A center-right coalition won a narrow victory in Portugal’s snap elections on Sunday but fell short of an outright majority, as fledgling radical right party Chega took nearly a fifth of the vote.

The Democratic Alliance coalition won 29.5% of the 98.98% of votes counted early Monday, with the incumbent Socialist Party on 28.7%. The results are not final – but Socialist Party leader Pedro Nuno Santos has already conceded.

Chega won 18%, a breakthrough for the radical right party and its leader, André Ventura, a former trainee priest and football pundit.

Democratic Alliance leader Luis Montenegro reiterated he would not work with Chega as he claimed victory in the early hours of Monday, though others in his party have been more ambiguous.

The results set the stage for difficult negotiations in the days and weeks ahead, and, potentially, new elections in the not-too-distant future.

For decades the Socialist Party and center-right Social Democratic Party – the main party in the Democratic Alliance – have taken turns in power.

But both parties failed to secure a working parliamentary majority from the vote Sunday, called after Prime Minister Antonio Costa resigned in November in the wake of a corruption probe into the government’s handling of major investment projects. He has not been accused of any crime.

Chega – which was created just five years ago and translates as “Enough” – has been the third-largest parliamentary force in Portugal since the 2022 election, when it obtained 7% of the vote.

A hung parliament turns Chega into a potential kingmaker, where the party could become part of a coalition government to break the political deadlock.

Corruption scandals cast a shadow over Sunday’s election and fueled public disenchantment with the political class. A recent EU study found 93% of people in Portugal believe corruption to be widespread, the third highest in Europe behind only Greece and Croatia.

Economic concerns have also played a part. Portugal – one of the poorest countries in Western Europe – is suffering a housing crisis, with soaring rents and shortages of affordable homes, as well as a struggling health care system.

The center-left Socialist Party has been in power since late 2015. Nuno Santos, 46, took over from Costa as the party’s leader following his resignation. Dubbed the “caviar leftist,” Santos has sought to prove his dedication to the working classes despite coming from a wealthy background.

The Socialist Party’s traditional rival is the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), which in December formed an alliance with two other conservative parties without parliamentary representation to fight in the March elections and combat the rise of Chega.

At the helm of the Democratic Alliance is the 51-year-old PSD leader, Montenegro, who campaigned on a platform for change and sought to present his alliance as a safer option than Chega.

Chega meanwhile has been advocating for tougher sentences for criminals as well as a tightening of Portugal’s immigration policy.

Much like other radical parties across Europe, Ventura’s Chega has also preyed on issues of gender equality, security, and crime. The party has flirted with extremism – at a recent convention one of its members claimed he was a “fascist,” before later saying he was being ironic.

The party has flirted with extremism and has been accused racism. Ventura himself has been convicted for making racist remarks. The party has denied accusations of racism, but some members, and many of its supporters, openly flaunt hateful narratives on social media.

The rise of the far-right in Portugal echoes a trend seen throughout Europe, as voters disenfranchised with mainstream politics look for an alternative. Extremist parties that were once excluded from governing coalitions are increasingly propping them up, and the membrane separating the far and center right is proving more and more permeable.

British actor Idris Elba, best known for roles including Stringer Bell from “The Wire” and John Luther from the eponymous TV show, has ambitions beyond the screen. For his latest role, he wants to build a “smart eco-city” that runs off wind power on an island off the West African country of Sierra Leone.

Sherbro Island is known for its pristine beaches that are a nesting ground for green sea turtles. Sherbro Alliance Partners, co-founded by Elba in 2019, is collaborating with the government to develop a special economic zone on the island to attract people from around the world to live, work, invest and play.

