A US Navy and Coast Guard operation on Tuesday rescued three mariners stranded on a tiny Pacific Ocean islet for more than a week after the trio spelled out “HELP” using palm fronds laid on a white-sand beach.

The mission also unexpectedly turned into a family reunion.

The three men had been planning to fish the waters around the Pikelot Atoll, part of Micronesia, on March 31 when their 20-foot open skiff was caught by swells and its outboard motor was damaged, according to US Coast Guard officials.

They scrambled ashore on uninhabited Pikelot, but their radio ran out of battery power before they could call for help.

So the castaways gathered palm fronds from the 31-acre island, arranged them to spell out “HELP” on the beach, and waited, according to a Coast Guard statement.

For a week, the men lived off coconut meat, but they did have fresh water from a small well on the island, which is sometimes visited by fishers in the region, Coast Guard officials said.

The search for the men began on April 6, when one of their relatives called rescue officials in the US Pacific territory of Guam, saying they had not returned to Polowat Atoll, an island more than 100 miles away, where the three started their voyage on Easter Sunday.

It is difficult to overstate just how remote Piklelot is. The island is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a Pacific nation between the Philippines and Hawaii that is made up of more than 600 islands scattered across about 2.5 million square kilometers of ocean.

The Coast Guard said a US Navy P-8A reconnaissance jet dispatched from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, spotted the palm-frond “HELP” sign on the beach on April 7.

Lt. Chelsea Garcia, the search-and-rescue mission coordinator on the day the trio was located, said the sign was “crucial” to finding them in a search area that covered more than 103,000 square miles.

“This act of ingenuity was pivotal in guiding rescue efforts directly to their location,” Garcia said in a statement.

The Navy jet dropped survival packs to the three men and relayed their location to the rescue center.

A day later, a Coast Guard HC-130 flying from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii dropped a radio to the men, who were able to tell the crew they were in good shape and eager for help to get back to Polowat.

When the Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry reached Pikelot on April 9, the story took another twist.

One of the first rescuers on the beach was Petty Officer 2nd Class Eugene Halishlius. The stranded men were surprised to see that Halishlius was Micronesian and spoke the local language.

When he gave his name to the first of the stranded men to reach the rescue boat, the castaway was stunned: they were related.

“It’s a crazy world, I actually found out I’m related to them!” Halishlius said.

“He couldn’t believe I’m with the Coast Guard trying to rescue them.”

The man was a third cousin, the others fourth cousins, he said.

Amazingly, this was not the first rescue of castaways from Pikelot.

In 2020, three other men traveling between two Micronesian atolls found themselves washed up there after their boat ran out of fuel during their voyage.

Those three spelled out “SOS” on the beach, a message that was spotted by the crew of a US Air Force tanker operating out of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, which then directed Coast Guard, Micronesian and Australian naval units to get the men from the island.

How does this happen on the same island twice in four years?

“It could be coincidence,” said Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, public affairs officer for US Coast Guard Forces Micronesia.

“The people of Micronesia frequently travel island to island, and do so with a great deal of skill and experience,” she said.

But occasionally, accidents happen. And so do unexpected family reunions.

Three sons of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Wednesday, with Haniyeh insisting their deaths would not affect ongoing ceasefire and hostage talks.

Four of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the attack, according to Hamas, which comes amid fresh efforts in Cairo to bring a temporary halt to months of fighting.

Haniyeh in a statement said killing the sons of leaders would only make Hamas “more steadfast in our principles and adherence to our land.”

“Whoever thinks that by targeting my kids during the negotiation talks and before a deal is agreed upon that it will force Hamas to back down on its demands, is delusional,” he added.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the attack, describing the men as “three Hamas military operatives that conducted terrorist activity in the central Gaza Strip.”

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency (ISA), those killed were Amir Haniyeh, a cell commander in Hamas’ military wing, and Hamas military operatives Mohammad Haniyeh and Hazem Haniyeh.

The three were killed when the vehicle they were driving in was bombed in the Al Shati refugee camp, northwest of Gaza City, Hamas political leader Haniyeh told Al Jazeera.

Hamas named the four grandchildren as Mona, Amal, Khalid and Razan, calling them “martyrs.”

The Hamas-run government media office (GMO) said Wednesday that the Haniyeh family had been “carrying out social and family visits on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr,” before the vehicle was struck.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan and is one of the most important holidays on the Islamic calendar.

Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, said Hamas was not afraid of a planned Israeli invasion of Rafah, in the southernmost part of the besieged enclave. About 1.5 million people are estimated to be sheltering in the bombarded city after fleeing fighting.

