Eye-watering sum, to be split between 20 bankers, is one of the biggest payouts in the bank’s history
Top bosses at Goldman Sachs are in line to share a bonus pot worth up to $500m (£378m) this year, marking one of the biggest payouts in the Wall Street bank’s history.
The eye-watering sum will be shared between 20 bankers, with its chief executive, David Solomon, due to take about $100m (£75.6m) of the reward, which is made up of Goldman Sachs stock.
Continue reading...Intense flash of radio waves is more than 10bn years old and has travelled through ‘approximately 80% of cosmic history’
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a mysterious flash of energy was released into the universe.
Astronomers have now detected that flash, a burst of radio waves which travelled for more than 10bn years before reaching Earth – what they believe to be the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded.
Continue reading...Statement outlines pause on protracted war US president has struggled to end after almost eight months
Donald Trump has promised not to attack Iran before November’s US midterm elections, outlining a pause on the protracted war he has struggled to end after almost eight months.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, the US president said Washington was “having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran”, which he claimed was “in very bad condition, both Economically and Militarily”.
Continue reading...More research into the troubling rise in early onset cancers is needed. But we already know that food is among the culprits
The latest findings about the rise in cancers in people under 50, from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), are extremely concerning. While a cancer diagnosis is bad news at any time, it is a particular blow for those in younger age groups where most people are in good health. Overlapping trends observed in England, the Netherlands and the US include a troubling rise in the incidence of colorectal (or bowel) cancer. Other diseases that have increased in England include uterine and kidney cancers.
These diseases are still rare in young people: 10 times more adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s are diagnosed than those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Earlier detection is thought to be one factor behind the rise in younger patients. Diagnosing more cancers sooner is an explicit policy goal in England, where late diagnosis and lower uptake of screening are two reasons for mortality rates that are higher than elsewhere in Europe.
Continue reading...The escalating violence reflects deep domestic rifts – but is fuelled by broader geopolitical power games
When the Nobel peace laureate is announced on Friday, the committee will be hoping that its choice ages better than 2019’s. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won the prize for ending the 20-year border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea – signing a peace agreement with President Isaias Afwerki. A year later, their new relationship facilitated a war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that killed as many as 600,000 people, displaced millions more, led to atrocities by both sides, and pushed Tigrayans into famine.
Both sides bear responsibility for failing to properly implement the deal that ended that conflict in 2022, and the African Union and US did little to ensure that a piece of paper became a durable settlement. Now violence has resurged in northern Ethiopia, and old foes are forming bizarre new pacts. Last month, seven Ethiopian regional groups announced an “Alliance for Survival” to remove the federal government. Mr Abiy’s coalition is held together by his patronage, but so far may be faring better than his rivals, united solely by shared loathing of him and riven by deep disputes. The TPLF, which controls Tigray, has previously battled the Fano militia of Amhara, and their territorial dispute endures. Ethiopia accuses Eritrea – previously accused of atrocities against Tigrayan civilians – of backing the rebel alliance. Despite Asmara’s denials, there are multiple reports of Eritrean troops in Tigray.
Continue reading...
An Iowa man has kicked off controversy over religious freedom in the small town of Ottumwa, Iowa by opening a city council meeting with a prayer to Satan, which then kicked off a debate about the proper time in the meeting agenda to undo the “curse.”
On Tuesday night, Ottumwa resident, satanist, and former city council member Matt Dalbey took the podium to read an invocation to start a routine meeting of the council. “Thank you mayor, council. Let us pray,” Dalbey started. “Dear dark father, let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds and darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferan impulse to eat off the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.”
The prayer is a common one used by the Satanic Temple of Iowa. “Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not for their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations,” he continued. “Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true. Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all. That which will not bend must break. And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.”“It is done. Hail Satan,” he finished.
Another citizen, a pastor named Rick Bick, rushed to the podium. “Let’s just reverse that curse that was just put on our city,” he said. “That ending with hail Satan and hail dark god. That’s not welcome here.”