The actor was brought up in London, but his mom is from Ghana and his dad from Sierra Leone. He has acted as a brand ambassador for the latter country and is a strong advocate for building up the African creative arts economy.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Elba: First of all, it’s a beautiful little island off the coast of Sierra Leone. It’s about the same size as Chicago, there’s about 40,000 inhabitants on it in different regions across the island. And Sherbro Island used to historically be the point of no return in the slave trade. It was where England had their capital city of Sierra Leone [when it was a colony], in a city called Bonthe, which is still there. And the relics of the city are still there: the grid system, road system, the old houses, the churches. It’s an incredibly historically rich part of Sierra Leone. There’s 19 miles of beachfront there.

At some junction, my business partner Siaka Stevens, who is the grandson of the former president [of the same name who served from 1971 to 1985], said: “Look, someone needs to cultivate Sherbro Island for tourism.” That was seven years ago. Where we are now is that we partnered with the government to figure out a plan of how we can bring in tourism. Well, it started as tourism – now we’re building a smart, eco dynamic city.

Obviously, this is Sierra Leone: it’s one of the poorest countries in the world, so investment isn’t rushing through the door. So what we needed to do is understand how to package an investment opportunity around this beautiful island without destroying it, being climate conscious, and being conscious that there is a youth culture across Africa of the average age of about 20, that wants something.

I’ve suddenly found myself in the middle of trying to figure out how to pull this together, and what I did was get the best-in-class thinkers on how to build a robust investment framework for the international players to look at Africa in a different way. And that’s what Sherbro Island is. That’s a very long-winded way of saying it’s my retirement plan.

Elba: Huge amounts of curiosity, huge amounts of goodwill. There’s no doubt, everyone understands that the opportunity of Africa is incredible. There’s a leapfrog opportunity with Africa when it considers the emerging economies, the emergence of tech, the emergence of the populace: 1.4 billion people across a land span that big, has room and space to grow.

Elba: The opportunity for Africa is to reframe how not only Africans see themselves via telling stories, but the opportunity is to have the world see Africa in a different way. And that’s where the creative industries can play a pivotal role.

The fulcrum of the creative arts is that every single type of industry falls within it. You and I are speaking from microphones that are manufactured somewhere and based on their use in this industry, the cameras we are being shot on, the makeup that we’re both wearing. This is such a massive intersection of industries that create jobs and create opportunities. If we look at the creative industries as just singing, dancing and telling stories, we’re limiting what it actually is. It is an incredible opportunity for engineering, creativity, storytelling and heritage and propaganda.

We need support from governments saying the creative arts industry does need support and an incentive for it to grow. I’ve made nine films in Africa, nine or eight films. Each time I’m there, I see the opportunity’s growing, I see the quality of the work growing, and I just want to contribute more.

Elba: I was on “Absolutely Fabulous” when I was a wee lad and that was definitely a standout moment because it was my first bit of comedy, but it was with the legends.

Elba: I auditioned extensively over four weeks. I auditioned in New York. It was a tough gig to do. Alexa Fogel is an amazing casting director. She always has an eye for an amazing talent and she gave me an opportunity to audition for it, but she told me: “Whatever you do, don’t walk in there with your English accent. This is about Baltimore, they’re not interested in East London.” And that was it, I auditioned amongst some amazing young actors, and on my last audition, I got the job.

Elba: No, I haven’t watched most of “The Wire.” It’s just because it’s an incredible time of my life. I can’t watch it through that lens.

I’ve racked up some box sets. I’ve got “The Wire” to get through. I’ve got “Luther” season one to five to get to.

Elba: My experience has been positive. I mean, moving to the States as a young actor was like, “You’re doing what? You’re going to Hollywood?” It’s more commonplace now. For the most part, when I got there, it was really tough. That was a struggle. But it was positive. I grew in confidence. I went through a very tough time; at one point I was homeless. In my early years, “The Wire” changed my life completely, and my daughter was born at the same time. So that really changed my life. I’m always in and out of America. I live in England now, closer to my mum. My dad’s passed and so I’m home in England now, but I’m always there.

