, northern California, on Saturday morning, November 8, according to local officials. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office said a helicopter crew located the group near Little Grizzly Canyon, outside of Foresthill, and that one of the hunters was injured. “The injured hunter was hoisted out first and transported for medical care. The remaining three hunters and four dogs were then safely hoisted out of the canyon,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post. Everyone was “doing well,” they added. “The dogs – Lilly, Hassle, Crooked Pate, and Reba – were true champs through it all and even made friends with our team!” the sheriff’s office said.

Insect-Eating Birds in France Show Signs of Recovery After Pesticide Ban

Bird populations in France that rely on insects for food are showing early signs of a comeback, thanks to a European ban on a controversial class of pesticides. But researchers say it could still take decades before numbers fully rebound. A new study has found that insect-eating birds like blackbirds, blackcaps, and chaffinches increased by about 2 to 3 percent between 2019 and 2022 — the first few years after the European Union banned outdoor use of neonicotinoids. These pesticides, once widely used in agriculture, have been linked to dramatic insect losses, including mass die-offs of bees. “Even a few percentage [points’] increase is meaningful – it shows the ban made a difference,” said lead researcher Thomas Perrot from the Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité in Paris. “Our results clearly point to neonicotinoid bans as an effective conservation measure for insectivorous birds.” The findings, published in the journal Environmental Pollution, are the first to directly tie the EU-wide ban to a population shift in wildlife. Researchers looked at long-term data from over 1,900 monitoring sites across France, collected by skilled volunteer birdwatchers. They compared bird populations five years before the ban, from 2013 to 2018, with data from 2019 to 2022. Across those sites, birds that depend on insects had been hit hardest by pesticide use. The study found that numbers were 12 percent lower in areas where neonicotinoids had been used, compared to untreated areas. Birds with more flexible diets, like house sparrows and wood pigeons, were far less affected. While the UK also banned outdoor neonicotinoid use in 2018, the chemicals are still widely used in the United States, which has lost nearly 3 billion insect-eating birds since the 1970s. Perrot said the recovery in France is likely still in its early stages. “Neonicotinoids persist in soils for years and can keep affecting insects,” he said. “It will take several decades for insectivorous bird populations to recover. But we think that’s normal, because studies on other pesticides like DDT show that most bird populations take 10 to 25 years to fully recover.” Other wildlife that depends on insects — including small mammals, bats, and fish — may also be starting to see benefits, though they weren’t included in this study. The modest but promising results were enough to surprise some experts. “I was surprised you could already see recovery,” said Frans van Alebeek, a rural policy officer at BirdLife Netherlands. “It’s extremely difficult to study this – which makes this study so special. The positive message is that it helps to ban pesticides and it will result in the recovery of wildlife.” James Pearce-Higgins, director of science at the British Trust for Ornithology, offered a more cautious take. “It’s a study that shows there may be early signs of weak population recovery but the results are uncertain and could be down to other correlated factors,” he said. Variables like habitat and climate could also be playing a role, he added, and long-term data will be needed to confirm the trend. Neonicotinoids, introduced in the 1990s, quickly became the most widely used insecticides in the world. Because they’re systemic — meaning they spread throughout plant tissues — they made entire plants toxic to insects. Even small traces of the chemicals were shown to impair bees’ ability to forage and navigate, contributing to widespread colony losses reported in the early 2000s. By 2018, amid mounting evidence and public pressure, the EU banned almost all outdoor uses of neonicotinoids, despite strong opposition from agribusiness and chemical manufacturers. That ban, Perrot said, is now showing real ecological dividends, even if the road ahead is long. Birds are especially vulnerable to farming practices, from habitat destruction to pesticide exposure. And while the EU does offer green infrastructure funding to support more sustainable farming, Perrot warned that systemic change will be needed. “If agriculture keeps focusing on maximum yields instead of sustainability, we’ll keep seeing the same declines,” he said. Alebeek agreed, and pointed to a deeper issue: how pesticides are tested in the first place. “Industry is getting better and better at finding chemicals that are extremely effective at low concentrations – you use less but the toxicity is not going down,” he said. “To me, it shows that our system of testing pesticides before they are allowed on the market is not good enough.” While the initial signs are hopeful, both researchers and conservationists agree: meaningful wildlife recovery doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, data, and policies that prioritize biodiversity — not just short-term crop yields.

