CNN – World

By Katie Hunt, CNN A provocative study published earlier this year proposed that the world’s best-known and perhaps best-loved dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus rex, was actually three separate species. Not so fast, says new research published Monday, which argues that T. rex shouldn’t be reclassified. Any variations in fossils merely reflect the fact that dinosaurs, like humans,

Story by Reuters Brutal heat waves are gripping both Europe and the United States this week and are forecast to dump searing temperatures on much of China into late August. In addition to temperatures spiking above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), wildfires are raging across southern Europe with evacuations in towns in Italy and Greece. The

By Megan Marples, CNN NASA’s Perseverance rover captured an unusual image of something lying in the red sand of Mars: a bundle of string. The rover’s front left hazard avoidance camera took a photo of the light-colored object on July 12 that some people likened to spaghetti. Officials at the space agency confirmed that they

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Prepare for a potential liftoff to the moon at the end of the summer. The Artemis I mega rocket may be launching on its trip to the moon on August 29, September 2 or September 5, according to Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, during a

By Katie Hunt, CNN A 2,000-year-old fortress built on a mountainside in what’s now Iraqi Kurdistan could be part of a lost royal city called Natounia. With the help of drone photography, archaeologists excavated and cataloged the site during a series of digs between 2009 and 2022. Situated in the Zagros Mountains, the stone fortress

By Leah Asmelash, CNN Russia’s highest ranked female tennis player came out as gay in an interview, while addressing rising homophobic attitudes in the country. Daria Kasatkina, currently ranked No. 12 in the world, told a Russian blogger that she is in a relationship with a woman, figure skater Natalia Zabiiako. Kasatkina posted photos of

By Ashley Strickland, CNN If you have ever watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the film has an unexpected cosmic cameo. A group of angels listening for prayers is actually Stephan’s Quintet, a compact galaxy group discovered in 1877. The galaxies interlock in a dance 290 million light-years away from Earth. Now, the James Webb Space

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN Temperatures in the UK are expected to soar to all-time highs early next week, prompting the British government to issue a “red” heat warning for the first time and note the dangerous health impacts the weather could have. Air conditioning, while more common in hotter parts of the world, is exceedingly

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A mysterious radio burst with a pattern similar to a heartbeat has been detected in space. Astronomers estimate that the signal came from a galaxy roughly a billion light-years away, but the exact location and cause of the burst is unknown. A study detailing the findings published Wednesday in the journal

By Megan Marples, CNN The European Space Agency terminated its cooperation with Russia to launch Europe’s first planetary rover, the agency’s chief said Tuesday. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, and ESA were collaborating on a mission involving the European ExoMars Rover, designed to look for signs of life on Mars. The rover’s September 2022 launch

By Ella Nilsen, CNN Researchers in a new study have put actual dollar figures on economic harm caused by the countries most responsible for the climate crisis, and the ground-breaking data could serve as a starting point for legal action against the world’s wealthiest nations. The Dartmouth College study found that just five of the

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A stellar nursery where stars are born, interactions between galaxies and a unique view of an exoplanet are just some of the new cosmic images were shared Tuesday. After decades of waiting, it’s finally time for the world to see the first images taken by the most powerful space telescope ever

Story by Reuters United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday he had discussed Russian aggression in Ukraine during more than five hours of talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and raised concerns over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow. Both diplomats described their first in-person talks since October as “candid”, with the meeting

By Ashley Strickland, CNN At the northern tip of Patagonia’s desert coast in Argentina, the skies above El Cóndor are filled with shifting clouds of chatty, colorful parrots. The mountain’s crumbling sandstone cliffs are home to the largest parrot colony in the world, containing 37,000 nests. The burrowing parrots are so named because they tunnel

By Hande Atay Alam, Ivana Kottasová, Angela Dewan and Rachel Ramirez, CNN European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday in favor of calling natural gas and nuclear power “green” or “sustainable” sources of energy, backing a proposal from European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, that has spurred criticism from scientists and environmental advocates. The new rules, if

By Tara John and Hafsa Khalil, CNN Covid-19 vaccine boosters might look a little different by the end of this year. US regulators advised manufacturers last week to update the Covid-19 vaccine in time for the fall booster program with new formulas that would better protect against the more infectious Omicron subvariants, which are dominating

By Megan Marples, CNN NASA has lost contact with one of its satellites after it broke free of the Earth’s orbit on the way to the moon. The tiny CubeSat stopped communication with the Deep Space Network on Tuesday. The DSN is NASA’s radio antenna network that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions as well as some

By Emmy Abbassi, CNN Buffy would be proud. A vampire-slaying kit once owned by a British aristocrat sparked an international bidding war before selling for six times its estimated price, according to Hansons Auctioneers. The late 19th century box kit, which sold on Thursday for £13,000 ($15,736.49), belonged to Lord William Malcolm Hailey (1872-1969), a

by Heather Chen, Wayne Chang, Jonny Hallam and Radina Gigova, CNN Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has accused Ukraine of firing missiles at military facilities on his country’s territory. He said the missiles were intercepted by Belarusian air defense systems earlier this week. Without providing any evidence of the alleged attack, Lukashenko — a close ally

By Tricia Escobedo, CNN Patrick Oppmann has reported under one of the most secretive regimes on the planet for nearly a decade. CNN is the only American television network with a bureau in Communist Cuba. As Oppmann got ready to move from Seattle to Havana in 2012, he recalled his boss giving him this advice:

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Exploring beneath the surface of other planets may be the key to determining whether life has ever existed outside of Earth. As other missions, including that of NASA’s InSight lander, have shown, drilling down through the surface of planets like Mars is tough — a little too tough to get more

