Fungi are fascinating and integral parts of the web of life. They also have a bit of a mixed reputation.

On one hand, mushrooms and networks of fungal roots are sought-after sources of nutritionally rich food, mind-altering drugs and eco-friendly materials — and they help trees share nutrients and store carbon in a way that might fight climate change.

Other members of the fungi family tree are less desirable and act as disease-causing pathogens that can disrupt ecosystems and blight human and animal health.

But a newly described mystery involving a mushroom and a frog suggests that fungi’s role in the environment is anything but black-and-white.

Once upon a planet

Some naturalists stumbled upon a strange sight within a roadside pond in the Indian state of Karnataka in June 2023: a golden-backed frog with a tiny mushroom sprouting from its flank.

The team photographed the seemingly healthy amphibian and reported the discovery. Examining the images, an expert identified the mushroom as a common bonnet, a type of fungus that mostly grows on rotting wood.

It’s not clear why the mushroom made the frog its home. The odd growth could be the result of a fungal infection, which is common in frogs, or evidence of a symbiotic relationship.

The researchers plan to return to the same spot during the next monsoon season to investigate further.

Look up

The DART mission was a landmark test of asteroid deflection technology — a proof of concept in case humanity ever needs to defend Earth from a potentially devastating collision with a space rock, such as the one that doomed dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

The target of that 2022 NASA mission was Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid known as Didymos. When the DART spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos, it changed the asteroid’s orbital period — how long it takes to circle Didymos — by about 32 to 33 minutes.

Space scientists have since learned more about what happened to Dimorphos. Rather than forming a simple crater, the impact altered the asteroid in a fundamental way, new research has revealed.

“If you think of Dimorphos as starting out as resembling a chocolate M&M, now it would look like it has had a bite taken out of it!” said lead study author Dr. Sabina Raducan, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern’s Physics Institute in Switzerland.

Ocean secrets

Whale songs have long been known to echo through the surprisingly noisy ocean depths, but it’s not just marine giants making themselves heard.

Scientists have discovered a diminutive, translucent fish that makes a noise louder than an elephant. Living in shallow waters off the coast of Myanmar, members of the species Danionella cerebrum can make noises higher than 140 decibels.

“This is comparable to the noise a human perceives of an airplane during take-off at a distance of 100 (meters) and quite unusual for an animal of such diminutive size,” said ichthyologist Dr. Ralf Britz of the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, Germany, in a news release.

Britz and his colleagues analyzed high-speed video recordings, micro-CT scans and genetic information to understand the unique way in which males of the species generate the thunderous sound.

Turn, turn, turn

Have you forgotten why February had an extra day this year? Here’s a quick refresher.

A leap year is essentially a necessary piece of cosmic bookkeeping that prevents the seasons from getting out of whack. Without one, the summer solstice we generally experience in June would happen in December 700 years from now.

A solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, according to NASA’s calculations. As a result, every year the commonly used 365-day calendar lags behind the solar year by about one-quarter of a day.

While this might not seem like much of a difference, over four years, it works out to roughly a full day.

Lunar update

Odysseus, the first US-made vehicle to make a soft landing on the moon in five decades, had a busy week after a hair-raising descent and touchdown near the lunar south pole on February 22.

Despite a bumpy landing that left Odie on its side — a setback captured in striking images — data has been transmitted from all six NASA instruments on board as well as commercial payloads, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lander now faces another test: surviving lunar night, a dangerous situation as the swing into ultra-freezing temperatures during this period could cause damage to Odie’s hardware.

Elsewhere in our solar system, space scientists have spotted three faint and tiny moons orbiting the outermost planets in the Milky Way: Uranus and Neptune.

Curiosities

Explore these mind-expanding stories:

— Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old clay head that once belonged to a figurine of a god. The rare find provides new context about life in Roman Britain.

— A dead star that feasted on a planet once in its orbit could foretell the eventual fate of our own solar system.

— Scientists have identified one reason why invasive Jorō spiders are spreading throughout United States.

For more than two decades, no one listened to Sally Leydon as she begged for help to find her mother who mysteriously vanished during a trip abroad in 1997.

At the time, Australian police dismissed her concerns, insisting that her mother, Marion Barter, had disappeared by choice, and wanted nothing to do with her family.

It was a story Leydon refused to accept, and on Thursday her efforts to find her mother led to a crowded courtroom in western Sydney, where a coroner handed down her findings in an inquest spanning almost three years.

For many, the final inquest hearing offered the ultimate live update of “The Lady Vanishes,” an Australian podcast that has meticulously pieced together evidence in the case since the first episode aired in March 2019.

On Thursday morning, Leydon’s most loyal Australian supporters crammed into the courtroom, wearing green, Barter’s favorite color, as the podcast’s followers in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Europe, the United Kingdom and beyond tuned into a live YouTube feed as Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan delivered her findings.

“Marion Barter is deceased, and died some unknown time after October 15, 1997,” said O’Sullivan from the bench. Barter’s body has never been found.

Leydon didn’t need a coroner to confirm her mother’s death – she has long accepted that painful truth in the absence of any evidence otherwise.

But the coroner’s words confirmed what she’d suspected for years – that the early police investigation into her mother’s disappearance was botched, and that Ric Blum – a convicted conman now in his 80s, who admitted having an affair with Barter in the months before she vanished – had lied repeatedly on the stand and knew more about her mother’s disappearance than he was letting on.

A mother vanishes

In 1997, Marion Barter was ready for a change, and on June 22, she boarded a plane from Brisbane, Australia to the United Kingdom with plans for a holiday and perhaps a fresh start.

