A giant prehistoric snake longer than a school bus slithered around what is now India 47 million years ago, according to new research.

The extinct snake may have been one of the largest to have ever lived, dwarfing present-day anacondas and pythons that can grow to about 6 meters (20 feet). The colossal creature’s scientific name is Vasuki indicus, after the mythical serpent around the neck of Hindu deity Lord Shiva and the country of its discovery.

The snake was likely a slow-moving, ambush predator that subdued its prey by constriction or squeezing them to death, according to the study, which appeared Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Analysis of giant vertebrae fossils

The report’s two authors, based at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in the state of Uttarakhand, analyzed 27 fossilized vertebrae — some still connected to one another — that were uncovered in 2005 at a coal mine in western India’s Gujarat state.

Initially, the team thought the bones belonged to an ancient crocodile-like creature. It wasn’t until the researchers removed sediment from the fossils during the study’s initial stage in 2023 that they realized they “were looking at the remains of an exceptionally large snake,” the authors said.

The vertebrae appeared to belong to a fully grown animal, the study said.

“There are a number of possible reasons for its large size which range from favourable environment with ample food resources to lack of natural predators,” coauthors Debajit Datta, a postdoctoral fellow, and Sunil Bajpai, a professor of paleontology, said in a joint email.

“Another driving force could be the prevalence of warmer climatic conditions than at present,” they said.

Based on the size of the preserved vertebrae, the researchers estimated that the snake would have been 10.9 meters (36 feet) to 15.2 meters (50 feet) in length, based on two different calculation methods, with a broad and cylindrical body.

Debajit and Bajpai said they believe it lived on land rather than water, like an anaconda, but it was unlikely to have hung out in trees due to its size.

The authors said that the body length estimates “should be treated with caution” because they didn’t have a complete skeleton. However, the snake would have rivaled the largest known snake species — the extinct Titanoboa — in size.

Identified from fossils in Colombia, Titanoboa would have weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) from nose to tail tip.

Snake size and the role of climate

Snakes are cold-blooded and need heat from the environment to survive. Their size, therefore, depends on how warm the climate is.

“Their internal body temperature fluctuates with the ambient temperature of the environment,” the authors said. “So, higher ambient temperatures would have increased the internal body temperature and metabolic rate of Vasuki which in turn would have allowed it to grow so large.”

The team was able to infer, based on information on the size and metabolism of living snakes and current temperatures, that Vasuki lived in a warm, tropical climate, with a mean annual temperature of 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).

Datta and Bajpai said the snake lived in a coastal marsh and swamp.

“We cannot say precisely what sort of animals Vasuki ate,” they said. “Associated fossils collected from the rocks that yielded Vasuki include ray fish, bony fish (catfish), turtles, crocodilians and even primitive whales. Vasuki may have preyed upon some of these.”

The potential change of plans comes as the administration faces fierce political headwinds, a conservative Supreme Court majority that has shown aggressive interest in curtailing the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority and questions over how fast electric utilities can pivot to the most innovative climate solutions.

The EPA is considering eliminating a proposal for new natural gas plants to use hydrogen alongside natural gas to make electricity, the sources said. The expected changes mean both existing coal and new gas plants would primarily rely on carbon capture and storage to cut their climate pollution, rather than hydrogen fuels. Hydrogen, while in its infancy, is seen by scientists as the future of clean fuel.

The power plant rules are still under review and no final decisions on them have been made.

EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll declined to comment, saying, “The draft final rule is currently with the Office of Management and Budget under interagency review.” A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The EPA power plant rules are one of the most important and highly anticipated planks of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.

The potential change comes amid questions on how quickly the industry could scale up clean hydrogen, a relatively nascent technology derived both from fossil fuels such as natural gas, as well as cleaner hydrogen – which uses clean electricity to split water.

Utilities have proposed building more natural gas plants to keep electricity flowing onto a grid with increased demands from the growing number of electric vehicles and AI and data centers. Clean energy and climate groups have argued in favor of cleaner and cheaper sources of energy such as wind, solar and battery storage.

The possible move away from hydrogen could make it easier for the EPA to defend against potential court challenges to the plan.

The conservative Supreme Court and its 2022 ruling on West Virginia v. EPA has loomed large over how the agency has crafted its rules. The Supreme Court ruling significantly curtailed the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon pollution at power plants by having utilities outfit their power plants with carbon capture, rather than requiring a shift from coal or natural gas-fired power to cheaper and cleaner sources like wind and solar.