Hamas would “not surrender, and […] not compromise […] no matter how great our sacrifices are,” Haniyeh added.

Israeli officials drew a distinction between the airstrike that killed Haniyeh’s sons and the ongoing negotiations aiming to secure a ceasefire and hostage deal.

“The operation is not related to the negotiations on the release of the hostages,” one Israeli official said. “Israel will continue and eliminate every terrorist/terrorist operatives.”

Two other Israeli officials said neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had been told about the strike ahead of time.

International pressure to reach a ceasefire deal is mounting as the devastation and suffering in Gaza from Israel’s blockade on aid and widespread destruction of the strip worsens and half the population live with catastrophic levels of hunger. More than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

CIA Director Bill Burns has presented a new proposal to try to bridge the gaps in ongoing negotiations to broker a deal to bring about a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

The latest US proposal was made in Cairo over the weekend and includes pushing Israel to release a higher number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the expected 40 Israeli hostages who would be freed during the first phase of a three-stage ceasefire deal.

However, Hamas on Wednesday indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down 40 Israeli hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than is publicly known.

The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age. The Israeli prime minister’s office said Wednesday that of the 129 hostages from the October 7 attack currently held, 33 are dead.

Ukraine’s parliament has scrapped plans to give soldiers who have spent prolonged periods fighting on the frontlines the chance to return home on rotation, after passing a draft law seeking to boost the number of soldiers in its military.

Ukrainian lawmakers have for months debated whether to allow the longest-serving of Ukraine’s soldiers the chance to return home, or whether Russia’s unrelenting aggression means they cannot afford to allow exhausted soldiers to rest – an invidious dilemma that has sparked public outcry.

Soldiers serving for more than 36 months were originally slated to be allowed to demobilize and return home, but the provision was removed from a draft law following an intervention by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, according to Ukrainian lawmakers.

The draft law passed Thursday with 283 votes in favor, including a raft of measures aimed at providing a desperately needed boost for Ukraine’s military. The law received 4,269 amendments over months of debate – a measure of how politically difficult crafting the legislation has been.

The law also said the government must submit new legislation to improve the “rotation of military personnel under martial law,” meaning the issue of demobilization is likely to remain active.

As well as manpower, Ukraine is grappling with ammunition shortages. The commander of US European Command, Gen. Chris Cavoli, warned Wednesday that the Russians are currently firing five times as many artillery shells as the Ukrainians – a number he said will rise to 10 to one “in a matter of weeks.”

Ukraine woke Thursday after another night of heavy Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure. The Trypilska Thermal Power Plant (TPP), the largest power-generating plant in Kyiv region, was destroyed, and strikes on the northeastern Kharkiv region left more than 200,000 people without electricity. Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv regions were also targeted.

The wave of missile and drone attacks caused major power outages in Kharkiv region and has left more than 200,000 people without electricity, Ukrainian officials said. Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv regions were also targeted.

Dozens of wives and relatives of servicemen gathered outside Ukraine’s parliament Thursday to protest the passing of the draft law, demanding that demobilization deadlines be included.

“The country’s defenders, on whom the independence of the entire country rests, have been deceived,” she said.

“We all understand that mobilization has failed, without which there is no demobilization. And this is the fault of the authorities, not our husbands,” she added.

The issue of mobilization has bedeviled Ukrainian lawmakers for months, as the needs of its military clash with political constraints.

Zaluzhnyi reportedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to bolster Ukraine’s military with 500,000 new troops. Although Zaluzhnyi denied he had specifically requested that number, it became lodged in public debate.

Zelensky took issue with the figure publicly, telling journalists at a press conference, “This is a very serious number. It is a question about people, about justice, about defense capabilities. It is also a financial question.” Zaluzhnyi was then dismissed in February.

“The most important issue is rotation of the people who are very tired at the front line… Mobilization depends on how many you have at the front, how many reserves you have,” he said.

Zelensky last week signed a law that will lower Ukraine’s minimum conscription age from 27 to 25. The Ukrainian parliament passed the measure in May 2023 but the president did not sign it into law until nearly a year later.

It is not clear when the draft law passed Thursday will receive presidential approval.

China’s highest-level visit to North Korea in nearly five years is set to get underway Thursday, as Pyongyang seeks to strengthen relations with both Beijing and Moscow amid growing coordination between its neighbors and the United States.

Zhao Leji, China’s third-highest ranked official, will lead a delegation for a “goodwill visit” to the country to kickstart a “friendship year” marking 75 years of diplomatic ties, Beijing announced Tuesday.

The three-day visit, at North Korea’s invitation, shows the “great importance” China attaches to those relations, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. North Korea’s state media agency KCNA also announced the visit.