“Mayor, that should be done at the end,” city councilor Cara Galloway said.
“It needs to be done now, OK.” Rick said. “I appreciate what Ms. Galloway is saying but that was a curse put on our city when he said ‘Hail Satan’ and the dark god and most of you know that. And we need to just stop and reverse it.”
“So what I’m gonna do now…I’m just gonna invite us into a 30 second time of prayer — time of silence.”
“No,” Galloway said. “We are at the consent agenda. I’m sorry, but it’s time to move forward. The invocation happened.”
“As mayor of this city…I’m going to ask right now that we do a moment of silence to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time. And then we will move to the consent agenda,” mayor Benjamin Foote said.
Galloway spent the moment of silence with her head up and her arms crossed. An hour later, she spoke up. “Opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own and responding to someone’s invocation is a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on the taxpayers and allowing others to object or respond. This is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it.”
Dalbey told 404 Media he was a sincere member of the Temple of Satan but stressed it’s “an organization of nontheists, people who don’t believe in any deities or supernatural beings.”
He served on the city council for eight years and has largely stayed out of local politics since leaving the council in 2021. But when the city council passed a new rule earlier this year that allowed city council meetings to start with religious invocations, he decided to do something. “I’m a constitutionalist,” he said. “And when I see this, the implication I got was that we were again starting to mix religion into the government.”
At the Tuesday night council meeting, the audience stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance the moment Dalbey finished.
Ottumwa has only been reading invocations at its meeting for a short time. The city council passed a resolution allowing the practice on January 20. Galloway was the only person on the council who voted against it. At the time, she said Satanists might show up and read a prayer and that everyone would have to be OK with that. Readers of 404 Media may remember Ottumwa, Iowa because it is the place we aired our Super Bowl commercial.
Anyone who wants to show up to read an invocation before a city council meeting needs to fill out an electronic form. The form asks applicants to list an organization they represent, but allows people to say “none.” Dalbey has signed up to read invocations three times this year. He’s listed as representing “none” each time on the schedule. He was supposed to read a prayer on September 1, but couldn’t make the meeting because of his work. He’s on the schedule to read an invocation on November 3rd. “I plan on being there in November, absolutely,” he said.
Dalbey said he’d be happy to see the invocation policy rescinded. “When I was on the council [...] we were approached several times about doing an invocation, and the very reason that we didn't was because our attorney had warned us that when you do, you open the door to any and all people who want to present. That's the law,” he said.
The invocation to Satan in a small town in Iowa is just the latest salvo in a 10-year-long battle over religious freedom of expression in the state. In 2016, a religious liberty group installed a Christian nativity scene at the state capitol in Des Moines. Later that year a group of atheists installed its own nativity scene honoring the Bill of Rights. In 2023, The Satanic Temple put up a pentagram built from red ribbon and topped with a mirror-mask ram’s head that invoked Baphomet in the capitol rotunda. The group also began holding winter celebrations in the Rotunda. A man vandalized the display, police arrested him and charged him with a hate crime.
In 2024 — the same year Governor Kim Reynolds signed a state law meant to protect religious freedom — officials blocked Satanists from holding their winter celebration. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request looking for records about the incident and, earlier this year, sued Iowa on behalf of the Satanic Temple for violating federal free speech laws.
“I think we're seeing you know a big shift in our politics. I think we've seen a rise of Christian nationalism in this country [...] and I think it's trying to grasp and get a hold of controlling our politics, our laws and our government, and I find that highly troubling,” Dalbey said. “And I think anytime we let any religion dominate our politics, we revert right back to where we were 250 years plus ago: a monarchy where the church ruled the country, and that was bad for everybody. That's one of the reasons our founding fathers decided to form a new nation. And I think if we are not careful, you know, we're going to slide right back into that scenario.”
James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:
Webb and the Case of the Mysterious Radio Bursts from Outer Space
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) - enigmatic, millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from the distant universe - were first discovered in 2007. Because most flash only once, their origins are difficult to pinpoint, but Webb has found a galaxy that is host to the most distant FRB seen to date.