One of the thorny issues facing the EPA was how using hydrogen at natural gas plants would fall in the Supreme Court’s narrow definition. And some environmental groups were concerned it would be tough for the federal government to ensure the hydrogen was clean, not more polluting.

The EPA is also considering pushing back its initial timeline requiring existing coal-fired power plants to cut or capture 90% of their planet-warming pollution using carbon capture and storage by two years to 2032, the sources said.

The EPA announced in February it would delay the rule-making process for carbon emissions from existing gas plants, which had initially been covered under the agency’s proposal last year.

O’Boyle said that, judging from the comments and wide disagreement from industry and environmental groups, it is very likely that EPA will face a lawsuit.

“One thing we can all count on is that the EPA will be sued by an aggrieved party under this rule, no matter what,” O’Boyle said. “There will be lawsuits.”

Vickie Patton, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, told reporters on a Thursday call she believes the EPA’s final rule will be on “strong” legal footing.

“They’ve really followed the law, and they have also a very rigorous record,” Patton said.

Kenya’s military chief, Francis Ogolla, died in a helicopter crash in the western part of the country on Thursday, President William Ruto announced in a televised address.

The helicopter crashed shortly after take-off on Thursday afternoon local time, killing Ogolla and nine other members of the military, Ruto said. Two people survived the crash, he added.

“I am deeply saddened to announce the passing on of General Francis Omondi Ogolla, the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces,” he said.

A team of investigators has been dispatched to the site of the crash in Elgeyo Marakwet County to determine the cause of the accident, Ruto said.

Ogolla departed Nairobi on Thursday to visit troops in the North Rift region of the country and to inspect ongoing school renovations, the president said.

Following the crash, Ruto convened an urgent meeting of the country’s National Security Council in Nairobi, according to presidential spokesperson Hussein Mohamed.

“For me, as the Commander in Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, it is a tragic moment for the Kenya Defence Forces fraternity and it is a most unfortunate day for the nation at large,” Ruto said.

“Our motherland has lost one of her most valiant generals. We have also lost gallant officers, servicemen, and women,” he added.

Kenya will observe three days of mourning beginning on Friday, Ruto said.

According to state broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), Ogolla is the first Kenyan military chief to die in active service. The general joined the Kenya Defence Forces in 1984, becoming 2nd Lieutenant in 1985 before being posted to the Kenya Air Force, according to the Ministry of Defence website.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

A far-right German politician has gone on trial accused of using banned Nazi slogans at two rallies dating back to 2021.

Björn Höcke, leader of the regional branch of Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in the eastern state of Thuringia, is accused of ending a May 2021 election event in Merseburg by shouting the Socialist Nationalist slogan, “Everything for our homeland, everything for Saxony-Anhalt, everything for Germany,” according to the regional court of Halle.

Prosecutors allege that although he was aware the slogan is banned in Germany, and despite already facing criminal charges related to the first instance, Höcke went on to use it a second time at an AfD event in December 2023. In that incident he allegedly shouted to the crowd: “Everything for” and incited the audience to reply “Germany.”

Prosecutors also claim Höcke was aware of the phrase’s origins as the slogan for the Nazi paramilitary wing.

Höcke, a former history teacher, intends to run as the lead candidate for the AfD in the upcoming state elections in Thuringia in September.

Ahead of his trial he criticized Germany for “persecuting political opponents and suppressing free speech.” On social media platform X, Höcke said he was being charged for “the crime of using an alleged quote in which I expressed my patriotism ‘incorrectly.’” Höcke’s post was amplified by Elon Musk, the owner of X, who replied: “What did you say?”

Hans-Christoph Berndt, the head of the AfD in the Brandenburg region, has been branded a right-wing extremist by German intelligence services, which have the party under surveillance.

Who are the 100 most influential people in the world? Every year, TIME Magazine has an answer.

TIME released its list of the 100 Most Influential People for 2024 on Wednesday. The annual list, which asks cultural and political icons to highlight the changemakers of the past year, features dozens of athletes, entertainers, artists and politicians.

Some names are not surprising. Former baseball star Alex Rodriguez wrote about quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Comedian Amy Poehler wrote about Maya Rudolph. Transgender activist Raquel Willis wrote about actor Elliot Page. Beninese music legend Angélique Kidjo wrote about Nigerian artist Burna Boy, who in turn wrote about rapper 21 Savage. Dua Lipa, Taraji P. Henson, and Coleman Domingo also all have a spot on the list.

But some names might be less familiar. Here’s a look at some of the people you may not know.