In rather dramatic fashion, the 51-year-old teacher had quit her job halfway through the school year, sold her house, and put her beloved antiques into storage on the understanding that one day she’d come home to get them, or have them shipped to her, if she settled in the UK.

As far as anyone knew, she was traveling alone.

On August 1, Barter phoned Leydon purportedly from a payphone in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England.

Leydon, then 24 years old, told the podcast she had just finished telling her mother about the wedding dress she’d bought when the payphone ran out of credit. She never heard from her mother again.

At first Leydon didn’t dwell on the silence, but on October 18, when Barter didn’t phone her son, Leydon’s brother Owen, for his birthday, she started to worry.

One of the first calls Leydon made was to Barter’s bank to see if her mother was using her account. Regular amounts were coming out, a bank worker told her, but not from the UK.

Someone in Australia had been using her mother’s identification to withdraw 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,450.00) every day for three weeks over the counter in Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, where Barter used to live.

A shocked Leydon was sure it wasn’t her mother and reported it to the police.

Then came the response that set Leydon on a course that’s consumed most of her adult life.

Police told her that the bank confirmed that her mother had withdrawn her money and wanted nothing to do with her family.

Barter had returned to Australia, they said, and wanted to disappear.

A new life, and a new name

Years went by with little information about what happened to Barter, until an intriguing clue emerged via a police investigation that belatedly began a decade later.

Barter had changed her name in the weeks before she left and returned to Australia on August 2, 1997 – just one day after she last spoke with Leydon.

Barter’s new name was Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, and her incoming passenger card listed her as a married resident of Luxembourg, according to the inquest.

The name “Remakel” opened new doors that led police to Blum.

In 1994, Blum placed an advertisement in an Australian-French newspaper, describing himself as a single, 47-year-old “tall, dark, sober” man, who was looking for a relationship with a view to marriage.

The ad was signed “Mr. F. Remakel,” but the phone number linked to a coin business in the New South Wales town of Ballina run by one of Blum’s many aliases.

The inquest heard Blum held at least 10 passports in different names that he used for international travel.

He told the inquest he frequently adopted new aliases for “fantasy … because it was legal.”

“I didn’t have a specific purpose,” he said.

When asked what name he was given at birth, Blum replied, “I don’t really know. But on the record of my birth … I was declared Willy Coppenolle.”

“This marks the mysterious beginning of Mr. Blum’s life,” the coroner noted in her findings.

A man of many names

Blum was born in July 1939 to unmarried parents in Tournai, Belgium, a picturesque city near the French border. He said he spent time in an orphanage before being returned to his mother and taking the name of her new husband – Wouters.

Blum arrived in Australia as Willy Wouters in 1969 but left just a year later. His next destination was France, where he was imprisoned for “fraud, forgery, confidence tricks, and giving a false identity,” the inquest heard.

After his release in 1974, he returned to Australia by boat, and in February 1976 became an Australian citizen under the name Frederick de Hedervary.

Around the same time, Blum married his fourth wife – a 19-year-old woman he met in 1969 on the boat from the United Kingdom – to whom he is still married.

Frederick and Diane de Hedervary settled into life in Australia before moving to Luxembourg, Belgium, and the UK for several years, and then returning to Australia in 1986.  By then, they had two children.

In 1997, the family was living in regional New South Wales, where Blum collected a disability pension and his wife received a carer’s pension. When it was put to Blum in court that at that time “money was tight,” he agreed.

Blum told the court he began an affair with Barter in February that year, though it’s unclear how they met – it may have been through the personal advertisement that Blum placed in 1994, presenting himself as “Mr F. Remakel.”

He claimed he may have answered an ad placed by Barter, but the coroner could find no evidence of that.

Blum said their affair ended in the weeks before she went overseas in June when he told her he couldn’t see her anymore because he was married with children.

He testified the last time he saw her was three weeks before she left for the UK, when she collected tea chests she’d left at his house with a man in uniform, who he took “to be a navy officer or a pilot.”

Deceived lovers

The real Mr. F. Remakel is the ex-husband of a woman Blum once knew, Monique Cornelius, who claimed they had an affair, which Blum denies.

According to testimony read out in court in February 2022, Cornelius told police Blum was a serial liar who told her he worked as a special agent at the British Embassy in Luxembourg.

She said he wrote her a letter in 1980 professing his love for her and suggesting he would buy a boat so they could sail away together.

“I am intimately persuaded that you will not regret your decision to leave with me and to start a new life,” he wrote in the letter, which was read to the court.

Their affair ended when she found out he was married and kicked him out, Cornelius told police. Blum told the court Cornelius had lied about their relationship, which was platonic, he said.

I am intimately persuaded that you will not regret your decision to leave with me and to start a new life.”

Ric Blum’s alleged words in a letter to Monique Cornelius

Other women told the inquest of their encounters with the man now known as Blum. Some were romantic, others not. But all involved allegations of deceit.

Ginette Gaffney-Bowan told the court that she placed an advertisement in a newspaper in the late-1990s that was answered by Blum, who she knew as Frederick De Hedervary.

She said at that time, she was “extremely lonely” and working long hours in her childcare business.

Gaffney-Bowan said Blum told her he had lost his home, so she said he could stay in the studio apartment at her property in Sydney during his frequent trips to the city.

She said their relationship wasn’t sexual, and instead he proposed a business partnership, dealing in coins. With dreams of closing her stressful childcare business, she gave him 30,000 Australian dollars ($19,500) in start-up funding. Soon after, he proposed that she sell her house so he could buy her what he called a “beautiful and spacious” apartment in Paris, she said. She refused.