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40 Years, $3 Billion Later: This Nonprofit Is Turning Surplus Into Support

Delivering Good, a nonprofit celebrating its 40th year, has made an impressive impact by distributing over $3 billion worth of new merchandise to families in need since its inception in 1985. Originally founded as Kids In Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) by Karen Bromley, Barbara Toback, and Ezra Dabah, the organization has grown into a powerhouse for philanthropy. The founders asked nonprofits if they preferred money or products. The unanimous response was for new products. This simple question led to a mission that has touched countless lives. Karen Bromley, who spent time in foster care during her early years, understood how much receiving something new could mean to children living in poverty or difficult situations. "I knew that giving a child a brand-new coat or a toy could make them feel special," she said. In 2005, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated communities across the Gulf Coast, Allan Ellinger stepped up with his industry expertise. He realized that while monetary donations were helpful, people needed immediate support through tangible goods like clothing and home essentials. This led to the creation of Fashion Delivers, which focused on providing relief through new products for adults affected by disasters. The organization distributed $6 million worth of goods in its first year. Eventually, K.I.D.S. and Fashion Delivers merged under the name Delivering Good. Their shared belief in restoring dignity through new products solidified their partnership and expanded their reach nationwide. "Delivering Good has always been fueled by heart and passion," Bromley remarked about their efforts. The nonprofit's work extends beyond just addressing disaster relief; it also helps alleviate poverty by redirecting surplus inventory from retailers to those who need it most. Over the years, Delivering Good has partnered with thousands of brands and manufacturers to distribute essential items from clothing to toys. Allan Ellinger reflected on their journey: "We started to solve a problem; we never imagined we’d still be here 40 years later—more vibrant and needed than ever." As they look toward the future, Matthew Fasciano, President & CEO of Delivering Good, noted that they are scaling up operations with plans to improve 50 million lives in the coming years. For those interested in supporting this cause or learning more about their initiatives, visiting their website offers opportunities for involvement and donation options.

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Rescue Team Saves Dog After 100-Foot Cliff Plunge, Found Remarkably Unscathed

A two-year-old Collie named Whisp is back on solid ground after a dramatic fall off a 30-metre cliff in Shetland—and somehow walked away without a scratch. The dog plunged down a steep cliff face on the Northmavine peninsula Thursday morning, landing on a narrow rocky ledge about halfway down. His owner couldn’t safely reach him and called for help. By 11am, the Coastguard launched a rescue operation, but conditions made the job anything but simple. The cliff was too steep for a sea rescue, so the team had to scale the rocks from above using rope equipment. “The two-year-old Collie was about 30 metres down the cliff, on a rocky ledge, making access from the seaward side impossible,” a spokesperson from HM Coastguard Orkney and Shetland said. Over the course of three hours, rescue crews carefully worked their way down the cliff and brought Whisp to safety. By 2pm, he was reunited with his owner—“remarkably unscathed,” according to the Coastguard team. Photos released by the Coastguard show a relieved-looking Whisp back in his owner's arms after the ordeal. “From our picture, he looks very happy to be back,” the spokesperson said. “Thankfully, a happy ending for Whisp.”

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Smithsonian Zoo Welcomes Four New Cheetah Cubs

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) is celebrating a rare and exciting milestone: the birth of four cheetah cubs to a first-time mother named Amabala, at its facility in Fort Royal, Virginia. The cubs were born between October 17 and 18 and can now be viewed in real-time via the Zoo’s Cheetah Cub Cam. Amabala, a 5-year-old cheetah, delivered the litter as part of the Zoo’s cheetah Species Survival Plan, a program designed to support the vulnerable species. Their father, Flash, is 8 years old and has sired three other cubs — though, like all male cheetahs, he won’t participate in raising them. “Cheetahs can be challenging to breed, in part because female reproductive cycles can be sporadic and their behavior is often very difficult to interpret,” said Adrienne Crosier, a carnivore biologist at NZCBI. “It’s taken our team thousands of man-hours to produce 20 litters. For that 20th litter to be Amabala’s is an exciting, full-circle moment.” Cheetahs are listed as vulnerable, just one step away from endangered. In the wild, they typically live 8 to 10 years, but under human care can reach 12 to 15 years, according to the Zoo.