Divisions between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu burst out into the open again over the weekend as the two traded barbs in interviews over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

In a Saturday interview with MSNBC, Biden said Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his war on Gaza, adding that he wants “to see a ceasefire” in the context of a deal that also brings back Israeli hostages held there by Hamas.

Biden has for months warned that Israel risks losing international support over mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, where the death toll has passed 31,000.

Netanyahu in response said the American president was wrong in his assessment and fiercely defended his policies in Gaza, especially a looming ground operation into the southernmost city of Rafah that Biden and other world leaders have warned against.

“I don’t know exactly what the president meant, but if he meant by that, that I’m pursuing private policies against the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel then he’s wrong on both counts,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Politico and German media outlet Bild, referring to Biden’s remarks about the prime minister hurting Israel.

An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, which has been under Israeli bombardment for weeks. Crammed into a sprawling tent city packed against the Egyptian border, families there are living with severe shortages of food, water, medicine and shelter, and the daily risk of being killed.

In his Saturday interview, Biden said that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a red line, before adding in the same breath that crossing it would not result in punitive measures against Israel.

“It is a red line, but I am never going to leave Israel,” Biden said. “The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons.”

Netanyahu on Sunday said he intends to move forward with the invasion, despite Biden’s warning and regardless of a ceasefire-hostage deal. The operation would not last more than two months, he said, but did not provide specifics on the timeline.

“We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave (Gaza),” Netanyahu said Sunday in an interview with German outlet Axel Springer. “You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that October 7 doesn’t happen again.”

As of this weekend, the Biden administration has yet to see any kind of humanitarian or evacuation plan from the Israeli government that seeks to ensure the safety of civilians in Rafah before launching a military operation there, the two US officials said Sunday.

The US has strongly supported Israel through its war in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 31,000 people and injured more than 72,000, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The rising death toll, widespread destruction and unfolding humanitarian crisis have cast a shadow on Biden’s 2024 reelection bid, as anger over his administration’s handling of Israel’s war sparked a campaign to convince Michigan Democratic voters to cast protest ballots.

Biden and Netanyahu have known each other for decades and have had disagreements even before October 7, including the president’s unease with the Israeli leader’s far-right government. As the conflict in Gaza has dragged on and pressure has grown from within his party to rein in Israel, Biden’s criticism has become more vocal.

Last month, Biden described the war as “over the top,” one of his sharpest rebukes since the conflict began. Late last year, Biden and Netanyahu publicly sparred with over plans for post-war Gaza.

The rhetoric from the administration has only grown stronger of late. Vice President Kamala Harris last week called for “an immediate ceasefire” and for more humanitarian aid into Gaza, “given the immense scale of suffering” in the enclave.

“It (Israel) cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead,” Biden told MSNBC Saturday. And in a statement marking the start of the Islamic month of Ramadan the same day, the president said that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “front of mind” for many, including him. “More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, including thousands of children,” he said.

In a candid moment caught on a hot mic, Biden revealed his frustration with Netanyahu after his State of the Union speech last week.

“I told him, Bibi – and don’t repeat this – but you and I are going to have a come to Jesus meeting,” Biden was heard telling Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Senator Michael Bennett.

Asked about the moment, Biden told MSNBC the comment meant he intends to have a serious meeting soon with Netanyahu. “I’ve known Bibi for 50 years, and he knew what I meant by it.”

“What’s happening is that he has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,” Biden said.

“But he must, he must, he must, he must, pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”

On Monday, Biden told reporters there are currently no plans for a “come to Jesus” meeting with Netanyahu and no plans for him to address the Israeli parliament “at this moment.”

Marine researchers on a mission to record life hidden in the world’s oceans have reported they found about 100 potential new species — including one mystery starlike creature.

The expedition team focused its investigation on the 500-mile (800-kilometer) long Bounty Trough, a little-explored part of the ocean off the coast of New Zealand, east of South Island. The scientists’ three-week voyage aboard the research vessel Tangaroa, which belongs to the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, occurred in February.