Gaffney-Bowan told the court Blum belittled her and tried to drive a wedge between her and her daughters over the sale of her house. While Blum didn’t physically hurt her, she told the court he tried to blackmail her with nude photos he had taken of her. She said she became scared of him, went to the police and was granted an apprehended violence order in early 1999.

Blum told the court that Gaffney-Bowan had “dragged me into a bed” and asked him to take “salacious” photos of her, which he didn’t have developed. He denied taking her money.

Another lonely divorcee, Janet Oldenburg told the court she met Blum, who she knew as “Rick” or “Rich” in 1996 through her husband’s coin-collecting circles where they both lived in New South Wales. They reconnected in 1999 when she was 51 years old and had just finalized her divorce, she said.

Blum had offered her a job, but before she’d started, she said he urged her to move with him to the French Riviera “to start a new life.”

Blum denied ever telling Oldenburg he had feelings for her and said he had bought her a one-way ticket to Europe because she wanted to find an agent and start a new career as a belly dancer.

Oldenburg claimed that Blum abandoned her in England during their travels after inventing a story that he’d been attacked at a train station while taking a side business trip to Lille, France.

Blum admitted in court that he’d abandoned her in England because he no longer wanted anything to do with her. “My life was with my wife and kids in Australia,” he said.

He denied her claims he’d stolen jewelry and the title deeds to her house.

Several years later, Ghislaine Danlois-Dubois met Blum in 2006 through an advertisement she posted in a newspaper seeking companionship.  Via video link from Brussels, she told the court she knew him as Frederick de Hedervary.

At the time, Danlois-Dubois was a 72-year-old widow looking for a distraction, and quickly fell in love with the stranger, who told her he was a bank manager from Australia with an interest in coins, she said.

Danlois-Dubois told the court that after a whirlwind romance, de Hedervary suggested they get married on the Indonesian island of Bali, and that she should sell her house and give him the proceeds so he could open bank accounts for her children, so they had ready cash when they came to visit them in Australia.

She said she refused his requests to keep their impending marriage secret from her children, and he disappeared with her money, some 60,000 euros ($65,000).

Blum denied the allegations and told the court Danlois-Dubois “didn’t give him a penny.”

Four years later, Blum crossed paths with Andree Flamme, an elderly woman he says was confined to a wheelchair, living with dementia and who “couldn’t put two words together.”

When that was put to Flamme, who gave evidence to the inquest via a live link from Portugal last year, the then 92-year-old laughed. She denied ever needing a wheelchair while he stayed with her, and, yes, she said with a smile, she could put two words together.

He left a little piece of paper to say he was leaving, and he’d be back … but I never saw him again.”

Andree Flamme, alleged victim

Flamme told the court the man she knew as Frederick de Hedervary stayed with her for several weeks in May and June 2010. While there, she said he asked to inspect her late husband’s coin collection, then disappeared with them one day when she left the house for an errand.

“He left a little piece of paper to say he was leaving, and he’d be back … but I never saw him again,” Flamme said through a translator. Blum has denied the allegations.

A sixth woman, Marie Landrieu, submitted a statement to the inquiry alleging that she’d been fooled out of cash in 2012 by a man she knew as “Willy,” who was the cousin of her late husband.

She said Blum had proposed they buy a house together in Bali, so she gave him 100,000 euros ($108,000). But after they traveled to Indonesia, he said he needed to leave on urgent business.

She never saw him – or her money – again.

Blum told the court Landrieu gave him 50,000 euros ($54,000) in cash that he considered was owed to him from an inheritance from his mother.

He denied trying to seduce her, and said they went to the tropical island because she was “interested in seeing Bali,” according to the inquest findings.

Where is Marion?

In her findings, Coroner O’Sullivan said she accepted the testimony of the women, which showed Blum had a history of mispresenting himself to single, vulnerable women for financial gain.

She found that Blum “exploited” Barter, in the same way he later exploited other women who gave evidence against him. O’Sullivan said she “did not accept as accurate anything Mr. Blum has said” in the absence of corroborating evidence.

As to Blum’s role in Barter’s disappearance, she drew attention to an “extraordinary” claim by Blum on the final day of the inquest, one he made for the first time despite hours of questioning since his first police interview in 2021.

Blum, an elderly man with a full white beard, was asked in the witness box once again if he had any information on the whereabouts of Marion Barter.

“I myself believe she is alive, that’s what I believe. But I don’t know anything about what, what she did or not, nothing. I don’t know,” he stammered.

I myself believe she is alive, that’s what I believe.”

Ric Blum

O’Sullivan interjected with a question: “Why do you believe Marion is still alive?”

“She said that she wanted to separate from her family, she didn’t want anything to do with any member of her family,” Blum said. “She was a bit of a strange person.”

The next day, Blum was recalled via video to explain why he hadn’t offered this information to police or the inquest at any time in the previous three years.

He told the court he didn’t tell police when he was interviewed in June 2021 “because they never asked.” When pushed, he said, “I had no idea of the importance of it. It was just talking. What can I say?”

O’Sullivan said in her findings, “This evidence, along with his lies and deception throughout the inquest has convinced me that he does indeed know more than he is saying.”

She found Blum formed a relationship with Barter in 1997, while posing as Fernand Remakel and “encouraged her to start a new life with him” in Luxembourg.

The coroner found Blum “persuaded or otherwise encouraged” Barter to sell her house before they left, and evidence suggested they spent some time together in England.