It also affords a top Chinese official the opportunity to hear directly from North Korea’s intensely secretive and isolated government while on the ground, analysts say.

Zhao is the highest-ranking Chinese visitor to the country since a state visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2019. Zhao leads China’s rubber-stamp national legislature and is a member of its powerful seven-man Politburo Standing Committee.

The trip comes as both countries are wary of what they see as an increasingly hostile region – in particular growing security coordination between the US and its allies Japan and South Korea, which in turn seek to counter aggression from Beijing and Pyongyang.

The delegation will also arrive amid heightened global concern about North Korea, which has in recent months ramped up its bellicose rhetoric and continued its weapons testing. Pyongyang has also forged closer ties with Moscow, and begun supplying arms used in its war in Ukraine, the US and its allies say.

Those geopolitical fault lines are underscored as the Chinese delegation’s visit coincides with a raft of Asia-focused diplomacy in Washington this week.

US President Joe Biden is hosting a trilateral summit with the Philippines and Japan Thursday, a day after a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida where they pledged to advance coordination around countering challenges from China and North Korea.

Goodwill mission

As the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s No. 3 official below Xi and Premier Li Qiang, Zhao’s “goodwill” mission carries more weight than a visit from a government-level minister.

The visit is not expected to usher in diplomatic developments but will be an opportunity for China to reinforce its own deep and complex ties with North Korea – and convey to the US and the region that it has leverage there.

“(At a time) when the United States is trying to work more closely with Japan and South Korea, China wants to signal its own influence,” said Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor at Hong Kong’s City University.

The trip could also be an important opportunity for the upper echelons of China’s political establishment to better understand the circumstances in North Korea today.

Only handful of Chinese officials have visited the country since it eased pandemic controls last year – a period during which Pyongyang has ramped up rhetoric around its nuclear weapons development and unveiled a major policy shift away from seeking reunification with South Korea.

“China probably needs to understand what’s happening and what’s the real intention of the North Korean leader … given that (North Korea) just recovered from Covid and shifted its policies … apart from routine communication, China needs to get more information,” Liu said.

For North Korea, the visit provides an opportunity to tighten its ties with its most important international partner, as it seeks to bolster itself against expanding drills and security cooperation between the US and South Korea, which Kim sees as a threat to his regime.

Balance of power

China has long walked a thin line in its relations with North Korea.

It is a critical economic lifeline for a North Korea crippled by international sanctions over its illegal weapons testing. The two also have close historical and ideological ties and fought together during the Korean War of the 1950s.

Today, Beijing stands to benefit when US attention is drawn away from itself and toward Pyongyang’s provocative rhetoric and weapons testing. But it also has a strong interest in ensuring that Kim’s posturing doesn’t spark a potentially devastating conflict in the region – or draw more US forces there.

“When China’s regional geopolitical situation (has) deteriorated, you will see China became a lot more supportive or accommodating to North Korea,” said Li Mingjiang, an associate professor of international relations at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

“When China feels the geopolitical pressures from the US and from regional states in Asia-Pacific becoming less, you will see stronger desire on the part of Beijing to put pressure on North Korea’s nuclear policy, missile policy,” he said.

China is also likely paying close attention to the enhanced cooperation between North Korea and Russia, where Kim made a visit last year to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Beijing, which has expanded economic, diplomatic and security ties with Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, has declined to comment on any transfer of arms transfer from North Korea to Russia, calling their cooperation a “matter between those two sovereign states.”

It also abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote last month to extend monitoring North Korea’s violations of UN sanctions. The measure was vetoed by Russia.

But while the three authoritarian countries share security concerns and opposition to the American network of alliances, Beijing is also wary of any optics that it’s forming an axis with Russia and North Korea, according to Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank.

“China doesn’t want to return to an iron triangle with North Korea and Russia,” and also may not want to see Pyongyang’s relations with Moscow dilute its own influence, she said.

“But China plays a critical and irreplaceable role in both economies and the Russia-(North Korea) rapprochement has not threatened or damaged China’s interests yet.”

The death of a toddler from extreme heat highlighted the risk of climate-related illnesses across Malaysia. The same week, Vietnam declared a state of emergency after abnormally high temperatures in the south dried up entire rice fields. And in the Philippines, hundreds of schools suspended classes after daily temperatures soared past 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius).

Sweltering heat is back in Southeast Asia, one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. And it is not going away any time soon, scientists have warned.

Thailand has been worst hit, Herrera said, adding that heat forecasts there have been especially dire. Temperatures across the country had been “breaking non-stop records” for 13 months – and heat and humidity levels were relentless, he said.

