Over 1,100 Missing As Deadly Wildfires Continue To Destroy Hawaii Island

At least 1,100 people are still missing two weeks after deadly wildfires ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui, authorities said Tuesday, with the FBI seeking family members' help in identifying the remains of the dead.

The fires were the deadliest to hit the United States in a century, claiming at least 115 lives, according to the latest provisional death count.

The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map, with thousands of missing persons appearing on lists maintained by various organizations, including the police, Red Cross and shelters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now working to collate and verify the data, Special Agent Steven Merrill told reporters on Tuesday.

"We're cross-referencing all the lists so that we can determine who in fact truly is still unaccounted for," Merrill said.

As of Tuesday, the FBI had counted 1,100 missing persons, he added, with the number likely to rise.

The FBI has set up a dedicated telephone hotline and has encouraged relatives of the missing to contact them.

"We really need the public's help", said Merrill, particularly in terms of getting additional information to verify details for some of the missing.

Maui police chief John Pelletier said authorities were refining the data and were hoping to publish a verified list of missing persons "in the next few days".

FBI agents have also been collecting DNA samples from the families of the missing who are unable to travel to Maui, wherever in the world they may be.

Identifying the unrecognizable bodies found in the ashes of Lahaina is a laborious task.

So far, only 27 of the 115 victims have been identified.

Having the DNA of the families of the missing "is a critical step in order to make an identification" of the victims, said Julie French, vice president of ANDE, the company in charge of these operations.

"Nearly three-quarters of remains that have been tested for DNA thus far have generated searchable DNA results," she said.

But without DNA from relatives against which to compare this data, the process is futile.

Only 104 DNA samples from family members of the missing or dead have been collected so far, and the authorities were keen to dispel any distrust of the process.

"The DNA profiles are not being retained by the FBI" or the police, said Maui County District Attorney Andrew Martin.

"The only purpose for which it will be used is helping identify the unaccounted for."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/tQughRD

Russian Drones Attack Ukraine Granary After Black Sea Grain Deal Collapse

A Russian drone attack hit grain infrastructure in Ukraine's southern Odesa region on Wednesday, the local governor said, the latest strike since the collapse of a deal allowing safe shipments from the Black Sea.

"There are hits on production and transshipment complexes... Granaries were among the damaged objects," Oleg Kiper wrote on Telegram, adding there were no civilian casualties.

Air defence forces had destroyed nine Iranian-made Shahed attack drones during the strike, Ukraine's southern military command said in a statement.

"The enemy targeted granaries and a production and transshipment complex in the Danube," it said.

"A fire broke out in the warehouse, the fire was promptly contained. Firefighters continue their work."

Since exiting the United Nations-brokered deal Moscow has pounded Ukraine's southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions that are home to ports and infrastructure vital for shipment of grain.

Last week the first civilian cargo ship sailing through the Black Sea from Ukraine arrived in Istanbul in defiance of the Russian blockade.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/QUJ2vRT

Poet-Diplomat Abhay K Pens 'Moon Anthem' Ahead Of Chandrayaan-3 Landing

As India counts down to the crowning moment of its third lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-3' — the attempted soft-landing on the south face of the moon — poet and diplomat Abhay K has penned down a 'Moon Anthem'.

The diplomat wrote the anthem in the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, in anticipation of a successful touch-down of the lunar lander on the moon's south pole.

The anthem opens with the lines, "Celestial diamond, primeval timepiece Cosmic lamppost, night's soft kiss Seducing oceans, occulting Sun Silver goddess lighting up Heaven..." The anthem is an ode to India's third lunar mission, which is tipped to set the tone for future explorations into deep space.

World-renowned violinist and composer Dr L Subramaniam will later set tunes for the 'Moon Anthem' and ace playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy will lend vocals to it. Abhay has penned anthems on all planets in the solar system. His 'Earth Anthem' has been translated into over 150 languages spoken globally and is widely sung to celebrate 'Earth Day' and the 'World Environment Day' every year.