During the trip Barter wrote to her daughter Leydon on notepaper branded “Hotel Nikko Narita” – the same hotel Blum stayed in on his way to Europe. Barter traveled via South Korea, according to her passenger card.

The coroner found that Blum likely gave the hotel notepaper to Barter after they met in England. On her return to Australia, the coroner also found that Barter withdrew money from her accounts in August and October 1997 “on the encouragement of Mr. Blum.”

The day before Barter transferred 80,000 Australian dollars ($52,000) from her bank account, on October 15, 1997, the court heard Blum opened a safety deposit envelope, but the coroner found no evidence that he received the proceeds.

O’Sullivan found that Barter spent some months living in the community undetected, between August and October that year – and that during that time, Blum was in contact with her.

She said Blum’s claim that he last saw Barter when she retrieved the tea chests from his house with a man in uniform in June were “implausible.” And while she determined that Barter was dead, she said there was no evidence to suggest how, why or when she died.

The coroner explained that it wasn’t in her power to assign blame for Barter’s death. But she referred the matter to the NSW Police Commissioner for investigation as an unsolved homicide.

Despite submissions from Leydon’s legal team that Blum should be referred to the director of public prosecutions for alleged perjury and making false statements during the inquest, O’Sullivan said that was best left to police as part of the investigation.

The coroner was scathing in her assessment of the initial police response, which she said was “inadequate” and led to the loss of information that could have determined far earlier what happened to Barter. She also praised Leydon’s “unwavering commitment” to finding her mother.

No remains have yet been located, but Leydon’s DNA has been added to the New South Wales and national DNA registries, the coroner said.

“This means that the DNA profile of Sally [Leydon] will remain on the NSW and National DNA databases and will be searched against all unidentified deceased profiles every day,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan concluded by reading Leydon’s own words about her mother, Marion Barter, read from her submission.

“[She was] a kind, caring soul with a wicked laugh. She was intelligent, she was cultured, and she had so many friends who loved and miss her still. She would always bring you flowers or a cake. She was a very generous human.”

Blum’s believed to be living freely in northern New South Wales and has not faced any charges relating to Barter or any of the other women who gave evidence against him.

“He and his family request that all media respect their privacy,” White said.

A mother and baby were among the seven people killed in an overnight Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Odesa, officials said, the latest civilian victims of a relentless Russian bombing campaign.

A two-year-old boy, who officials said was named Timofii, was discovered under rubble on a ground floor after the strike, Odesa City Municipality said on Telegram. He was killed the day before his third birthday, Oleh Kiper, the head of Odesa region military administration, said in a TV interview.

Earlier in the day, Oleh Kiper, the head of Odesa region military administration said that authorities were looking for up to 12 people, four of whom are children.

The attack left the front facade of an apartment block in ruins.

Andriy Kostin, Prosecutor General of Ukraine noted that there is no military facility nearby, calling the attack a deliberate targeting of civilians.

Sunday has been declared a day of mourning in Odesa, according to the city’s administration.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed the need to further strengthen the country’s air defense capacities.

“One of the enemy drones hit a residential building in Odesa. 18 apartments have been destroyed,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.

“More air defense systems, more missiles for air defense is what saves lives,” he said.

Ukraine has been asking its western allies for more military aid as Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its third year.

Republican leadership in the House has so far been refusing to hold a vote on providing more funding.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A stunning total solar eclipse will be visible to millions of people across Mexico, the United States and Canada on April 8.

Astronomers are encouraging everyone within the path to enjoy this rare sight for the last time until August 2044 — but only if they can do so safely. And sunglasses won’t be enough to protect your eyes for this celestial event.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun’s face.

Those within the path of totality, or locations where the moon’s shadow will completely cover the sun, will see a total solar eclipse. People outside the path of totality will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse, where the moon only blocks part of the sun’s face.

If your location only affords a view of the partial solar eclipse, some of the sun’s powerful light will always be visible. And any glimpse of the sun’s brightness with the naked eye is not only uncomfortable, it’s dangerous.

Why you shouldn’t look directly at the eclipse

The only time it’s safe to view the sun without eye protection is during the “totality” of a total solar eclipse, or the brief moments when the moon completely blocks the light of the sun, according to NASA.

Directly staring at the sun can result in blindness or disrupted vision. During the 2017 total solar eclipse, a young woman was diagnosed with solar retinopathy, retinal damage from exposure to solar radiation, in both eyes after viewing the eclipse with what doctors believed were eclipse glasses not held to the safety standard.

There is no treatment for solar retinopathy. It can improve or worsen, but it is a permanent condition.

Using eclipse glasses and solar viewers

To view the eclipse, wear certified eclipse glasses or use a handheld solar viewer. Separately, you can observe the sun with a telescope, binoculars or camera that has a special solar filter on the front, which acts the same way eclipse glasses would.

“You need certified ISO 12312-2 compliant solar eclipse glasses. There are plenty of safe sellers online,” said Alex Lockwood, strategic content and integration lead for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. “We cannot stress enough how important it is to obtain a pair of safe certified solar eclipse glasses in order to witness this annular event.”

Sunglasses won’t work in place of eclipse glasses or solar viewers, which are 100,000 times darker and held to an international safety standard.

The lenses of solar eclipse glasses are made of black polymer, or resin infused with carbon particles, that blocks nearly all visible, infrared and ultraviolet light, according to The Planetary Society. Sunglasses don’t block infrared radiation.

For safe manufacturers and resellers of eclipse glasses and filters for optical devices, including cameras and smartphones, check out the list curated by the American Astronomical Society.