Originally detected on March 4, 2024 by a radio telescope called MeerKAT, its location was previously precisely known, but ground-based telescopes weren’t sensitive enough to see the galaxy from which it originated. Webb was not only able to detect the galaxy, it was able to help astronomers determine how far away it is and how long its light has been traveling towards us. This galaxy existed when the universe was 3 billion years old; the vast majority of FRB occurred billions of years after that.
The FRB’s host galaxy is also atypical - most are massive star-forming galaxies but this FRB galaxy, though actively forming stars, is a dwarf galaxy, about 1000 times less massive than expected. This galaxy existed at a time in the universe’s history where star formation was at its peak - which may be a clue as to what causes FRBs.
One theory is that FRBs occur when two neutron stars merge - but generally it takes billions of years for orbiting neutron stars to finally spiral into each other, pointing to FRBs being associated with older host galaxies. It’s unlikely this FRB was produced from such a merger.
Another theory is that FRBs can come from a single, extremely magnetic neutron star (a magnetar) having a “starquake.” Because neutron stars (including magnetic ones) are the result of a high-mass star exploding, an FRB could indeed happen on a much shorter timescale, and be found in younger galaxies just like this dwarf one.
A fun fact about FRBs is that because they are like cosmic flashlights, illuminating everything along their paths, they can reveal matter and structures previously hidden from us. Astronomers found the imprint of two cosmic structures on the signal for the FRB - the nearby Virgo Cluster, as well as a previously unknown galaxy cluster located 3.5 billion light years away from Earth.
Read more: science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-measures-distance-to-...
This image: Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope were able to study the host galaxy of the most distant known fast radio burst (FRB). By detecting light emitted from oxygen and nitrogen, they were able to determine the galaxy’s cosmological redshift, thereby confirming the FRB occurred just 3 billion years after the big bang.
Image credit: Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI); Science: Manisha Caleb (SIfA)
Image description: A graphic titled “Fast Radio Burst Host Galaxy; Most Distant Fast Radio Burst; NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy.” A graph plots brightness of light versus wavelength. The y axis is labeled brightness with an up arrow labeled brighter and a down arrow labeled dimmer. The x axis is labeled “Wavelength of Light, microns” and goes from 1.0 to 5.0 with tickmarks every 0.5 microns. A jagged white line slopes downward from left to right between 1.0 and 2.5 microns, and is mostly flat beyond that. A prominent peak at 1.6 microns is labeled Oxygen with a transparent blue vertical band. Another peak at 2.1 microns is labeled Hydrogen with a transparent red vertical band. At upper right, a box contains text reading “Redshift = 2.148”.
James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:
Webb and the Case of the Mysterious Radio Bursts from Outer Space 🔎
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) - enigmatic, millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from the distant universe - were first discovered in 2007. Because most flash only once, their origins are difficult to pinpoint, but Webb has found a galaxy that is host to the most distant FRB seen to date.
Originally detected on March 4, 2024 by a radio telescope called MeerKAT, its location was previously precisely known, but ground-based telescopes weren’t sensitive enough to see the galaxy from which it originated. Webb was not only able to detect the galaxy, it was able to help astronomers determine how far away it is and how long its light has been traveling towards us. This galaxy existed when the universe was 3 billion years old; the vast majority of FRB occurred billions of years after that.
The FRB’s host galaxy is also atypical - most are massive star-forming galaxies but this FRB galaxy, though actively forming stars, is a dwarf galaxy, about 1000 times less massive than expected. This galaxy existed at a time in the universe’s history where star formation was at its peak - which may be a clue as to what causes FRBs.
One theory is that FRBs occur when two neutron stars merge - but generally it takes billions of years for orbiting neutron stars to finally spiral into each other, pointing to FRBs being associated with older host galaxies. It’s unlikely this FRB was produced from such a merger.