On the attempted lunar landing on Wednesday, Abhay said, “It's a matter of great pride and honour that India's Chandrayaan-3 lander is soon going to make a soft landing on the Moon. It will be a dream coming true for a billion-and-a-half Indians. I hope the 'Moon Anthem' would help connect humanity to our closest celestial body, our constant companion in the universe."

The poet earlier served in different diplomatic capacities in Russia, Nepal, Brazil, Madagascar, and Comoros.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Chandrayaan-3 is all set to create history by landing on the uncharted south pole of the moon. The attempted soft-landing has been scheduled at 18:04 hrs IST.

The live telecast of the landing operations will begin at 5:20 PM IST on Wednesday. Live actions of landing will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 5:27 PM IST on Aug 23, 2023.

India will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China. However, it will be the first country in the world to attempt a soft landing on the lunar south pole.
Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) — lander Vikram and rover Pragyan — is scheduled to make a touchdown near the lunar south pole.

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/9zKQ7hD

R Praggnanandhaa: Here's All You Need To Know About India's Chess Star

Rameshbabu Pragganandhaa, better known as R Praggnanandhaa, eyes history as he takes on world No.1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the final of the Chess World Cup on Tuesday. Praggnanandhaa, who was born on August 10, 2005 in Chennai, defeated world No.3 Fabiano Caruana of the USA in the semi-final on Monday. The 18-year-old edged out Caruana following a 1-1 tie in their two-game classical series, to set up a captivating final against Carlsen. He is the first Indian in 21 years to reach the final of the Chess World Cup since Viswanathan Anand, who won the world title 2000 and 2002.

As Praggnanandhaa chases history, here's all you need to know about the young Indian Grandmaster:

R Praggnanandhaa was born on August 10, 2005 in Chennai. He started playing chess at the age of 5. He hails from a Tamil family. He completed high school from Chennai's Velammal Matriculation Higher Secondary School.

At 10 years, 10 months and 19 days, Praggnanandhaa is the youngest international master in the history of the sport. He attained the Grandmaster norm at the age of 12 years, 10 months and 13 days, making him the fifth youngest to achieve the feat. 

Praggnanandhaa is the youngest Indian to reach the World Cup final. Last year, Praggnanandhaa was honoured with the Arjuna Award in Novemeber. 

He has a sister, Vaishali, who is also a chess player. His father, Rameshbabu, works as a branch manager at TNSC Bank, and his mother, Nagalakshmi, is a homemaker.

Praggnanandhaa won the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013, as well as the Under-10 title in 2015.

from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/mNjUzhc

Explainer: Why Space Agencies Racing To Moon's South Pole

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is attempting to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole, a mission that could advance India's space ambitions and expand knowledge of lunar water ice, potentially one of the moon's most valuable resources.

Here's what's known about the presence of frozen water on the moon - and why space agencies and private companies see it as a key to a moon colony, lunar mining and potential missions to Mars.

How did scientists find water on the Moon?

As early as the 1960s, before the first Apollo landing, scientists had speculated that water could exist on the moon. Samples the Apollo crews returned for analysis in the late 1960s and early 1970s appeared to be dry.

In 2008, Brown University researchers revisited those lunar samples with new technology and found hydrogen inside tiny beads of volcanic glass. In 2009, a NASA instrument aboard the ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 probe detected water on the moon's surface.

In the same year, another NASA probe that hit the south pole found water ice below the moon's surface. An earlier NASA mission, the 1998 Lunar Prospector, had found evidence that the highest concentration of water ice was in the south pole's shadowed craters.

Why is water on the Moon important?

Scientists are interested in pockets of ancient water ice because they could provide a record of lunar volcanoes, material that comets and asteroids delivered to Earth, and the origin of oceans.

If water ice exists in sufficient quantities, it could be a source of drinking water for moon exploration and could help cool equipment.

It could also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe, supporting missions to Mars or lunar mining.

The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibits any nation from claiming ownership of the moon. There is no provision that would stop commercial operations.

A US-led effort to establish a set of principles for moon exploration and the use of its resources, the Artemis Accords, has 27 signatories. China and Russia have not signed.

What makes the south pole especially tricky?

Attempted landings on the moon have failed before. Russia's Luna-25 craft had been scheduled to land on the south pole this week but spun out of control on approach and crashed on Sunday.