Shawn Fain, UAW President

During last fall’s auto workers strike, Shawn Fain, who had been sworn in as president of the United Auto Workers union less than six months prior, told his fellow auto workers something that stuck with President Joe Biden for months.

“In this union, the members are the highest authority,” Fain said, according to Biden. “In this country, the people are the highest authority.”

Fain, and all the work he did in winning historic wage increases for the UAW, represent the “hard-won success” that unions had in 2023, Biden states.

With the UAW’s lead, change has been made throughout the auto-maker industry. After the UAW’s win, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai — non-union companies — also raised wages. But even with the strike over, the UAW and Fain are still fighting, aiming for a four-day, 32-hour workweek.

“They remind us that when unions win, all workers benefit,” Biden says.

Motaz Azaiza, Palestinian photgrapher

At just 25 years of age, Motaz Azaiza is the youngest person on this year’s TIME list. For four months, the Palestinian photographer was “the world’s eyes and ears in his native Gaza,” posting pictures and chronicling the war to millions of followers on Instagram, writes TIME staff writer Yasmeen Serhan.

“Families displaced from homes, women mourning loved ones, a man trapped beneath the rubble. His images offered a glimpse into Gaza that few in the international press—which has been all but barred from accessing the Strip—could rival,” Serhan writes.

Jenni Hermoso, Spanish soccer player

When Jenni Hermoso and the Spanish Women’s National Team won the FIFA World Cup last summer, the last thing the forward expected was a kiss from her boss.

And yet, that’s what happened. As the world watched, Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish soccer federation, grabbed Hermoso’s face and kissed her — sparking a worldwide conversation about sexual harassment and consent. Rubiales was banned by FIFA for three years, and in January, Hermoso testified in a sexual assault probe against the former president.

Writing for TIME, American soccer player Mana Shim praised Hermoso’s bravery.

“Hermoso courageously told her truth, over and over again, despite efforts to silence her,” Shim said.

Sakshi Malik, Indian wrestler

Sakshi Malik is India’s first and only female wrestler to win an Olympic medal — taking home the bronze at 2016’s Olympics in Rio. But late last year, she quit the sport.

Malik was part of an outspoken group demanding the arrest and resignation of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, an important member of parliament and former chief of India’s wrestling federation who had been accused of sexually harassing women athletes, explains Nisha Pahuja, a documentary filmmaker.

The women’s fight lasted throughout 2023, eliciting attention from around the world. Finally, Singh was charged by Delhi police with assault, stalking and sexual harassment, all of which he denied. Though he was removed as the chief of the wrestling foundation, Singh was replaced by his close ally and business partner late last year, only reigniting the controversy.

“Upcoming female wrestlers will also face exploitation,” Malik said, in a press conference in December, following the replacement announcement. “If (Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s) business partner and a close aide is elected as the new president, I quit wrestling.”

The moment was an “emotional, public, and very brave act of defiance,” writes Pahuja.

“She did not, however, quit the battle,” she wrote. “Her light, and the light of all those standing against harassment, continues to shine.”

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russia’s opposition leader

The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in February, Yulia Navalnaya has quickly picked up where her husband left off.

Just three days after his death, she posted an eight-minute long video to her husband’s social media, saying: “I don’t have the right to surrender. I ask you to share with me in rage.”

Navalny’s death sparked protests across Europe, particularly in capital cities such as Berlin and Paris, where gatherers stood outside Russian embassies with signs reading “Putin is a killer” and “Putin to the Hague.”

Through it all, Navalnaya has stood firm, calling her husband’s death a “murder” and acting as a unifying figure among Russian opposition forces.

Vice President Kamala Harris, writing for TIME, called Navalnaya “a courageous fighter” for “democratic values.”

“Navalnaya has vowed to continue her husband’s fight for justice and the rule of law, giving renewed hope to those working against corruption and for a free, democratic Russia,” Harris wrote. “And in so doing, she demonstrates exceptional selflessness and strength.”

After a disastrous year marked by high costs, accusations of environmental harm and project cancellations in 2023, there’s a sense the US offshore wind industry is on a rebound.

There are now two dozen turbines spinning off the East Coast – a number set to more than double by the end of the year. New projects are being announced, and perhaps most significantly, states are actually signing up to purchase the clean power generated by future ocean-based wind farms.

“There’s a lot of momentum in the industry right now,” said Sam Huntington, director of S&P Global Commodity Insights’ North American power team. “We’re past the nadir of the industry’s troubles.”