The team collected almost 1,800 samples from depths as far down as 3 miles (4,800 meters), finding species of fish, squid, mollusk and coral that they believe are new to science.

“You’ve got this big area off the east coast of New Zealand where there’s just an absolutely paucity of data points. We don’t know anything about it,” said Dr. Daniel Moore, expedition science manager of Ocean Census, a new alliance launched in April 2023 that aims to identify 100,000 unknown species in the next 10 years. “It was true exploration, very exciting.”

For the next three weeks, a team of scientists will sort and describe the deep-sea finds to confirm whether they are newfound species.

The team’s scientists have been puzzled by one find, which they initially thought was a type of sea star or sea anemone.

“It is still a mystery. We can’t even describe it to family. We don’t know where it is in the tree (of life) as of yet, so that’ll be interesting,” Moore said.

Dr. Michela Mitchell, a taxonomist at the Queensland Museum Network, said in a statement released by Ocean Census it could be a type of deep-sea coral called octocoral.

“Even more excitingly, it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral. If it is, that is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity,” she said in the statement.

Moore said he was surprised that the team found a new species of fish known as an eelpout that was “instantly recognized as being different to the others.”

“Finding new vertebrates is rare. There’s hundreds of thousands of invertebrates in the sea that we still don’t know. Vertebrates, we like to think that we know what’s out there, but the reality is, we just don’t,” he said.

To collect the samples, the vessel towed three different types of sleds depending on the terrain. These included a traditional beam trawl that towed a net to collect samples, a heavy-duty seamount sled for rocky surfaces and another device that sampled the water just above the seafloor, as well as a towed underwater camera.

Huge gaps remain in scientific knowledge of the ocean depths. Of the 2.2 million species believed to exist in Earth’s oceans, only 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to Ocean Census.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on Sunday amid pro-Palestinian protests demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

Protesters were chanting “Never again is now” and “Ceasefire now” at a square close to the museum, while holding Palestinian flags and signs that said “Jews against genocide” and “The grandchild of a holocaust survivor says: Stop Gaza Holocaust.”

Health officials in Gaza say over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive there in response to an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Human rights group Amnesty International put up detour signs around the museum to direct Herzog to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

A spokesperson for the president declined comment.

Dutch Jewish anti-zionist organization Erev Rave, which organized the protest with the Dutch Palestinian Community and Socialists International, said that while it honors the memory of Holocaust victims, it could not stand by while the war in Gaza continued.

Faced with international criticism of its campaign, Israel has been stressing that it did not start the war and was making all efforts to minimize civilian casualties, blaming Hamas for fighting in densely populated areas.

Some of Herzog’s remarks have been cited by South Africa in its International Court of Justice lawsuit against Israel. He has said that not only militants but “an entire nation” was responsible for the Oct. 7 attack and that Israel will fight “until we break their backbone.”

Herzog has said his comments were misrepresented, and only part of what he said was cited in order to build a case against Israel in the ICJ, which after discussing told Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip but stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Herzog, before becoming president, which is a largely ceremonial role, used to head Israel’s Labor party, which historically has been an advocate for making peace with Palestinians.

The museum told media that it had invited Herzog before the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza.

It said in a statement it recognized that Herzog’s attendance raised questions but added that he represented the homeland of Dutch Holocaust survivors who emigrated to Israel.

Nazi Germany killed six million Jews during World War Two.

Modern Israel was founded in 1948 as a safe haven for Jews.

Pope Francis has sparked anger after saying Ukraine should have the “courage of the white flag” and negotiate to end the war with Russia.

In an interview with Swiss broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) published on Saturday, Francis was asked whether he thinks negotiations would “legitimize the stronger party.”

“That is one interpretation,” he replied. “But I believe that the stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate.” The pope added, “and today, negotiations are possible with the help of international powers.”