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Norway Secures First World Cup Spot In 27 Years, Emerges As One Of Europe's Best

After a 4–1 win over Estonia followed by another 4–1 victory against Italy, Norway has officially qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 27 years. For a nation boasting generational talents like Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, many fans are asking: what took so long? The answer lies not just in tactics, but in a transformation led by manager Ståle Solbakken, who played in Norway’s last World Cup appearance in 1998. This time, he’s guided a young, dynamic squad through skepticism, tactical overhauls, and cultural rebuilding to become one of the most feared teams in Europe. “Everyone believes in the project and wants the best for one another,” Solbakken said. “You can talk endlessly about tactics, but it means little if you don’t generate that team spirit.” From Doubt to Dominance Norway’s turnaround began during last year’s UEFA Nations League campaign. A 5–1 thrashing by Austria nearly cost Solbakken his job. But a late rally saw them top their group and gain promotion to League A — a turning point that sparked belief. Since then, Norway has won 11 consecutive competitive games, including a stunning 3–0 win over Italy in June, a 5–0 rout of Israel, and a jaw-dropping 11–1 demolition of Moldova. The team leads Europe’s qualifiers in goals (37), assists (29), and one-vs-one take-ons. “Norway are one of the two best teams in Europe, together with Spain,” said Israel’s coach Ran Ben-Shimon. Tactical Evolution Solbakken’s biggest shift has been structural. Moving from a reactive setup to a possession-based, high-pressing style, Norway now plays with confidence and clarity. Their flexible 4-3-3 morphs into a pressing diamond, with wingers Oscar Bobb and Antonio Nusa isolating defenders while midfielders Sander Berge, Patrick Berg, and Ødegaard orchestrate the tempo. Their defense, led by Kristoffer Ajer and Torbjørn Heggem, uses zonal principles to stay compact and intercept rather than engage in risky duels. “Perhaps I was too ambitious at the start,” Solbakken admitted. “But now, with the players we have, we’ve embraced a more front-foot, attacking approach.” Haaland and Ødegaard: Stars Who Serve the System While Erling Haaland’s 16 goals in eight qualifiers have drawn headlines, his off-ball work has been just as vital. Martin Ødegaard, meanwhile, has gone from promising talent to world-class playmaker and inspirational captain. “Scoring week in, week out for Manchester City is one thing,” said former keeper Erik Thorstvedt, “but doing it for Norway is something else entirely.” Shared Leadership, Strong Identity Solbakken has built more than a system — he’s built a culture. Leadership is distributed, egos are in check, and players clearly enjoy playing together. Even with international superstars in the mix, the team remains grounded. “Distances,” Solbakken said when asked what holds it together. “They’re fundamental — for defending, for possession, and for keeping options open.” What’s Next As they look ahead to next year’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, Norway’s ambitions are no longer about participation — they’re about competing. “I don’t think there could ever be a more wonderful night in my life,” Solbakken said. “It’s simply surreal … and I think I’ll get happier and happier as the evening goes on.” For Norway, this is more than just a return to the world stage. It’s the beginning of a new era.