Put on your eclipse glasses before looking up and remember to turn away from the sun before you remove them again. Always keep an eye on any children wearing eclipse glasses to make sure they don’t remove them while looking at the sun.

If you normally wear eyeglasses, keep them on and put eclipse glasses over them or hold a handheld viewer in front of them, according to the American Astronomical Society.

Don’t look at the sun through any unfiltered optical device — camera lens, telescope, binoculars — while wearing eclipse glasses or using a handheld solar viewer, according to NASA. Solar rays can still burn through the filter on the glasses or viewer, given how concentrated they can be through an optical device, and can cause severe eye damage.

It’s also possible to use welding filters to view the eclipse safely because the international safety standard was partially derived from using such filters to view the sun.

Welding filters made of tempered glass or metal-coated polycarbonate and with a shade number of 12 or higher allow for safe viewing, but many find shade 13 or 14 to be the best and similar to wearing eclipse glasses, according to the American Astronomical Society. Just know that the sun will appear green instead yellowish-orange or white. These filters aren’t usually on the shelf at supply stores, but they might be available online.

Auto-darkening or adjustable welding helmets aren’t recommended because they may not darken quickly enough to view the sun.

Keep your glasses

As long as the eclipse glasses or solar viewers you’re using comply with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard and aren’t torn, scratched or damaged in any way, they don’t “expire” and can be used indefinitely. Also, there is no limit on how long you can view the sun while wearing them.

Some glasses and viewers carry outdated warnings about using the glasses for more than three minutes at a time or recommend throwing them away after more than three years, but these do not apply to ISO 12312-2-certified viewers, according to the American Astronomical Society.

Save your eclipse glasses and viewers for future eclipses by storing them at room temperature in an envelope or their original packaging to avoid scratches.

Never use water, glass cleaner, baby wipes or other wet wipes to clean eclipse glasses — the moisture could cause the cardboard frames to detach from the lenses. Instead, carefully wipe the lenses clean with a tissue or cloth.

Indirect viewing of the eclipse

If you don’t have certified glasses on hand, eclipses can also be viewed indirectly using a pinhole projector, such as a hole punched through an index card. These work when you stand with your back to the sun and hold up the card. The pinhole projects an image of the crescent or ring-shaped sun on the ground or other surfaces.

But never face the sun and look directly at it through the pinhole.

Other pinhole projectors you may already have on hand include colanders, straw hats or anything with small holes in it. Or you can simply hold up your hands, space out your fingers and cross them over each other to create a waffle pattern. The small space between will reflect the sun’s crescent during a partial eclipse or a ring during the annular eclipse.

Standing by a leafy tree? The small spaces between leaves will dapple patterns of the eclipse phase on the ground.

For 108 days, Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza risked his life in Gaza to tell the story of the war to millions of followers on Instagram, as friends and family members were killed around him. But he has now left his native Gaza, feeling dismayed.

He has been hailed by many around the world as the eyes and ears of Gaza for capturing a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the horrors of the war. That attention was unintended and unexpected. Azaiza was an aspiring travel photographer. His first Instagram post in May 2014 was a simple photo of natural wonder; vibrant petals of fuchsia and crimson, exploding out from an orange center. Known by some as a Treasure Flower, botanists identify the plant by its correct genus, Gazania. From the very beginning, it seemed as though he wanted to share his vision of a beautiful world.

“I want to capture the beauty of Gaza, not the war on Gaza. But I don’t have the option,” he said. “When something happens… I have to take pictures, I have to document, but when I come to post them, I feel ‘oh, you’re destroying the beauty.’”

Before October 7, Azaiza had about 25,000 Instagram followers, according to the social media analytics firm Social Blade. His dedicated audience has now grown to more than 19 million, and some of his clips have been viewed more than 70 million times. Clips where, unlike traditional media organizations, the horrors of war are laid graphically bare.

From morning until night, his Instagram stories unfolded as a relentless stream of devastation and suffering; powerless as he was to prevent it, and unable to escape it.

Several times a day, Azaiza found himself witnessing the frantic attempts by men to dig bloodied survivors out of the wreckage with their bare hands. Often, they were too late, and with the camera still rolling, Azaiza had been seen to reach down to caress their lifeless limbs.

Some of his most visceral footage features children who’ve been killed or injured, and on several occasions he’s tried to provide comfort as he rode with them in ambulances. They’ve perched awkwardly in his lap, bloodied and frightened, and he’s been lost for words. On another occasion, it seemed to be too late. As he held a limp and lifeless infant with serious head wounds, fighting back tears, all Azaiza could say softly was, “God. God.”

Azaiza now lives in the Qatari capital Doha. When he finally made it out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, he had no idea what his final destination would be.

There, two men from the Qatari foreign ministry approached him. “’Motaz, you’re welcome to Doha… you can come to our country and continue from there,’” he recalled. He boarded a Qatari military flight at Egypt’s El Arish Airport and began planning his next steps.

Coping with depression

There was always more light than darkness to be found on Azaiza’s social media accounts before the latest war in Gaza began, but he never flinched from portraying the fragility of life in the strip over the years. He captured Israeli airstrikes with regularity, and said his camera always served as a means to cope with hardship and depression.

But given the magnitude of destruction and death, his camera couldn’t shield him from physically being there this time. He has avoided coming to terms with what he witnessed.

“It’s better for me not to process, because if I process what I experienced or what I’ve been through, believe me I will not feel OK… I’m a man looking for a solution now. We need to stop this,” he said.

Clearly frustrated that what he shared with the world didn’t help stem the waves of destruction in Gaza, Azaiza said he’s determined to “make more noise from outside.”