By Katie Hunt, CNN Scientists have discovered a carnivorous plant that grows prey-trapping contraptions underground, feeding off subterranean creatures such as worms, larvae and beetles. The newly found species of pitcher plant was unearthed in the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. Like other pitcher plants, Nepenthes pudica has modified leaves,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN We’re about to have an entirely new perspective on the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope will release its first high-resolution color images on July 12. One of those images “is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a news conference

By Tara John and Hafsa Khalil, CNN China has eased its quarantine policy for international arrivals, slashing the period by more than half in the biggest relaxation of entry restrictions in the country since the pandemic began. The nation has some of the world’s strictest entry requirements, mandating most inbound travelers to spend at least

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Fossils of early human ancestors from a South African cave are 3.4 million to 3.6 million years old — making them a million years older than previously suspected and shaking up the way researchers understand human origins and evolution. This new date makes the Sterkfontein Cave fossils older than the famed

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A tiny spacecraft with big implications for lunar exploration has launched. The miniscule satellite, called a CubeSat, is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds (25 kilograms), but it will be the first to test out a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. The CubeSat will act as

Story by Reuters Thousands affected by a deadly earthquake in eastern Afghanistan are in need of clean water and food and are at risk of disease, an Afghan health ministry official said on Sunday, days after a United Nations agency warned of a cholera outbreak in the region. At least 1,000 people were killed, 2,000

By Zoe Sottile, CNN They were looking for gold in the permafrost of Canada‘s Klondike. Instead, they discovered what Canadian experts say is the most complete mummified woolly mammoth found in North America. Miners working in the Klondike gold fields discovered the frozen baby woolly mammoth on Tuesday in Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin traditional territory, according to

By Ashley Strickland, CNN When an Anglo-Saxon warrior king died 1,400 years ago in East Anglia in the United Kingdom, he was placed inside a ship and surrounded by treasures. The 90-foot-long (27.4-meter-long) wooden ship, dragged half a mile (0.8 kilometer) from the River Deben, was buried inside a mound. Archaeologists excavating the mound in

By Ashley Strickland, CNN NASA’s first spacecraft designed to study a metallic asteroid won’t be launching this year as planned, according to an announcement made by the agency on Friday. The Psyche mission’s 2022 launch window, which opened on August 1 and closes on October 11, will come to an end before the spacecraft’s flight

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The mega Artemis I rocket may be launching on its trip to the moon in August, according to NASA officials. The Artemis team has had time to review data collected from a successful fourth attempt of a final prelaunch test conducted Monday and determined that no more wet dress rehearsals are

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A tiny spacecraft with big implications for lunar exploration is ready to launch. The miniscule satellite, called a CubeSat, is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds (25 kilograms), but it will be the first to test out a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. The CubeSat will

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN For the first time, New Zealanders are enjoying an official public holiday this June 24 to celebrate Matariki — also known as Māori New Year. Matariki is the Māori name for a cluster of stars, also known as the Pleiades, the rising of which is recognized by many of the country’s

By Amarachi Orie, CNN These are bacteria like you’ve never seen before — likely because, until now, all known bacteria could only be seen using a powerful compound microscope. A newly discovered bacterium that is large enough to be visible to the naked eye, and resembles the shape and size of an eyelash, has been

By Ashley Strickland, CNN After a long day of putting the mega moon rocket through its paces, NASA’s Artemis team is determining the pathway to launch — and just how long or short that path may be. Monday’s crucial test, known as the wet dress rehearsal, simulated every stage of launch without the rocket leaving

By Megan Marples, CNN A sprawling 3,400-year-old city emerged in Iraq after a reservoir’s water level swiftly dropped due to extreme drought. Kurdish and German archaeologists excavated the settlement in the Mosul reservoir, along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, in January and February. The project was in partnership with the

Kathleen Magramo, CNN Almost half a million people have been affected by floods and landslides in the Chinese province of Guangdong, according to authorities, after parts of southern China were hit by the heaviest downpours in 60 years over the weekend. Flooding caused by the torrential rain has forced 177,600 people to relocate, destroyed 1,729

By Jonny Hallam and Helen Regan, CNN Two American volunteers fighting for Ukraine were taken into detention by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk after being captured last week, according to Russian state media. US citizens Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama, were interviewed by Russia’s RT

By Kristen Rogers, CNN If you’re a father, you probably have experienced endless anxieties about whether you’re doing enough for your kids while they’re growing up. What if your children inherit your negative habits? What if you let your kids watch too much television or feed them the wrong foods? Worrying you’re going to mess

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A genetically distinct and isolated population of polar bears have been documented living in southeast Greenland. Scientists who studied and tracked the bears determined that they survive despite having limited access to sea ice — something that is critical for polar bears — and instead use the freshwater ice supplied by

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN War, violence, persecution and human rights abuses have pushed the world past a “dramatic milestone,” according to a new report from the UN’s refugee agency. More than 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes, according to the UNHCR’s Global Trends Report, which describes that figure as a

By Kathleen Magramo and Charlie Fong, CNN The bodies of hundreds of little blue penguins have washed up on the beaches of New Zealand’s northern coast in recent weeks, according to conservationists, who fear climate change is starving the birds to death. The kororā, also known as little blue penguins, are native to New Zealand

By Mick Krever, CNN Two Americans fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv have been missing for nearly a week and there are fears that they may have been captured by Russian forces, according to their families and a fellow fighter. The men are Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Andy Tai Ngoc

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The Artemis I mega moon rocket is ready for its fourth attempt at a final prelaunch test, according to an update from NASA officials on Wednesday. The crucial test, known as the wet dress rehearsal, simulates every stage of launch without the rocket leaving the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in