Russians applying for a visa to Canada will now need to submit their passport and documents to processing centers located in other countries.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Volgens SP-leider Jimmy Dijk is het vrijdag gepresenteerde regeerakkoord van D66, VVD en CDA een "aanval op onze beschaving". De plannen van het toekomstige minderheidskabinet gaan volgens hem ten koste van de 'gewone man'. De SP gaat flink oppositie voeren, belooft Dijk.

"Gewone mensen worden door D66 kaalgeplukt, hun zorg wordt afgepakt en ze moeten langer doorwerken. De SP gaat met alles wat we hebben oppositie voeren om de zorg te redden, om de kinderarmoede op te lossen en het leven betaalbaar te maken", laat de SP-leider op X weten.

De coalitiepartijen willen dat de overheid op klimaat „de regie” weer in handen neemt. Ze zien dat „de verduurzaming van Nederland stokt”.

Tijd voor wegetiquette voor wieleramateurs

​Een opmerkelijk moment bij de presentatie van het regeerakkoord: CDA-voorman Henri Bontenbal liet duidelijk merken niet gediend te zijn van een vraag uit de zaal. Op de vraag wat hij 'van het regeerakkoord vond' bitste hij de NRC-verslaggever met priemende ogen toe 'Bek dicht, varkentje!'

Bontenbal liep daarna met twee opgestoken middelvingers weg van de microfoon, terwijl hij iets mompelde over het gezin als hoeksteen.

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europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

For this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we have a sight of an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. This is NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

A 'lenticular', meaning 'lens-shaped', galaxy is a type that sits in between the more familiar spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. It is also less common than these – partly because when a galaxy has an ambiguous appearance, it can be hard to determine if it is actually a spiral, an elliptical galaxy, or something in between. Many of the known lenticular galaxies sport features of both spiral and elliptical galaxies. In this case, NGC 7722 lacks the defined arms of a spiral galaxy, while it has an extended, glowing halo and a bright bulge in the centre similar to an elliptical galaxy. Unlike elliptical galaxies, it has a visible disc – concentric rings swirl around its bright nucleus. Its most prominent feature, however, is undoubtedly the long lanes of dark red dust coiling around the outer disc and halo.

This new Hubble image, the sharpest yet taken of NGC 7722, brings the impressive dust lanes into sharp focus. Bands of dust like this are not uncommon in lenticular galaxies, and they stand out against the broad, smooth halo of light that typically surrounds lenticular galaxies. The distinctive dust lanes of NGC 7722 are thought to result from a merger with another galaxy in the past, similar to other lenticular galaxies. It is not yet fully understood how lenticular galaxies form, but mergers and other gravitational interactions are thought to play an important part, reshaping galaxies and exhausting their supplies of gas while bringing new dust.

While it doesn’t host as many new, young stars as a spiral galaxy, there’s still activity in NGC 7722: in 2020 it was host to the explosion of a star that could be detected from Earth. SN 2020SSF was a Type Ia supernova, an event which occurs when a white dwarf star in a binary system siphons enough mass away from its companion star that it grows unstable and explodes. These explosions output a remarkably consistent level of light: by measuring how bright they appear from Earth and comparing against how bright they really are, it’s possible to tell how far away they must be. Type Ia supernovae are one of the best ways to measure distances to galaxies, so understanding exactly how they work is of great importance to astronomers.

Taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, this Hubble image was obtained as part of an observing programme (#16691, PI: R. J. Foley) that followed up on recent supernovae. SN 2020SSF is not visible in this image, as it was actually taken two years later, when the supernova had long faded. This was on purpose: the aim of the observations was to witness the aftereffects of the supernova and examine its surroundings, which can only be done once the intense light of the explosion is gone. With Hubble’s clear vision, astronomers can search for radioactive material created by the supernova, catalogue its neighbours to see how old the star likely was, and look for the companion star it left behind – all from almost 200 million light-years away.

[Image Description: A disc-shaped galaxy. It glows brightly at the centre and shines a faint white light all around it. The disc is made up of tightly-packed rings of dust, some darker and some lighter. Wide, long lanes of dark reddish dust cross the galaxy in front of its edge, blocking out some of its light; the long strands twist and break apart at each side. A couple of nearby stars and distant galaxies are also visible on the black background.]

Credits:ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: Mehmet Yüksek

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of the coastal area of Rudong County on China’s eastern seaboard.

Rudong lies north of Shanghai on the Yellow Sea coast, along the northern bank of the Yangtze River estuary. Since the 1950s, hectares of land have been reclaimed in the area, transforming mudflats into farmland, aquaculture ponds and industrial zones.

In the lower part of this image from December 2025, we can see a landscape dominated by a blend of farmland and wetlands, where the main crops include rice, wheat, cotton, vegetables and fruits.

The proximity to the Yangtze River Delta means that a huge amount of sediment is discharged into the sea, giving the coastal waters a yellow-brown hue. This fine sediment contributes to shape one of the world’s most dynamic and biodiverse river delta environments.

Extensive aquaculture ponds can be seen along the coast and across the tidal islands. The powerful tidal currents around the Yangtze estuary benefit aquaculture by helping to maintain water circulation, limit stagnation and supply fresh nutrients, creating favourable conditions for seafood farming.

The coastal fringe and the tidal flats are also actively exploited for renewable energy production. When zooming into the image, several solar power plants can be spotted along the coast, while rows of offshore wind turbines are visible as white dots across the sea.

In 2024, the coast wetlands of Rudong were selected for an ecological restoration project to improve the ecosystem. Wildlife and biodiversity in the wetlands have benefited from the scientific restoration efforts and the area is becoming a focus for ecotourism.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

A study on tectonic plates that converge on the Tibetan Plateau has shown that tectonic lines are far weaker and the continents are less rigid than scientists previously thought. The study, published in Science, includes several high-resolution maps based on data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites.

The horizontal deformation lines are clearly shown in this map, where the ‘strain rate’ along the Altyn Tagh, the Kunlun and the Xianshuihe fault lines is visible in dark red. These are points where Earth’s crust is being stretched, shortened or sheared and the strain rate tells us how quickly this is happening over a specific time period.

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Credits: ESA (Data source: Wright, T. et al, 2026).

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

A study on tectonic plates that converge on the Tibetan Plateau has shown that tectonic lines are far weaker and the continents are less rigid than scientists previously thought. The study, published in Science, includes several high-resolution maps based on data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites.

The vector arrows on this map show how the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau is moving eastwards, while other areas are moving in the opposite direction, showing the ‘stretch’ of the tectonic plates, in this case as they move away from each other. The vectors are derived from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellite data.

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Credits: ESA (Data source: Wright, T. et al, 2026).

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

A study on tectonic plates that converge on the Tibetan Plateau has shown that tectonic lines are far weaker and the continents are less rigid than scientists previously thought. The study, published in Science, includes several high-resolution maps based on data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites.

The Tibetan Plateau, often called the ‘roof of the world’, was formed by the ongoing collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This region, north of the Himalayas and south of the Kunlun mountains in China, covers about 2.5 million sq km and has an average elevation above 4500 m. The plateau spans numerous countries including the Tibet Autonomous Region, several Chinese provinces, as well as parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

This map shows vertical ground movement, where the green areas have sunk by up to 5 mm over a year, while the brown areas have risen by up to 5 mm.

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Credits: ESA (Data source: Wright, T. et al, 2026).