Another theory is that FRBs can come from a single, extremely magnetic neutron star (a magnetar) having a “starquake.” Because neutron stars (including magnetic ones) are the result of a high-mass star exploding, an FRB could indeed happen on a much shorter timescale, and be found in younger galaxies just like this dwarf one.
A fun fact about FRBs is that because they are like cosmic flashlights, illuminating everything along their paths, they can reveal matter and structures previously hidden from us. Astronomers found the imprint of two cosmic structures on the signal for the FRB - the nearby Virgo Cluster, as well as a previously unknown galaxy cluster located 3.5 billion light years away from Earth.
Read more: go.nasa.gov/4hPtoWy
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, T. Nanayakkara (University of Sydney). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)
Image description: A field full of small galaxies of all shapes against the blackness of space. A few bright white stars show 8 prominent diffraction spikes. A small galaxy at lower right is highlighted with a white box. A shaded triangle extends upward to the corners of a larger box showing a zoom in of the region. Two fuzzy, light blue blobs are at center, with a larger and brighter one at top. Just above the top blob is a white crosshair showing the location where a fast radio burst was detected.
Any Human Ever randomly picks an average person from some point in human history and tells you about what their life was like. Mine was a woman born in 1547: “Of all the sounds of her life, the loudest were thunder and the church bells.”
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Defensieminister Yesilgöz op oorlogspad: "Rusland is niet langer de agressor, maar onze vijand." Tijdens het debat over de defensiebegroting laat Dilan er bijzonder weinig gras over groeien. De term ‘agressor’ is er een uit het verleden. RUSLAND IS DE VIJAND!
Yesilgöz kent heel veel kleurtjes: "Al langer hebben ministers het over de 'grijze zone' tussen oorlog en vrede waarin West-Europa zich bevindt. In de verschillende tinten van de grijze zone tussen vrede en oorlog kleurt het palet in West-Europa steeds meer richting antraciet." Antraschietschijf! Het ministerie van Algemene Zaken reageert nog verbaasder dan wij en zegt niet bekend te zijn met de nieuwe betiteling. Je kunt het niet altijd met elkaar eens zijn, zo blijkt. Minister Tom Berendsen van Buitenlandse Zaken houdt het bij 'agressor'. Wij houden het bij 'bleke steppeklootzakken', maar begrijpen ook dat dit minder lekker bekt.
Kunnen we die ambassade in Den Haag niet lekker sluiten? Maak er een mooie opvang voor Oekraïense vluchtelingen van. Zie hieronder hun reactie op het semantische getouwtrek in de polder.
🇳🇱 Minister of Defence has openly called Russia an ENEMY. We demand that the Dutch Government either confirm her words or distance itself from them. Is this an official declaration of direct military confrontation? Read our statement: https://t.co/kJYx9Hazhl https://t.co/H73OmHyb4e
— Russian Embassy in NL🇷🇺🇳🇱 (@rusembassynl) October 8, 2026
WASHINGTON (ANP/AFP) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump garandeert op Truth Social dat de Verenigde Staten geen aanvallen zullen uitvoeren op Iran voor de tussentijdse verkiezingen in de VS van volgende maand. Volgens hem verlopen de gesprekken tussen beide landen "productief".
"We zullen Iran op geen enkel moment vóór de midterms op 3 november aanvallen", schrijft Trump. De oorlog in Iran is niet populair onder de Amerikaanse kiezers en de daardoor veroorzaakte hogere brandstofprijzen zijn een belangrijk thema tijdens de verkiezingscampagnes.
Trump heeft al meerdere keren beloofd dat de prijzen van olie na de midterms snel zullen zakken. Hij beschuldigde Iran er al van de verkiezingen te willen beïnvloeden door die prijzen hoog te houden. Hij claimde toen dat Iran de oorlog na 3 november snel zou opgeven.
Het Amerikaanse ministerie van Justitie kondigde vrijwel gelijktijdig met het bericht van Trump nieuwe sancties tegen Iran aan. Die zijn gericht op de Iraanse schaduwvloot.