“The trend is inescapable. The region has to prepare for terrible heat for the rest of April and most of May.”

On April 3, as Thailand entered its annual dry season, the capital Bangkok clocked temperatures of around 109 degrees Fahrenheit – prompting many to stay indoors in air-conditioned comfort.

In nearby Vietnam, the heat wave brought intense droughts to the south – driving temperatures up to nearly 104 degrees Fahrenheit and wreaking havoc on the country’s vital agriculture industry. Vietnam is one of the world’s largest rice exporters and low rainfall spells trouble for farmers in its Mekong delta region.

Rice fields and rivers have dried up, according to Vietnamese media reports, and farmers have been struggling without rainwater for their crops.

Record heat waves in 2023 caused severe power outages in several cities. This year, Vietnamese meteorologists have attributed the unusually long dry spell to El Niño, a natural climate pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and influences weather all over the world.

But alongside these natural variations, the world continues to blast through climate records, with deadly heat waves becoming the norm.

‘No definitive end’

Though average temperatures in Southeast Asia have risen every decade since 1960, experts say one of the most worrying characteristics of the heat wave now sweeping across the region is its prolonged duration – with no end in sight.

Researchers from Swiss climate research group IQ Air attributed the current heat wave to “a combination of factors which include human-induced climate change and the El Niño event.”

“This phenomenon has led to unprecedented high temperatures across the region,” IQ Air said in a statement on April 5. “There is currently no definitive end date projected as an abatement to the heat will depend on factors such as weather patterns and (government) mitigation efforts.”

One mitigation effort being considered in Malaysia is cloud seeding, injecting particles into clouds – usually from an airplane – to make it rain.

“Our air assets are always ready,” said Adly Zahari, the deputy defense minister. “Cloud seeding should take into account various weather factors such as cloud conditions and the wind before it is carried out.”

At least two heat-related fatalities have been reported in the country – a 22-year-old man from the northern state of Pahang and a 3-year-old boy, in neighboring Kelantan. Both died of heatstroke, according to health officials.

Officials in Sabah, a state on Borneo island, also reported close to 300 fires that started at farms, plantations and forests throughout February.

Climate change has made “Malaysia vulnerable to extreme heat,” the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on the sidelines of a talk in late March following heatstroke cases. “We are thankful that we have not yet reached the third level of extreme heat waves but this could happen at any time.”

But there is still much to be done, say some living in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

“We are living in extreme weather conditions,” said Aidil, adding that he often woke up thirsty and tired after taking naps during the fasting period.

“There’s so much to be done and I really want to see governments across the region not just adapting (but also) establishing greater climate resilience against extreme hazards,” he said.

In Singapore, some schools have told students to wear cooler, looser gym gear until further notice, given persistently high temperatures in recent weeks.

Similar actions were taken by hundreds of schools in the Philippines, including dozens in the capital Manila, that canceled classes after temperatures reached unbearable levels.

But watchdog groups have expressed concerns about children’s safety.

“Educators and local authorities have been forced to take the extreme decision to shut hundreds of schools because this extreme heat means children are simply unable to concentrate in the classroom and their health is also at risk,” said a statement by Save The Children Philippines.

“We need to see urgent action now to limit warming to a maximum of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“Failing to do this will have dramatic consequences for children’s health, safety and wellbeing.”

“He is in a hole, without light,” the source said.

On Monday, Glas was hospitalized after refusing to eat food provided to him in prison, Ecuador’s national prison agency SNAI said. He returned to prison on Tuesday after being discharged from the hospital.

Glas was first imprisoned on Saturday, a day after Ecuadorian police arrested him in Mexico’s embassy, where he was seeking political asylum after being accused of corruption by Ecuadorian prosecutors.

Glas has rejected the accusations.

On Sunday, his lawyers filed an appeal of habeas corpus, a legal principle that allows people who believe they are being held unlawfully in prison or detention to challenge it. Successful challenges can lead to a detainee’s release.

The agency did not comment on the hunger strike.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The icy plains of Antarctica are a magnet for meteorite hunters such as Maria Valdes, a research scientist at the Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago. Some 1,000 space rocks are found in the region each year. Their dark hue is easy to spot in the white expanse.

“Antarctica, a desert of ice, provides an ideal background for meteorite recovery — go to the right place, and any rock you find must have fallen from the sky,” said Valdes, who visited the region as part of an expedition team in late 2022 and early 2023 for her work at the museum’s Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies. The international team found five meteorites.

“We stumbled across an enormous brown stone sitting by itself in the middle of an ice field. It was a little bit smaller than a bowling ball and quite heavy — 7.6 kg (about 17 pounds),” she said via email. “I had seen and handled so many meteorites in my career, but finding one yourself is such a different feeling.”