The comments brought a swift response from Kyiv, which has seen tens of thousands killed and is seeking to recapture all its territory seized by Russia.

“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post on social media Sunday.

“The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’,” he said.

Speaking to Ukrainians in New York on Saturday, the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, said “Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered” and that no one is thinking about making concessions.

“I want to tell you one thing from the people of Ukraine,” Father Sviatoslav said, according to a statement from the Greek Catholic Church. “Ukraine is exhausted, but it is standing and will stand! Believe me, no one even thinks of surrender, even in the places where fighting is ongoing today,” he said.

Later on Saturday, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, clarified to journalists the pope’s comments, saying “the Pope picked up the image of the white flag, proposed by the interviewer, to indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation,” and not surrender as some may have interpreted his remarks, Vatican News reported.

Other European leaders also condemned Francis’s comments.

“How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine,” Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Sunday in a post on X. “Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.”

“My Sunday morning take: One must not capitulate in [the] face of evil, one must fight it and defeat it, so that the evil raises the white flag and capitulates,” Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkēvičs said in a post on X.

Alexandra Valkenburg, the head of the EU delegation to the Holy See, said on X on Sunday that “Russia started an illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine two years ago” and Russia “can end this war immediately” by respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Summers are becoming increasingly dangerous, especially in cities where the warming effects of tall buildings, concrete and asphalt send temperatures soaring. But there might be a simple, potentially inexpensive way to put a chill on urban heat: retroreflectors.

A study published Monday in the journal Nature Cities found when retroreflective material was installed on buildings, it decreased the surface temperature of those buildings by up to 36 degrees Fahrenheit, and air temperatures by nearly 5 degrees.

Reducing building temperature is “very, very important” for pedestrians at street level, said Elie Bou-Zeid, co-author of the study and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University, “because those walls radiate a lot of heat on you.”

Cooling those surfaces by 36 degrees “will make you feel significantly more comfortable,” he said. “It’s almost like being in the shade.”

Cities are significantly warmer than their surrounding suburbs and rural areas because of the way they are built. Tall buildings, dark roofs, asphalt and concrete absorb the sun’s rays and reflect its energy back into the environment as heat – the so-called urban heat island effect.

Urban designers have started to implement simple solutions to counteract the urban heat phenomenon, including painting roads white, planting more trees and building green roofs. But researchers say using retroreflective materials would have a more powerful cooling effect.

Retroreflectors take advantage of a simple concept: a number of mirrors in the shape of a cube corner reflects light back in the direction it came from. The same can be achieved with a mirror in the shape of a bowl.

They’re used in road signs and bicycle reflectors, for instance, to ensure headlights reflect to drivers’ eyes. They’re also used in running clothes with reflective strips on them. Cats’ eyes have similar, naturally occurring retroreflectors, which is why they appear to glow when you shine a light on them.

Bou-Zeid said retroreflective material could be developed as sheets or coatings to install on city surfaces. Given the material itself is relatively inexpensive, it could be a low-cost solution to an increasingly dangerous phenomenon, as temperatures continue to climb due to planet-warming pollution.

Small-scale versions of the idea have already been tested in the Netherlands and Italy. But there is no large-scale example yet because of how difficult it is to retrofit existing buildings.

Some US cities have taken steps to tackle extreme heat. Los Angeles streets were painted with a grayish-white coating to reflect sunlight and keep air temperatures cooler – just like a light shirt will keep you cooler than a dark one in the hot summer sun. But researchers say this solution is less effective than retroreflective material, which reflects sunlight back toward the sun “and not to other objects on the ground,” Bou-Zeid said.

There is one downside to it, though: It would make winters feel even colder – reflecting sunlight at a time when it’s beneficial – which could create new public health concerns. Bou-Zeid said it might be possible to design reflective materials that “turn off” when needed.

“When it’s very hot during the summer, they become white and reflect a lot back to the sky,” Bou-Zeid said. “When it’s very cold during the winter, they become black and don’t reflect a lot and mostly absorb (the sun’s) energy.”