The south pole - far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings - is full of craters and deep trenches.

ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 mission is on track for an attempted landing on Wednesday, the space agency has said. A previous Indian mission failed in 2019 to safely land near the area targeted by Chandrayaan-3.

Both the United States and China have planned missions to the south pole.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/Qbvzy3h

Ellen Degeneres' Oscars Selfie Temporarily Disappears, Twitter Fumes

Elon Musk, who bought Twitter (now known as X) last year, has made several changes to the social media platforms. He made the coveted blue tick paid, limiting the number of posts non-verified users can see and announcing plans to turn it into an everything app. Some of these changes and updates have shocked X users, like the disappearance of television host, actress, writer and producer Ellen Degeneres' Oscars selfie. Clicked in 2014, when she hosted the Academy Awards presentation, it "broke Twitter" amassing millions of views.

The photo disappeared because of an update to the social media platform by breaking t.co links used to share images, according to Indy 100.

Tech writer Tom Coates spotted the issue on Saturday, noting that "all media posted before 2014" had been removed from Twitter/X - albeit with some exceptions, such as Barack Obama's tweet celebrating his being elected for another four terms in office.

The decision made X users angry.

"Why remove our ability to see our posts, memories, and literal historical events from twitter? With no warning at all," commented one user.

"Guaranteed this is to save on storage costs," said another.

"This is a good reminder that we should all download our Twitter data, especially because I think it's very, very likely that our old DM history is just gonna vanish out of nowhere one day like what happened to Reddit earlier this year," a third user commented.

This is a good reminder that we should all download our Twitter data, especially because I think it's very, very likely that our old DM history is just gonna vanish out of nowhere one day like what happened to Reddit earlier this year. https://t.co/CAEy2YFI2d

— Velodus (@velodus) August 19, 2023

However, some users pointed out a few hours later that it happened because of a bug and the issue has been resolved.

But during this time, #TwitterDeletesPhotos had already started trending.

from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/uwBXhH5

Soils Play Key Role In Keeping Planet Cool: Study

A new study investigated how to stop soil carbon from evaporating and trapping heat in the air.

A new project from the University of Central Florida aims to use soils to cool the atmosphere.

The research will look into ways to prevent soil carbon from evaporating and turning into the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide warms the globe by retaining heat as it builds up in the atmosphere.

The study is crucial since, according to NASA, this summer has witnessed some of the planet's warmest temperatures ever recorded.

“When we talk about climate change, a lot of people have the misperception that most of the Earth's carbon is stored in the atmosphere,” said Lisa Chambers, the project's principal investigator and an associate professor in UCF's Department of Biology. “But the atmospheric carbon pool is actually quite small, relative to the pool of carbon in the soil.”

The research will focus on histosols, or organic-rich soils, in the Everglades Agricultural Area located south of Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

Histosols comprise only about 1.3 per cent of Earth's land surface but store approximately 23 per cent of its carbon. The nutrient-rich soils are perfect for agriculture, but their drainage and cultivation lead to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The research team, which includes Jehangir Bhadha from the University of Florida and Jing Hu from Mississippi State University, will examine adding fine minerals — such as silt and clays — to the histosols to prevent carbon from escaping.

Research has found that mineral-associated organic matter releases less carbon into the atmosphere because it is less susceptible to decomposition by microbes.

“It's been shown through carbon-14 dating that the carbon that's associated with these fine silts and clays has remained in the soil the longest,” Chambers said. “Whereas unassociated, loose organic matter only dates back tens to hundreds of years old and is easily decomposed by microbes into CO2, the mineral-associated organic matter has been aged to be millennia.”

She says the Everglades Agricultural Area is the perfect place to perform the research because not only could the work help with climate change, but it could also improve agricultural production and sustainability in the area.

Soil subsidence due to decomposing histosols has become a major problem in the Everglades Agricultural Area, where in some locations soil elevation has dropped as much as six feet over the past 100 years.

“The cas been so unprotected and oxidizing so fast, that there are places where the soils are almost completely gone, turned back into carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and they're almost down to bedrock,” she said. “So, it's kind of a precarious situation.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/LEUbemu