Offshore wind is on much more stable footing than it was last year, but some analysts aren’t ready to declare it a boom. The industry is still in its infancy in the US and plagued by many of the same problems as last year – high interest rates and long wait times for components like turbine blades, generators and towers.

And former President Donald Trump – a man with a long disdain for wind power – is seeking a return to the White House in 2025. Trump castigated wind as costing “a fortune” and the “most expensive energy” at a Wisconsin rally in April and called wind turbines “a bird cemetery” at a December event.

But offshore wind is increasingly Trump-proof, according to a top White House climate official, wind CEOs and an industry analyst. Too much progress has been made to be fully undone by a second Trump administration.

Still, White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi warned that for the industry to mature and be successful, it needs a friendly administration willing to push it along.

Falling short of ambitious goals

The Biden administration set an ambitious goal for offshore wind energy: to deploy 30 gigawatts by 2030.

Zaidi is “very confident” they will meet the target. But industry analysts aren’t so sure.

“We’re not bullish,” Huntington said. “Our latest forecast has them getting about half of that – 15 gigawatts. Unless a lot of projects get approved, and Europe gives us a whole bunch of installation vessels, I don’t see how we’re ramping up to that.”

The administration recently has approved enough projects to eventually get 10 gigawatts of power on the grid, enough to power nearly 4 million homes. And the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to hold up to four lease sales this year, including ones in the Gulf of Maine and off the coast of Oregon, which are likely contenders for the massive floating turbines industry experts say the world should be moving toward.

Still, it will take years for those approved projects to come online, a timeline Huntington and offshore wind CEOs say speaks to the continuing challenges US projects face. Permitting a single project can still take years because of the multiple federal, state and local hoops developers must jump through.

Ordering equipment is another challenge. The US supply chain for offshore wind is still being built; therefore, projects are turning to European manufacturers to get blades, gearboxes, and other components.

“There’s really only three suppliers that are serving the US market” for wind turbines and the high-capacity electric cables that carry electricity back to shore, said Clint Plummer, head of New York-based company Rise Light & Power, who was formerly at Danish wind giant Ørsted. “And their lead times seem to continue to get longer.”

Compounding the problem is the fact that the US industry is so underdeveloped compared to Europe and Asia, pushing US projects to the back of the line.

“Because the US is more nascent in the development of our industry than either of those two mega markets, it simply means that we have less influence than those other regions in being able to get the attention of the manufacturers,” Plummer said.

Friendly state and federal governments

Despite persistent headwinds, the biggest change over the past year has been that the Northeast is signing up for the electricity wind farms will generate.

There’s a simple explanation for that: New England and Northeast states want to make their own energy, according to Pedro Azagra Blázquez, the CEO of offshore wind company Avangrid, which is developing wind farms off the coasts of Massachusetts and New York.

New York has been aggressively pursuing offshore wind projects, rebidding previously canceled projects and accepting those projects at higher prices.

“The fact that that these projects that were in so much trouble were rebid and accepted at higher prices was a really positive sign for the industry,” Huntington said. But it will also mean electricity from wind will initially come at a higher cost, given supply-chain constraints and high interest rates.

Blázquez and Plummer give the Biden administration high marks for setting an ambitious goal for offshore wind and trying to ease federal permitting for the projects. But they’re also not overly worried about what a Trump administration could mean for the industry.

“Our obligation is to work well with any administration, because what is clear is these investments bring economic development, they bring jobs,” Blázquez said.

The last time Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel addressed his parishioners he was standing at the front of a church delivering an Assyrian bible reading that was dramatically cut short by the dark shadow of an alleged assailant armed with a knife.

From hospital on Thursday, after a traumatic week for the city of Sydney, the injured bishop uttered his first words to followers in an audio message posted to the Christ The Good Shepherd Church Facebook page – the same account that inadvertently live-streamed the attack three days earlier.

“The Lord Jesus never said go out and fight in the street; never said to retaliate, but to pray,” Emmanuel said, in an apparent reference to the riot that erupted outside the church in the city’s western suburbs as clips of the attack spread quickly online.

Monday night’s attack came just days after an unrelated knife massacre in a Sydney shopping mall that claimed the lives of six people and their attacker, who was shot dead by police.

Videos of both attacks circulated quickly online, leading to frenzied speculation about the identity of the assailants, their religion and motives – posing a challenge for Australian authorities.

The rapid spread of disinformation fomented an already volatile situation and days later authorities, faith groups and the bishop are still trying to calm community tension.