Formed from extraterrestrial bodies such as the moon, Mars or large asteroids, each meteorite tells a unique tale about the solar system and how it was formed. But the climate crisis threatens this trove of scientific information, according to a new study. Meteorites are disappearing into the ice, putting them out of the reach of scientists.

“As the climate continues to warm, Antarctic rocks are sinking into the ice at an increasing rate. Over time, this will make many meteorites inaccessible to scientists,” said Valdes, who wasn’t involved in the latest research. “We lose precious time capsules that hold clues to the history of our Solar System.”

As Earth warms, about 5,000 meteorites could disappear from the surface of melting ice sheets every year, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. To date, more than 48,000 meteorites have been discovered in Antarctica, accounting for about 60% of specimens found globally.

How to find a meteorite

Meteorites, lumps of rock that fall from space through Earth’s atmosphere randomly, do not fall in an evenly scattered pattern across the frozen continent. Concentrations emerge in certain locations because of geography and weather patterns, Valdes explained.

Meteorites are particularly plentiful in blue ice fields. In these areas, a combination of ice flow processes and local weather conditions remove layers of snow and ice from the surface, exposing meteorites that were once embedded in the ice. The windblown ice tends to look blue compared with the surrounding surface snow.

“Over significant stretches of time (tens or hundreds of thousands of years) phenomenal concentrations of meteorites can develop, as high as 1 per square meter in some locations,” she said.

Researchers have identified areas of meteorite-rich blue ice mostly by luck. However, to systematize the search, Veronica Tollenaar, a doctoral researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, and her colleagues used a machine-learning algorithm to create a “treasure map” of probable meteorite-rich zones, based on factors including surface temperature, surface slope, surface cover and ice flow movement.

That research, published in January 2022 in the journal Science Advances, identified 600 zones and suggested that 300,000 meteorites are still present at the surface of the ice sheet. Valdes said in 2023 she and her colleagues used the information to help inform their decision on exactly where to search during their expedition.

“Our experience … indicates that so far, Tollenaar’s approach only works to a first order. Local parameters such as topography and wind directions that can redistribute meteorites from blue ice fields into local meteorite traps have to be considered as well,” Valdes said.

In the new study, co-lead author Tollenaar and her team projected the loss of meteorites under different climate change scenarios by combining climate modeling with their work from the 2022 paper.

The meteorites can sink into the ice even if temperatures are below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). The sun heats up the dark rock, which absorbs solar radiation more easily because of its color, which melts the surrounding ice. “With that heat, it can locally melt the ice and slowly disappear from the surface,” Tollenaar said.

Harry Zekollari, who was co-lead author along with Tollenaar on the new study, said that cold surface temperature was one of four factors linked to a potential meteorite cluster.

“It’s really important that it’s cold and if your surface temperature starts changing, even if it’s going from minus 12 C to minus 9 C, it’s crossing a magic threshold where you’re starting to lose meteorites,” said Zekollari, an associate professor of glaciology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Under current policies, which the study said may result in a warming of 2.6 degrees Celsius to 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.7 F to 4.9 F) above preindustrial levels, the researchers estimated that 28% to 30% of the meteorites in Antarctica could become inaccessible. Under a high-emission scenario, the estimate increased to 76%. Only at elevations above 2,500 meters (8,202 feet) will meteorites losses be less than 50%, the study said.

Matthias van Ginneken, a research associate at the University of Kent’s Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science in the UK, said the work “made a lot of sense considering how global warming seems to affect Antarctica.”

However, van Ginneken, who wasn’t involved in the study, said he wished the authors had talked more about uncertainties in their model and conducted lab experiments to simulate how global warming affects meteorites, which would support the results of the algorithm.

“It is certainly worrying, but there will still be thousands of meteorites to find per year,” he said via email.

“The main worry is the logistical aspect of searching for Antarctica meteorites, which is already difficult today due to the remoteness of Antarctica. Should the results of this study prove to be true, it will force scientists to explore new areas, potentially even further away from scientific bases than those that are commonly explored. It would make this treasure trove even more inaccessible and, thus, necessitate more funding and logistical support.”

What we’ve learned from Antarctic meteorites

Meteorites discovered in the southernmost reaches of the planet have taught us a lot, said Kevin Righter, a planetary scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in a commentary published alongside the research. He was not involved in the new study.

Scientists recognized meteorites collected in the region in 1979 and 1981 as originating from the moon, Righter noted. Before these finds, the only samples from the moon were from the Apollo and Luna landing sites. The meteorite samples have resulted in a more random and comprehensive sampling of the entire lunar surface. Other meteorites have been connected to Mars.