He’s been invited to speak at various universities around the world and is hoping to do a tour when he can obtain visas, which can be difficult for those with a Palestinian passport.

Even though he’s become a recognizable face, Azaiza wants to keep the attention focused on the suffering of those he left behind.

“How will you tell them when they grow up, that they lost their parents in Gaza because an Israeli airplane threw a bomb on their house and all their flesh shattered around them? You expect them to be normal humans after all (that) we went through?”

For 108 days, Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza risked his life in Gaza to tell the story of the war to millions of followers on Instagram, as friends and family members were killed around him. But he has now left his native Gaza, feeling dismayed.

He has been hailed by many around the world as the eyes and ears of Gaza for capturing a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the horrors of the war. That attention was unintended and unexpected. Azaiza was an aspiring travel photographer. His first Instagram post in May 2014 was a simple photo of natural wonder; vibrant petals of fuchsia and crimson, exploding out from an orange center. Known by some as a Treasure Flower, botanists identify the plant by its correct genus, Gazania. From the very beginning, it seemed as though he wanted to share his vision of a beautiful world.

“I want to capture the beauty of Gaza, not the war on Gaza. But I don’t have the option,” he said. “When something happens… I have to take pictures, I have to document, but when I come to post them, I feel ‘oh, you’re destroying the beauty.’”

Before October 7, Azaiza had about 25,000 Instagram followers, according to the social media analytics firm Social Blade. His dedicated audience has now grown to more than 19 million, and some of his clips have been viewed more than 70 million times. Clips where, unlike traditional media organizations, the horrors of war are laid graphically bare.

From morning until night, his Instagram stories unfolded as a relentless stream of devastation and suffering; powerless as he was to prevent it, and unable to escape it.

Several times a day, Azaiza found himself witnessing the frantic attempts by men to dig bloodied survivors out of the wreckage with their bare hands. Often, they were too late, and with the camera still rolling, Azaiza had been seen to reach down to caress their lifeless limbs.

Some of his most visceral footage features children who’ve been killed or injured, and on several occasions he’s tried to provide comfort as he rode with them in ambulances. They’ve perched awkwardly in his lap, bloodied and frightened, and he’s been lost for words. On another occasion, it seemed to be too late. As he held a limp and lifeless infant with serious head wounds, fighting back tears, all Azaiza could say softly was, “God. God.”

Azaiza now lives in the Qatari capital Doha. When he finally made it out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, he had no idea what his final destination would be.

There, two men from the Qatari foreign ministry approached him. “’Motaz, you’re welcome to Doha… you can come to our country and continue from there,’” he recalled. He boarded a Qatari military flight at Egypt’s El Arish Airport and began planning his next steps.

Coping with depression

There was always more light than darkness to be found on Azaiza’s social media accounts before the latest war in Gaza began, but he never flinched from portraying the fragility of life in the strip over the years. He captured Israeli airstrikes with regularity, and said his camera always served as a means to cope with hardship and depression.

But given the magnitude of destruction and death, his camera couldn’t shield him from physically being there this time. He has avoided coming to terms with what he witnessed.

“It’s better for me not to process, because if I process what I experienced or what I’ve been through, believe me I will not feel OK… I’m a man looking for a solution now. We need to stop this,” he said.

Clearly frustrated that what he shared with the world didn’t help stem the waves of destruction in Gaza, Azaiza said he’s determined to “make more noise from outside.”

He’s been invited to speak at various universities around the world and is hoping to do a tour when he can obtain visas, which can be difficult for those with a Palestinian passport.

Even though he’s become a recognizable face, Azaiza wants to keep the attention focused on the suffering of those he left behind.

“How will you tell them when they grow up, that they lost their parents in Gaza because an Israeli airplane threw a bomb on their house and all their flesh shattered around them? You expect them to be normal humans after all (that) we went through?”

A pair of orcas working in concert have been killing great whites along a stretch of South African coastline since at least 2017, plundering the sharks’ nutrient-rich livers and discarding the rest.

Scientists have been trying to make sense of the hunting approach, which has driven the sharks away from some parts of the coast around Cape Town, and now research has revealed a startling new twist in the behavior that could offer clues on what it might mean for the wider marine ecosystem.

Scientists witnessed one of the hunters, a male orca known as Starboard, single-handedly kill a 2.5-meter (8.2-foot) juvenile white shark within a two-minute time frame last year.

“Over two decades of annual visits to South Africa, I’ve observed the profound impact these killer whales have on the local white shark population. Seeing Starboard carry a white shark’s liver past our vessel is unforgettable,” said Dr. Primo Micarelli, a marine biologist at Italy’s Sharks Studies Centre and the University of Siena who was aboard one of two vessels from which researchers observed the attack.

“Despite my awe for these predators, I’m increasingly concerned about the coastal marine ecology balance,” Micarelli said in a statement.

It’s not unprecedented for orcas, highly intelligent and social animals, to hunt large animals individually. However, it’s the first such occurrence involving what is one of the world’s largest predators — the great white shark — the researchers reported in a study published Friday in the African Journal of Marine Science.

Starboard’s kill is at odds with more widely observed cooperative hunting behavior among orcas, which can surround large prey, such as sea lions, seals and sharks, and use their combined intelligence and strength to attack, said lead author Alison Towner, a doctoral researcher at Rhodes University.

Previously observed attacks on great whites involved between two and six orcas and took up to two hours, according to the study.

“This sighting revealed evidence of solitary hunting by at least one killer whale, challenging conventional cooperative hunting behaviors known in the region,” said Towner, who has studied great white sharks for 17 years, learning about their movement patterns through tagging data, in a statement.