“In many instances, malicious information about damage to mosques and churches was being spread like wildfire and inflaming tensions in the community,” said New South Wales (NSW) State Premier Chris Minns on Thursday. “I’m still concerned about graphic, violent imagery being available on public domain websites, major websites, 48 hours after the incident had occurred.”

Attacker misidentified

On Tuesday, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner gave major social media companies Meta and X 24 hours to take down the violent videos.

In a statement Thursday, the commissioner’s office said Meta – which owns Facebook – had complied to its satisfaction, but work was still being done to see if “further regulatory action” needed to be taken against X, which could mean fines.

But regulators are finding it much harder to act against social media platforms for the disinformation that spread online after the attacks – especially after the mass stabbing in the eastern suburb of Bondi.

As police worked through the night on Saturday to gather evidence at the upmarket shopping center where the attack took place, posts that misidentified the attacker gathered pace online.

Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation researcher, detailed the chain of events in a thread on X, pointing to the posts that alternately identified the attacker as Jewish or Muslim – he was neither.

For several hours on Saturday night, a pro-Russia influencer helped spread “unconfirmed” reports of the attacker’s name that suggested he was Jewish. The rumors were picked up and amplified by Seven, a major Australian TV news network that is now reportedly being sued for defamation. Seven blamed the slip on “human error.”

Other posts suggested falsely Bondi was targeted because it has a large Jewish population.

Both incorrect theories collapsed when NSW Police identified the attacker as a 40-year-old man with mental health issues from the neighboring state of Queensland, who had reportedly stopped taking his medication.

“The narrative of ‘the attacker is either a Muslim or a Jew’ reflects the politicization of the Gaza war along pro-West versus pro-Russia lines, and does nothing more than aggravate polarization. But that’s the point I guess,” noted Jones, an associate professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

After the church attack, unconfirmed speculation also swirled about the faith of the alleged attacker and his motive.

As the suspect is a child, his identity won’t be publicly released under laws designed to protect youth offenders.

In his video – released to assure his supporters he’s “doing fine” – the bishop extended his forgiveness to the suspect, who’s being investigated under terror laws.

“Whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well,” he said.

System of self-regulation

But stamping out some of the hateful comments that spread online has not been so easy.

Right now, Australia has a voluntary code formed by the Digital Industry Group Inc. or DIGI, a non-profit industry association, that media platforms use to self-regulate disinformation and misinformation.

X has repeatedly breached the code and is no longer subject to it after being removed as a signatory.

Since coming under the ownership of Elon Musk, the platform formerly known as Twitter has dismantled some of the controls imposed to guard against disinformation and misinformation.

That’s put it on a collision course with regulators worldwide, and last year it was reprimanded by authorities in Australia for removing a function that would have allowed users to report suspect content during a national referendum.

Communications minister Michelle Rowland told ABC Radio Thursday the government was committed to pushing through stronger legislation this year on disinformation and misinformation.

That would include fines of 3 million Australian dollars ($1.9 million) for an offense, and ongoing fines, as well as a percentage of turnover.

“We know that the revenues of some of these online platforms exceed those of some nations. So, it needs to be a meaningful and substantial penalty system that’s put in place,” Rowland said.

Next week, Australian academics will launch what’s being called a “world-first” open-source platform to monitor regulations worldwide.

Terry Flew, professor of Digital Communication and Culture at the University of Sydney, said the International Digital Policy Observatory will allow countries to learn from the experience of others in a space where regulation is relatively new.

“It’s unfamiliar territory to most governments,” said Flew, who’s leading the team behind the project. “The capacity to have a resource that enables the relevant agencies in Australia to learn from what’s happening in the US or the UK or the European Union is important.”

He said it’s clear that a voluntary code isn’t enough.

“What has become apparent is that if a platform doesn’t want to comply with that code, there’s very little that can be done,” he said.

Late Thursday NSW Police issued a notice urging people not to share unsubstantiated information. “Misinformation continues to spread disharmony amongst the community,” the notice said.

In 1960, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, one young British woman would set out to change what we know about primates forever.

Jane Goodall defied conventional scientific methods by immersing herself in the jungle, which led to groundbreaking discoveries about chimpanzees; most notably that they use tools, are omnivores and that they are socially complex beings.

More than six decades later, her unorthodox field work – and her conservation efforts – are still celebrated around the world.