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Archaeologists Discover Lost Iron City of the Silk Road in Uzbekistan Highlands

In the remote mountains of Uzbekistan, a team of archaeologists has uncovered a lost city that may rewrite the history of the Silk Road — and reshape how we understand the role of nomads in Central Asia’s past. Perched nearly 7,000 feet above sea level in a rugged valley once thought too harsh for permanent settlement, the newly excavated site known as Tugunbulak is believed to be the long-lost city of Marsmanda, a medieval industrial hub known from sparse 10th-century Arab texts for its iron production. For centuries, its location remained a mystery — until now. “This place doesn’t make any sense,” said archaeologist Michael Frachetti of Washington University in St. Louis, co-director of the project alongside Farhod Maksudov of Uzbekistan’s National Center of Archaeology and Sanjyot Mehendale of UC Berkeley. “The whole valley is one big archaeological site.” The city they’ve uncovered is vast — about 300 acres, twice the size of Pompeii. High-resolution drone-based lidar mapping revealed traces of walls, streets, kilns, and fortified structures spread across four distinct districts. Aerial surveys and traditional digs uncovered slag heaps, furnaces, smelting kilns, and a mound thought to be the city’s administrative center. Even more surprising than its scale is its location. Tugunbulak lies in a highland region that experiences snowpack for more than half the year, where few people live today. Yet around A.D. 550, just as the First Turkic Khaganate was expanding, the site began to thrive — producing iron weapons, tools, and possibly even crucible steel, used in making some of the finest metalwork in the ancient world. A Nomadic City, Hidden in the Highlands The discovery challenges the long-standing narrative that pastoral nomads were little more than raiders preying on sedentary civilizations. Instead, Tugunbulak paints a picture of a hybrid society — mobile yet urban, rugged yet technologically advanced. “This overturns the old idea of nomads preying on civilization,” said historian Henry Misa of Ohio State University. “I see instead a hybrid society of farmers, pastoralists, miners, and metallurgists.” The city appears to have operated for at least 500 years, serving as a seasonal meeting ground and industrial center. At nearby Tashbulak, a smaller, previously excavated site three miles away, archaeologists found glass beads, fine-glazed pottery, silver rings, and spindle whorls — signs of long-distance trade and textile production. The two sites may have represented different facets of a single regional hub, with Tashbulak possibly home to a community that had embraced Islam earlier. Evidence of a Warrior Elite The team’s most stunning find came from a trench inside a rammed-earth building believed to be a metallurgy center. Inside, they uncovered the grave of a Turkic warrior buried with a horse and a trove of personal items — arrowheads, a pipe possibly used for smoking cannabis, bronze earrings, coins inscribed in Sogdian, and a button stamped with a wolf’s head, believed to be a Turkic clan symbol. Only three such high-altitude warrior burials have ever been found in this part of Central Asia. “We have an individual buried in a Turkic way,” said Maksudov. Though the warrior stood just 5-foot-4, the presence of weapons and armor-piercing arrowheads suggests elite status. The skeleton may belong to a young man or possibly a woman — more testing is needed. A Center of Trade and Technology Fragments of kaolin-lined kilns, used in the production of high-heat ceramics or low-grade steel, hint at industrial-scale ironworking. The amount of slag recovered is astonishing. “We can now say with assurance that nomadic people were fully capable of large-scale iron smelting,” said metallurgist Thilo Rehren of the Cyprus Institute. Researchers believe Marsmanda supplied iron and possibly steel to cities like Samarkand, a six-day journey away. Remnants of apricot pits, grape seeds, and peach stones at Tashbulak also suggest trade with fertile lowlands. “There wasn’t necessarily an antagonistic relationship between lowland and highland groups,” said Frachetti. “There is a symbiosis, and they are doing it in a unique way.” A Vanished City, Rediscovered Marsmanda seems to have been largely abandoned by A.D. 1050, perhaps due to deforestation, drought, or competition from other iron sources. “Some combination may have turned this into the medieval version of an American Rust Belt city,” Frachetti said. Scholars outside the project now widely agree that the team has found the lost city. “There is no disputing this is Marsmanda,” said Sören Stark of New York University. Others, like Søren Michael Sindbæk of Aarhus University, say the site has “the potential to rewrite the history of Central Asia.” The archaeologists plan to return in 2026 to excavate what may be the city’s administrative center. Until then, they’re sifting through the finds, analyzing what the artifacts and architecture can reveal about one of the Silk Road’s most unexpected cities — a nomadic metropolis hidden in the mountains.

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