“These are groundbreaking insights into the predatory behavior of this species,” she said. “The presence of these shark-hunting killer whales possibly ties into broader ecosystem dynamics. Rapid developments in this phenomenon, make it challenging for science to keep pace.”

Port and Starboard

The event detailed in the study took place on June 18, 2023, 800 meters (875 yards) offshore close to Seal Island near Mossel Bay — about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town — where people on two vessels were observing the orcas.

Less than an hour after arriving, a shark appeared near the surface, and researchers, tourists and others on board witnessed Starboard grip the left pectoral fin of a shark and “thrust forward with the shark several times before eventually eviscerating it” in less than two minutes, the study said.

Later Starboard was photographed from one of the vessels with a “bloody piece of peach-colored liver in its mouth,” according to the study. Starboard’s male companion, Port, was observed around 100 meters (328 feet) away while the kill took place and didn’t get involved.

The duo is well-known among the study’s authors and has been involved in hunting and killing great white sharks for many years. The orcas’ dorsal fins are bent in opposite directions — the inspiration for their names.

The two travel huge distances along South Africa’s eastern coastline up as far as Namibia. Researchers suspect they first started targeting great whites in 2015. It wasn’t until 2022 that aerial footage first captured the orcas killing a great white shark, Towner said.

“While we don’t have solid evidence on the specific drivers, the arrival of the killer whale pair could be linked to broader changes in the ecosystem,” Towner said. “It’s clear that human activities, such as climate change and industrial fishing, are stressing our oceans. To fully grasp these dynamics, additional research and funding are essential.

“There are still plenty of unanswered questions about these shark-hunting killer whales and where they came from.”

The killer orcas are scaring off great white shark populations, but researchers don’t know where the sharks are relocating. “As they relocate, they might end up overlapping with heavy commercial fisheries,” Towner added.

The distinct smell of shark liver in the air and gulls diving toward a slick on the water’s surface, as well as a second shark carcass measuring 3.55 meters (11.6 feet) discovered nearby, led onlookers to believe another great white might have been killed before the boats’ arrival that day, the researchers said.

The kill by a lone orca might have been made possible by the prey’s smaller size as a juvenile great white, according to the study. Adult great whites have a maximum length of 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) and mass of 2.5 tons.

The swiftness of the attack may reflect Starboard’s skill and efficiency as a predator, which could be a response to the stress of spending time hunting close to shorelines in areas where humans are abundant, the study suggested.

“We cannot speculate that this killer whale has become more sophisticated but the rapid time frame he killed the shark in does show incredible skill and proficiency,” Towner said via email.

The livers of great whites are huge organs, about a third of their body mass, and rich in lipids, and the orcas discard the rest of the carcass — selective feeding behavior that’s known among other carnivores, such as harbor seals, brown bears and wolves, according to the study.

“The observations reported here add more layers to the fascinating story of these two killer whales and their capabilities,” Dr. Simon Elwen, founding director and principal scientist at Sea Search Research & Conservation and a researcher at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said in a statement.

“As smart, top predators, killer whales can rapidly learn new hunting techniques on their own or from others, so monitoring and understanding the behaviors used here and by other killer whales in South Africa is an important part of helping us understand more about these animals,” added Elwen, who wasn’t involved in the research.

The alleged murder of a young Sydney couple by a serving police officer has opened a tragic new chapter in the troubled history between the force and the city’s LGBT+ community and cast a shadow over Mardi Gras, a vibrant annual celebration of their culture.

Senior New South Wales Police Constable Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, 28, was charged last week with the murders of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, whose bodies were found on a rural property a week later hidden in surf bags.

Police will allege that Lamarre-Condon used his police-issue pistol to kill the two men at Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney’s east on February 19, before hiring a van to move their bodies and keeping the location secret from detectives for days after his arrest.

The alleged killings shocked Sydney’s LGBT+ community, and on Friday night its members held a vigil for Baird and Davies, who had been expected to join revelers at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the annual parade that serves as a celebration of their identity and a protest against homophobia and victimization.

Nearby, protesters vented their anger with police assigned to control crowds on the eve of the parade, according to video posted to social media.

Police say Lamarre-Condon had a past relationship with Baird, a popular television presenter. Questions are being asked about how the constable passed police recruitment screening, and the procedures that apparently allowed him to check out a police gun and return it after the alleged murders.

The community was also taken aback by comments made by NSW Police Commissioner Kate Webb, who initially called the case a “crime of passion,” for which she apologized.

She was also accused of flippancy when she invoked Taylor Swift in response to criticism about the police response – “Haters gonna hate. Isn’t that what Taylor says?” Webb said, again later apologizing.

Amid strained relations in the days leading to Mardi Gras, many objected to any involvement by NSW police in the event – and the Mardi Gras organizers initially withdrew their invitation for officers to march.

“Our community needs space to grieve the loss of Jesse and Luke who, before this tragedy, would have been here celebrating with us at the festival,” the Mardi Gras board said in a statement.

Adding to that distress was a photo circulated widely of the alleged killer marching in police uniform at the 2020 Mardi Gras.

After days of negotiation, Webb announced police officers would be able to march, but not in uniform.

“I am delighted that our LGBTQIA+ officers, as well as our other police who are allies and supporters, will be allowed to march this year as they have done for the past 20 years,” she said. “I am committed to continuing to strengthen the relationship between my organization and the LGBTQIA+ community.”

But activists say Webb and her force have taken little action to right historic wrongs, and that their participation in the march is performative.