“All of this recent research history indicates that with continued collection, new meteorite types are likely to be found — including perhaps pieces of Mercury or Venus that might have been ejected from their surface following impacts.”

Righter, along with the study authors, called for collection efforts to be ramped up and prioritized. “If meteorites are not collected quickly enough, they will be a lost resource for present and future planetary science,” he added.

Latin America has seen plenty of diplomatic wrestling in recent weeks, from Argentina’s president calling his Colombian counterpart “a terrorist murderer” to Venezuela’s latest attempt to take back a territory ruled by neighboring Guyana. But none of that has been quite as hands-on as Ecuador’s highly controversial decision to raid Mexico’s embassy – a major violation of diplomatic norms that continues to reverberate across the region.

Surveillance footage from the incident in Quito last week showed Ecuadorian police grappling with the Mexican mission’s top diplomat as they arrested Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice president who had been seeking asylum from Mexico when the raid took place.

The dramatic scenes also point to a new approach to crime in the region and underline how the youngest leader in Latin America, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, may be throwing out conventional wisdom – to the likely chagrin of his septuagenarian Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Two very different politicians

Noboa, 36, rose to Ecuador’s presidency in a political finger snap. His predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, resigned and called for early elections amid a constitutional crisis in May last year. The resulting race was dominated by the country’s rising crime wave – all too evident when an anti-corruption candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated on August 9.

The son of a banana tycoon with limited political experience under his belt, Noboa capitalized on the vote for a tough-on-crime approach. Less than two months after taking office, Ecuador’s security crisis made global headlines when gunmen stormed a television studio live on air shortly after one of the most infamous criminals in the country, Alfredo ‘Fito’ Macias, escaped from prison.

‘Fito’ remains at large, but since then, Noboa has kept the nation in a permanent state of emergency. He has declared an internal armed conflict against the drug cartels, sent the military to the streets, and called for emergency security measures to be drafted in the Constitution in a referendum on April 21.

He also vowed to kickstart a new era for Ecuador, a clean break from his predecessors who allowed crime to run the street.

That may be one reason why Noboa has pushed so hard to arrest Glas. The ex-vice president had sought protection from embezzlement charges by requesting asylum in Mexico, saying that the accusations were politically motivated. But Glas, already twice convicted for corruption and a close ally to his former boss, Rafael Correa, had become emblematic of the past that Noboa rejects – and a test of his determination to clean house.

For a moment, Glas appeared to have found refuge. Lopez Obrador has previously used Mexico’s diplomatic channels to rescue political allies, from welcoming Bolivia’s Evo Morales in 2019 to offering asylum to the family of Peru’s Pedro Castillo in 2022.

A close ideological ally of Correa, Lopez Obrador had since December allowed Glas to live at the Mexican embassy—territory that is technically off limits for local authorities.

But then he appeared to add insult to irritation. Lopez Obrador last week seemed to criticize the election that brought Noboa to power, suggesting the climate of fear created by Villavicencio’s murder had favored Noboa.

On April 5,the Ecuadorean leader broke diplomatic norms and ordered an unprecedented operation to seize Glas by force, throwing Ecuador’s relations with Mexico into a tailspin.

A crucial vote and Noboa seeks a boost

Ecuador’s April 21 vote is crucial to put the current diplomatic crisis into context, analysts say.  Noboa defended his decision to raid a foreign embassy – a violation of the Vienna Convention – by saying the security crisis in Ecuador called for “exceptional decisions,” and that he could not allow a convicted criminal to escape justice.

In an open letter published on Monday, he tied his action to the upcoming referendum, claiming “a vast majority of Ecuadoreans” would defend his decision with their vote.

“It could well be that the raid grants him a spike of popularity,” said Santiago Orbe, an Ecuadorian international analyst.

While Lopez Obrador is at the sunset of his political career, Noboa is just getting started and seeks a strong platform to run for re-election next year.

“Noboa is part of a new generation of very quick politicians who act first and listen later. Ecuador will probably pay a price in terms of its international stance, but in the short term, such a brazen action will help Noboa, whose platform is all about security and law on crime,” Orbe said.

Others, like Mexican columnist Emilio Lezama, have compared Noboa’s actions to those of another young politician who is very popular across the region because of his tough-on-crime approach at the cost of some rule-breaking: El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.

Fewer leaders worldwide have embodied a security crackdown more than El Salvador’s president, who has ruled with emergency powers for more than two years.

While his tenure has been marked by concern for alleged human rights abuse -at some point, El Salvador put roughly 2% of its adult population behind bars– it’s fair to say that Bukele’s policies are overwhelmingly popular with his countrymates.