To help reduce the urban impact of the climate crisis, cities need to implement as many measures as they can to adapt to and mitigate these changes, said Xinjie Huang, the lead author of the study and doctoral researcher at Princeton.

The bodies of five missing skiers were found in the Swiss Alps on Sunday evening, while rescuers are still searching for a sixth person, local police said on Monday.

The group, which included five members of the same family, had set off from Zermatt, a popular ski destination, on Saturday morning and were reported missing in the Tête Blanche region, according to police in the canton of Valais.

The skiers were aged between 21 and 58, according to an earlier police statement reported by Reuters. The family members were from the Valais canton, while the sixth person is from the canton of Fribourg. Police did not reveal the identities of the dead skiers, whose bodies were found in Tête Blanche on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Police said they were alerted by a family member who was meant to collect the group in the village of Arolla on Saturday afternoon and had become concerned when they failed to arrive.

Search-and-rescue operations were launched on Saturday after the skiers went missing near the 3,706-meter-high (12,159 feet) Tête Blanche pass, en route to the village of Arolla. However, “very poor” weather conditions made operations “extremely delicate,” police said in a statement on Sunday.

“At 5:19 p.m., a member of the group managed to contact the emergency services. This call enabled him to be located in the Tête Blanche pass area, at an altitude of around 3,500 meters” (around 11,480 feet), police said.

“A storm in the southern Alps and the danger of avalanches prevented helicopters and rescue columns from approaching the area,” police continued, adding that a team of five experienced rescuers attempted an overland approach from Zermatt overnight, but they had to give up at an altitude of over 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) due to “very poor weather conditions and the risks involved.”

The operation included special units of the Cantonal Police, including a mountain group and technical and telecommunication officers, as well as rescuers from the Rescue Organization for the Canton of Valais (OCVS) and the Swiss Air Force.

The Zermatt-Arolla hiking route is part of the famous Haute Route trail between Chamonix, France, at the foot of Mont Blanc, and the base of the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland.

Catherine, Princess of Wales has taken responsibility and apologized for an edited official photograph that was recalled by a number of international news agencies over concerns it had been manipulated.

Kate said she was sorry for “any confusion” caused by the image, after her “experiment” with photo editing caused scrutiny for Kensington Palace and increased confusion over Kate’s extended absence from the public eye.

The photograph, released Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in the UK, was the first official picture of Kate since she underwent abdominal surgery in January.

But hours after it was released by Kensington Palace, four major photo agencies issued “kill notices,” expressing concerns it had been edited.

Catherine wrote on X: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

But the palace did not provide any further details on what aspects of the image Catherine was attempting to edit, or whether the picture released was a composite that combined multiple photographs from the same shoot.

The family traditionally releases a family photo on Mother’s Day, but this year’s image came amid a backdrop of intrigue and confusion over Kate’s extended absence following her January operation.

Those questions were briefly dispelled on Sunday by the release of the image, which Kensington Palace said was taken by William, Prince of Wales.

The Associated Press noted that “at closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” Agence France-Presse said it had withdrawn the photo due to “an editorial issue.”

In a note to clients the agency wrote: “It has come to light that this handout photo… issued by Kensington Palace today of the Princess of Wales and her kids had been altered and therefore it was withdrawn from AFP systems.” 

PA Images and Getty Images also “killed” the photo.

The palace has faced mounting public pressure to share more information about the future Queen in recent weeks, but it has taken a firm line on protecting her privacy.

She is not scheduled to make any official appearances until after Easter.

There are constant reminders in our everyday surroundings of the many chapters of life that have unfolded on Earth.

Rocks and dirt preserve evidence of the epochs that came before ours, such as the oldest known fossilized forest on the planet where unusual trees once grew 390 million years ago.

Fossils reveal the diversity of life that has flourished and disappeared over millennia, and graves tell the stories of humans who lived through unimaginable hardship centuries ago.