Violent beginnings

For the past two decades, LGBT+ officers and their allies have marched in the Mardi Gras – an image of detente that event organizers say has “developed a constructive relationship that has helped us progress towards a more reconciled future between NSW Police and the LGBTQIA+ community.”

It’s been considered part of the healing process after an era of rampant homophobia and discrimination that created deep mistrust between the gay community and police officers.

Sydney’s Mardi Gras was born of a brutal crackdown on LGBT+ activists by police six years before gay male sexual behavior was decriminalized in NSW in 1984.

That night marchers were “trapped by police and viciously beaten and 53 people were arrested,” says Robert French, who is known as a ‘78er – the honorific held by those involved in the first Mardi Gras in 1978 and the protest movement it immediately spurred.

“So there has always been this fraught relationship,” French said. “I balk when I see police at the parade, but then I laugh and think, well, given that they started it I suppose they have a right to be here.”

In 2016, then NSW Police Superintendent Tony Crandell apologized to the ‘78ers on behalf of the force, stating: “Our relationship these days is healthy, positive and progressive, but that wasn’t the case back then.”

History of ‘gay hate’

In December the NSW state government received the report of its “Special Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes,” a task force with powers to investigate unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of 32 people between 1970 and 2010.

Police attitudes toward the LGBT+ community formed a cornerstone of the investigation, which found the force had failed to properly investigate gay hate crimes over the 40-year period.

The police had acted with negligence and hostility toward victims and their families, commissioner of the inquiry Justice John Sackar found.

Last Sunday, police commissioner Webb made another apology on behalf of the force, for “not adequately and fairly investigating those deaths between 1970 and 2010.”

“The mistakes of the past will not define our future,” Webb said.

But despite the apology, police have not yet formally accepted any of the 15 recommendations Sackar made at the closure of the inquiry in December.

Recommendations to police included reinvestigating some of the suspected hate crimes murders, but also for officers to take courses in LGBT+ bias and to improve relations with the LGBT+ community.

For ‘78er French, action on those issues is the only path to reconciliation between police and his community.

“They always want control, they do not open to criticism, they do not like criticism, and they are not prepared to put themselves in a situation, as they have been forced to with the inquiry, to answer critics within the [LGBT+] community,” French said.

A massive fire raced through a six-storey building in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka late on Thursday, killing at least 43 people and injuring dozens, the country’s health minister said.

The fire originated in a restaurant and quickly spread to other floors, fire service officials said.

At least 43 people have died and 22 others are being treated at hospitals with burn wounds, Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen told reporters after visiting the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

All 22 people admitted with severe burns are in critical condition, Sen added.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze, which was under control after two hours of frantic efforts by 13 firefighting units, the fire service officials said.

Survivor Mohammad Altaf, speaking to reporters, recounted narrowly escaping the blaze through a broken window. Two of his coworkers perished, he said.

“When the fire started in the front and broke the glass, our cashier and servicemen made got everyone out. But both of them died later. I went to the kitchen, broke a window and jumped to save myself,” Altaf said.

Firefighters used a crane to rescue people from the charred building, the fire service officials said.

Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence Director, Brigadier General Main Uddin, said the fire could have originated from a gas leak or stove.

“It was a dangerous building with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the staircases,” he told reporters.

Intense scrutiny of Bangladesh and the major international clothing retailers that manufacture in the country has helped prevent further disasters in the garment sector since a fire in 2012 and a building collapse in 2013 together killed more than 1,200 workers.

But in other industries, mainly catering to Bangladesh’s booming domestic economy and without an equal emphasis on safety, hundreds have died in fires in recent years.

Fires are common in densely populated Dhaka, which has experienced a boom in new buildings, often constructed without proper safety measures. Fires and explosions have occurred due to faulty gas cylinders, air conditioners and bad electrical wiring.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has died at age 84, according to Canadian media reports citing his daughter’s social media post.

Mulroney died peacefully, surrounded by family, Caroline Mulroney said in a post on X.

“On behalf of my mother and our family, it is with great sadness we announce the passing of my father, The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Canada’s 18th Prime Minister,” Caroline Mulroney said in the post.

“We will share details of arrangements when they become available,” Mulroney said in another post.

Mulroney served as Canada’s prime minister from 1984 through 1993 – a tenure that notably included the signing of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement with former US President Ronald Reagan in the late ’80s. The agreement was superseded by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is devastated to learn of Mulroney’s death.

“Brian Mulroney loved Canada,” Trudeau said in a post on X. “I’m devastated to learn of his passing. He never stopped working for Canadians, and he always sought to make this country an even better place to call home.”

“I’ll never forget the insights he shared with me over the years – he was generous, tireless, and incredibly passionate. As we mourn his passing and keep his family and friends in our thoughts, let us also acknowledge – and celebrate – Mr. Mulroney’s role in building the modern, dynamic, and prosperous country we all know today,” Trudeau added.

In a statement released through his office, Trudeau remembered Mulroney’s work on environmental and humanitarian issues.

“He was at the forefront of environmental issues, helping secure an air quality agreement with the United States to reduce acid rain, championing the first Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and creating several new national parks. And he exemplified Canadian values, standing up against apartheid in South Africa,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

After leaving office, Mulroney served on corporate boards and was chair of Quebecor Inc. and Forbes Global Business and Finance. He was also a senior partner at Montréal-based international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada, according to the prime minister’s office.

“A globally respected and recognized leader, Mr. Mulroney was also awarded some of the highest recognitions from governments around the world,” the prime minister’s statement said.

Among Mulroney’s awards and honors were the Order of Canada, the Ordre national du Québec and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, the statement added.