This year, Bukele won re-election in a landslide.

Support for authoritarian measures to tackle the chronic issues of crime and economic growth in Latin America has significantly increased since the turn of the century.

According to Latinobarometro, a regional pollster that tracks opinions across 17 different Latin American countries, 60% of respondents believed democracy was the preferred form of government for their country under any circumstance in 2006, when Lopez Obrador mounted his first presidential run.

In 2023, the year Noboa was elected, it was 48%.

It’s too early to say whether Noboa’s gamble will pay off at the ballot boxes, or if Ecuador will be sanctioned in multilateral forums – Mexico has already announced it will sue Ecuador at the International Court of Justice.

But it’s not too early to see the growing appetite for such brazen actions.

Hamas has indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down 40 Israeli hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known.

The framework that has been laid out by negotiators says that during a first six-week pause in the fighting, Hamas should release 40 of the remaining hostages, including all the women as well as sick and elderly men. In exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons.

Hamas has told international mediators – which include Qatar and Egypt – it does not have 40 living hostages who match those criteria for release, both sources said.

The inability – or unwillingness – of Hamas to tell Israel which hostages would be released, alive, is a major obstacle, the second source added.

With Hamas appearing to be unable to reach 40 in the proposed categories, Israel has pushed for Hamas to fill out the initial release with younger male hostages, including soldiers, the Israeli official said.

Throughout the months of negotiations since the last ceasefire Israel has repeatedly asked for a list of the hostages and their conditions. Hamas has argued that it needs a break in the fighting to be able to track and gather down the hostages, the same argument it made in November before a week-long pause that broke down after Hamas failed to deliver more hostages.

The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age. Hamas is expected to try to use to them in later phases to try to negotiate more significant concessions, including more high-level prisoners and a permanent end to the war.

The more than 250 hostages captured or killed on October 7 are believed to have been spread out among different members and factions of Hamas, as well as other militant groups, gangs and even held by families.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said Wednesday that of the 129 hostages from the October 7 attack currently held, 33 are dead.

Among those believed to still be held in Gaza are the Bibas family, who were snatched from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yarden Bibas was separated from his wife Shiri and their children Kfir and Ariel, who were just 9 months and 4 years old respectively on October 7.

The two boys and their mother were not released from Gaza during the temporary truce in late November, despite the fact that the deal agreed between Israel and Hamas required all women and children to be set free.

Hamas claimed in November that Shiri, Kfir and Ariel had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, but did not provide evidence.

Hamas has claimed repeatedly that Israeli bombing has killed a number of the hostages held in Gaza and that its continuing campaign is threatening those still alive.

In January, Hamas released a video showing clips of three hostages – Noa Argamani, Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi – speaking to the camera, ending with a caption saying, “Tomorrow, we will inform you of their fate.” The next day, another video appeared to show the dead bodies of Svirsky and Sharabi. In the video, Argamani said both men had been killed by Israeli bombing.

Israel said Hamas was carrying out “psychological torment” on the hostage families, and IDF chief spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the two men had not been hit.

“We do not strike in places where we know there may be hostages,” he said.

The hostage families have become a political force in Israel, staging mass protests to demand more be done to free their relatives.

Two relatives of Israeli hostages were arrested last month during a protest outside the defense ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, staged after the Israeli delegation holding indirect hostage negotiations with Hamas left talks in Qatar without a deal.

A ferocious debate that has raged across social media, legal chambers, police stations and Scottish politics also played out on the streets of Edinburgh this weekend.

Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into force last week, a contentious law that expands existing legislation to include transgender identity as a protected characteristic from hate crimes.

“We must remember why this Bill is so necessary, every day in Scotland around 18 hate crimes are committed,” Scottish First Minister – then Justice Secretary – Humza Yousaf said when the act was passed back in 2021, citing the government’s estimated figures at the time.

“Through the passing of this landmark Bill, Parliament has sent a strong and clear message to victims, perpetrators, communities and to wider society that offences motivated by prejudice will be treated seriously and will not be tolerated,” he said.

Supporters of the law believe it will provide much-needed protection for the marginalized and regularly vilified transgender community, while critics say it will stifle free speech and even threaten hard-won women’s rights. The two sides are at loggerheads, online and offline.

In the first week of the law’s enactment, a feminist group, “Let Women Speak,” organized a rally against the legislation in Scotland’s capital on Saturday. It was met by a counterprotest from a small band of transgender rights campaigners, Reuters video showed. The two sides were kept apart by metal barriers as they traded noisy insults, amid a heavy police presence.