The one constant about life on Earth is that it changes continuously. Even scientists can’t agree on whether or not a new chapter of Earth’s history has begun.

While it may seem impossible to bring long extinct creatures back to life, scientists are achieving breakthroughs that could enable a comeback, perhaps in the not so distant future.

Back to the future

An ambitious plan to genetically engineer a woolly mammoth — a giant that hasn’t roamed Earth in 4,000 years — has taken another step toward reality.

Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based company aiming to create a mammoth hybrid that looks exactly like its extinct counterpart, has reprogrammed cells from an Asian elephant. The species is the closest living relative to the woolly mammoth.

The now modified cells could eventually be used to help the hybrid mammoth grow a woolly coat and develop other traits needed to survive in the Arctic.

The company believes that resurrecting the woolly mammoth could possibly help restore the vulnerable Arctic tundra, which is at risk as the world warms.

Across the universe

The far-reaching infrared gaze of the James Webb Space Telescope has spied a mysterious galaxy that existed when the universe was only 700 million years old — in its adolescence, astronomically speaking.

The discovery surprised scientists, who found that it was the oldest “dead” galaxy ever observed, and it stopped forming stars almost as soon as star birth in the universe began.

Violent interactions between stars or black holes can deprive galaxies of the gas needed to form stars, but so far, no theories explain exactly what happened in this distant galaxy.

Curiosities

Bread and cheese are among the best culinary pairings, but perhaps not when the bread in question is 8,600 years old and the cheese is known for its pungent aroma.

Archaeologists discovered a palm-size spongy residue at an ancient oven structure in Turkey and determined that it was an uncooked round of fermented bread made in 6600 BC, making it the world’s oldest known loaf.

Meanwhile, France’s favorite Camembert cheese may be facing an extinction crisis.

The fungus used during the cheesemaking process, which gives Camembert both its distinct smell and rich flavor, is in short supply, causing connoisseurs to worry that Camembert’s days are numbered.

Fantastic creatures

Strolling through Earth’s forests 120 million years ago would have afforded a familiar sight amid an otherwise dinosaur-dominated landscape: birds. Well, that is, until the feathered creatures opened their beaks to reveal rows of teeth.

Back then, toothy birds were the norm. But researchers have unearthed a fossil of a newfound species, dubbed “Attenborough’s strange bird” in honor of the British naturalist Sir David Attenborough, that was an oddball because it was toothless.

The discovery of the robinlike bird is changing the way scientists think about the complicated story of avian evolution.

Separately, an eagle-eyed amateur paleontologist out for a stroll with his dog happened to spot an exposed bone that led to the discovery of a nearly complete titanosaur skeleton connected from skull to tail.

A long time ago

Scientists have used a uniquely celestial method to determine that ancient humans were in Europe 1.4 million years ago.

Pebbles buried within a quarry in Ukraine along with stone tools found beneath layers of earth underwent analysis for radioactive particles locked inside the mineral grains.

In the distant past, when the rocks were still at the surface, cosmic rays, or charged particles that travel across the universe and land on Earth, had penetrated the stone, creating the radioactive markers that help researchers determine how long the archaeological layer was buried.

The freshly dated artifacts are the earliest known evidence of hominins in Europe. The team is still trying to determine exactly which species of early human made the tools, but the study findings have provided clues.

Explorations

Grab a cup of coffee and catch up on these fascinating reads:

— Towering pyramid-like star dunes are some of the tallest features in Earth’s deserts, and researchers have uncovered evidence that the distinctive mounds began forming thousands of years ago.

— A 13-year-old may have cracked the code on how ancient Greek inventor Archimedes’ fabled “death ray” could have harnessed sunlight to burn ships.

— Did you glimpse the 2017 total solar eclipse? Expect this year’s eclipse on April 8 to be different in several key ways, including duration and visibility of the celestial event.