Onderzoekers zien dat de democratie onder grote druk staat. Ze waarschuwen voor ”de mogelijkheid van beginnende autocratisering in Nederland” en pleiten er bijvoorbeeld voor om politieke benoemingen in de rechterlijke macht onmogelijk te maken. „Politici moeten zich bewuster zijn van hun signaalfunctie richting burgers.”

Voor deze rubriek sturen lezers een foto van hun ouders. Mike Meeles (1949) stuurde een foto van zijn moeder Gertrud Meeles-Rissman (1920-2021) en zijn vader Johannes Meeles (1919- 2008), op de Havel in Berlijn rond 1943.

Europese regeringen haalden afgelopen week opgelucht adem: de NAVO-top in Ankara liep beter dan verwacht.

Boterhammen, burgers, bao’s en buns: het broodje kent vele gezichten. NRC vraagt kookboekschrijvers naar hun favorieten en gooit het picknickkleedje uit op een plek die voor hen bijzonder is. Deze week: walnoot-vijgenbroodje met Gruyère d’Alpage van bakker Issa Niemeijer-Brown.

Op je negentiende drie maanden naar Canada klinkt als een mooi avontuur. Tot je terechtkomt in een totaal verknipt gezin waar de ouders emotioneel minder zelfredzaam zijn dan jij.

Vader en zoon Gelten doen aan natuurfotografie. Peter (49) bedient de camera, Quin (13) is de spotter. Op hun website devogelspotters.nl houden ze bij welke soorten ze zagen. Op hun wensenlijstje: de grote jager en de ijsgors.

Bijna alle bosbranden beginnen door menselijk gedrag. Soms per ongeluk, soms opzettelijk. „Dé bosbrandstichter bestaat eigenlijk niet.”

Astronomers have directly detected helium in the atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a rocky exoplanet 48 light-years away that sits in its star's habitable zone. The finding marks the first confirmed atmosphere around a rocky, Earth-like planet in the habitable zone, strengthening the case that some planets orbiting red dwarfs can retain atmospheres and potentially support liquid water. "We have actually detected directly the helium present in the atmosphere itself, and that's the first direct detection for any rocky exoplanet, which is really exciting ... and then there's this added bonus that it's in the habitable zone, which is super exciting for astrobiology and habitability and searching for life," lead author Collin Cherubim, who recently earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, told Space.com. "It feels kind of surreal." From the report: This exoplanet, or planet outside of our solar system, was first discovered in 2017 by a team led by astronomer Jason Dittmann who is now a co-author on this new discovery. "This planet was found like 10 years ago, and we're just now saying, okay, that's an atmosphere," Dittman told Space.com. "We're slowly narrowing the gap and checking these boxes ... we're finding a planet that's rocky, a planet that's of the right temperature and now ... it's like okay, we finally found one that has an atmosphere."

And being a rocky planet, "there's definitely a surface ... it's made of rocks," Dittman said. What does the planet's surface look like? We can't say yet, but the researchers who found this planet's atmosphere think there's a good chance it could have water. While it orbits a red dwarf star, which is smaller and cooler than the sun, it orbits closer than we do to our star, maintaining a temperature that keeps the planet in the "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could exist on its surface. "It probably also has a lot of water," Cherubim said. "If it has some amount of atmosphere that can provide a bit of a greenhouse effect, which we know that it does now ... it will very likely be what we consider to be habitable conditions on Earth, and conditions that would likely support liquid water."

So is it Earth-like? While it's certainly not an Earth copy, this planet can be considered Earth-like in two main ways, Cherubim shared. One: its overall composition. The planet is rocky, likely with an iron core and (now we know) it has an atmosphere. And two: the planet's temperature is just right for liquid water, which is necessary for life at least as far as we understand it on our planet. [...] "I'm not claiming this planet has life," Cherubim made clear. With further investigation, scientists could better understand what else might be in this planet's atmosphere, and they could confirm if it has water. Further observations might not be able to confirm habitability or identify any life on the planet, but they could at least help us to better understand planets like this. The findings have been published in the journal Science.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide September 1963

Na maanden van voorbereiden is het zover: vanaf vrijdagavond 23.00 uur gaat de Papendrechtsebrug in de N3 volledig dicht. Tot en met 21 april volgend jaar is de belangrijke verkeersader tussen Dordrecht en Papendrecht afgesloten vanwege een ingrijpende renovatie. De gevolgen van de afsluiting zijn groot

Vrijdagochtend is rond 03:30 uur aan de Backershagen in Rotterdam-IJsselmonde een luxe BMW afgebrand. Een aantal uur later is in de Marie van Eijsden-Vinkstraat in Rotterdam-Prinsenland een elektrische auto uitgebrand die aan de lader stond.

In March, Ilya Remeslo shocked both supporters and critics when he publicly denounced President Vladimir Putin in a scathing manifesto.

The Climate Fiction Prize recognises and celebrates the emergence of a sub-genre of fiction about futures affected by the climate crisis. While that one is for full novels, the Imagine 2200 contest from Grist (previously) is for short stories, a number of which can be read on the site. Obviously cli-fi can be dystopian but some stories recapture a sort of optimism which I feel has been largely missing from science fiction since the sixties/seventies, when we all assumed that technology was making the world better in an uncomplicated way.

A couple of further resources.

The Jesus Trip is a 1971 BBC Documentary following Christian evangelical groups in the US at the time (review). Some of the dialogue was sampled in Father and Son (official), from the Boards of Canada album Inferno (Simpson's parody).

Arrest in Pennsylvania of Wu Shaoping, who is awaiting asylum decision, raises fears of deportation and persecution

A Chinese human rights lawyer has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising concerns he could be deported to China where he would face persecution.

Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in 2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision.

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