Yet the bill has come into force as issues around transgender rights, and how they intersect with women’s rights, are creating a complex set of problems for lawmakers, sports regulators and employers, among others.

As the confrontation simmers, the debate has become intensely polarized and drawn in public figures such as JK Rowling, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, none of whom are strangers to weighing in on culture war touchpoints.

So what does the law mean, and why has it sparked outcry?

‘Stirring up hatred’

Before Scottish lawmakers passed the bill, laws already existed across the United Kingdom to criminalize “stirring up hatred” against racial identity. This new legislation introduces offenses for hate crimes against more characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics.

Biological sex, however, is not included. The government says this is because it intends to put a separate bill criminalizing misogyny before the Scottish parliament at a later date.

According to Susan Smith, however, the director of For Women Scotland, a gender-critical feminist campaign group, this creates an “inequality” within the law.

Another major concern for those who oppose the Hate Crime Act is the supposed lack of clarity on what type of behavior could constitute an offense under the new law. Section three makes it an offense to behave in a manner or communicate material “that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive” with the intention of stirring up hatred.

“The test for ‘threatening’ is obviously much, much higher than the test for ‘abusive,’” Smith said. “What somebody sees as abusive varies from person to person.”

Those convicted under the new law could face up to seven years in prison, and/or a fine.

Online arena

Complicating the implementation of the law, Siobhan Brown, Scotland’s Minister for Victims and Community Safety, sparked confusion about whether or not the act would make misgendering someone online a crime.

It was at this juncture that Rowling – the Harry Potter author turned strident gender-critical commentator – deliberately misgendered several trans women online and dared police to arrest her.

Police Scotland later confirmed it would not be investigating Rowling’s posts as a criminal offense.

First Minister Yousaf told the BBC last Wednesday he was not “surprised” that officers decided not to charge Rowling, despite her comments being “offensive, upsetting and insulting to trans people.”

“But it doesn’t mean that they meet a threshold of criminality of being threatening or abusive and intending to stir up hatred,” he said.

Vic Valentine, Scottish Trans Policy and Public Affairs officer at Equality Network, argues the law “gets the balance right” with free speech.

But 25-year-old Scottish trans student Lucy (who asked not to be identified by her real name due to concerns about continued online abuse), said the new law does not reassure her.

“Abuse towards trans people is normalized and sometimes encouraged, so I don’t see that changing regardless of what laws are introduced,” she said, adding that abuse is “pretty constant” when using the social media platform X.

This act is not the first time Scotland has moved out of alignment with the rest of the UK in an attempt to make transgender laws more progressive.

In January, the British government blocked Scotland’s attempt to reform the UK-wide Gender Recognition Act 2004, which allows people to apply to have their legal gender changed. Scotland’s proposed reforms would have allowed transgender people to self-identify, without the need for a medical diagnosis or certificate.

This episode only made things worse, according to Lucy. “If the self ID debate hadn’t started, I don’t think people would’ve been swallowed up by most of the hateful rhetoric,” she said. “I think people will double down on whatever they have to say about trans people in light of the new law as some form of ‘protest.’”

‘Vexatious’ claims and misinformation

The Scottish Police Federation has repeatedly raised concerns about the capacity of officers to deal with a potential surge in hate crime complaints, suggesting on X Sunday that they had been “swamped.”

Police Scotland received 7,152 complaints under the new legislation in its first week of operation, the UK’s PA Media news agency reported on Wednesday. The force announced it had officially recorded complaints of 240 hate crimes and 30 non-hate crime incidents.

In a Saturday op-ed for Scottish newspaper The Courier, Yousaf wrote that, “critics of this law shouldn’t exaggerate its impact with false fears.” Later that day he told PA Media that “deliberate misinformation” is being “peddled by some bad actors.”

Escalating an already volatile debate, Scotland’s new law has become an obvious flashpoint in online culture wars, with global public figures drawing attention to it on their platforms.

Last month, Police Scotland were forced to release a statement denying that officers had been instructed under the Act “to target actors, comedians, or any other people or groups,” after such claims were spearheaded by influential US podcast host Joe Rogan and billionaire X CEO Elon Musk.

On March 19, Musk reposted comments from Malaysian far right commentator and social media influencer Ian Miles Cheong who said police officers in Scotland had been given training to “target” social media posts with material deemed “threatening and abusive.”

Musk reposted it on X, calling it “an example of why it is so important to preserve freedom of speech.” In its statement, however, Police Scotland addressed this as “inaccurate media reporting and commentary.”

Among those actually affected by Scotland’s new law, such as Lucy, not everyone is willing to be as vocal – despite being on the frontlines of this confrontation.