Today, the recently-turned 90-year-old’s work looks a little different – taking place mostly indoors, and with a different crowd. Through her program called “Roots & Shoots,” Goodall empowers young people to create change within their communities. And for her, this work is just as significant.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Goodall: I think it’s really important, this exchange of information from the elders to the youngers. I was really lucky; I had an amazing mother. I was born loving animals, and she supported that love of animals. I was one-and-a-half years old, and she came into my room and she found I’d taken a whole handful of wriggling earthworms into my bed. Most mothers would’ve [said], ‘Oh, throw these dirty things [away].’ She just said, ‘Jane, I think they might die without the Earth, you better take them into the garden.’ And so she nurtured this inherent love I had … in all the insects, the birds, the animals, everybody around me.

Goodall: When I began Roots & Shoots in Tanzania in 1991, it was because I was meeting young people then who had lost hope. Young people who felt we’d compromised their future. And the reason they’re losing hope, it’s obvious: climate change, loss of biodiversity. I could go on listing, listing, listing … but when they said there was nothing they could do about it, then I thought, ‘No, that’s not true.’

We worked out that Roots & Shoots’ main message [would be that] every individual has a role to play. And that we needed to think holistically in terms of helping the environment, people and animals, because we are all interrelated. That’s where it began.

Goodall: The goal that I have is helping young people understand that there is a window of time [to save the planet]. Unfortunately, today I [still] meet more and more people who are losing hope. So many people feel helpless and hopeless because [they question] what can they can do as an individual.

But what people have to understand is when it’s 2 million, 1 billion, 2 billion, 3 billion, all taking small actions to make the world a better place, that is changing the world. What matters is people understanding that as an individual, what they do makes a difference. Not because it’s just them, but because they are not alone.

Goodall: Yeah, I think that if we look around at what’s happening to the planet, we need to grab onto every single thing we can that will help us to move forward out of the disaster that we have created. And if we look at solar energy, if we look at wind energy and the power of tide energy, then these things are good.

The problem has been to get government support. So governments tend to put money into the fossil fuel industry, rather than to support the new emerging technologies that will enable us to live in a more harmonious way with the natural world. If we don’t do that, our future is doomed. And unfortunately, it’s not only our future, but so many of the other animals that so many of us love. We have to take action now.

Goodall: A message to the world would be, don’t forget that you as an individual make an impact on the environment every single day. And it’s up to you to choose what sort of impact you make. I think once everybody understands the role that they play, whoever they are, is so desperately important, then we move towards a better world.

As the skies over Amman and other Jordanian cities lit up with Jordan’s interception of Iranian drones and missiles headed for Israel last weekend, officials in the country were notably silent for hours.

Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel in retaliation for a suspected April 1 Israeli assault on its diplomatic building in Damascus has put the kingdom in an uneasy and dangerous position.

Jordan’s geography demonstrates its quandary. The small kingdom sits between Israel and the West Bank on one side, and Iran’s neighbor Iraq on the other, where pro-Iran militias reign supreme. To its north lies Syria, a failing state that is also in Iran’s orbit.

Last week’s attack was the first time in more than three decades that missiles directed at Israel entered Jordanian airspace, when Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at the Jewish state in 1991 during the Gulf War.

But much has changed since then. Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1994. In the eyes of Israel’s Western allies, it has been vital to regional security. It has close intelligence and security cooperation with Israel, hosts American troops and is reliant on United States military aid.

The Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty had always been unpopular at home, but it has come under increased stress of late. Emotions have been running high in Jordan over the war in Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed as Israel pummels the territory. More than half of Jordan’s population is either Palestinian or of Palestinian descent, and for months its leadership has been walking a tightrope trying to balance mounting public anger with its close alliance with the United States and relationship with Israel.

The only official announcement related to the events that night came hours before the attack from the country’s civil aviation agency, announcing the closure of the kingdom’s airspace for traffic.

The optics weren’t good.

It didn’t take long that night for social media to get flooded with posts criticizing Jordan and its leadership for the interceptions. The kingdom was portrayed as shielding Israel at a time when Palestinians were being bombed by Israel in Gaza. One meme shared by users apparently outside Jordan showed a manipulated image of Jordan’s King Abdullah in an Israeli military uniform.

Officials were likely scrambling behind the scenes to explain the events to their people.

On Sunday the government confirmed the interceptions “to protect citizens and residential areas.” Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh, speaking during a cabinet meeting, warned against the “spread of rumors or misleading news that could fuel anxiety and fear.”

But it did little to ease concerns among many in the kingdom that trouble may still be ahead.  After Tehran completed its attack against Israel, it turned its focus on Jordan.

“The military forces of our country are carefully monitoring the movements of Jordan during the punitive attack of the Zionist regime (Israel), and if they participate in a possible action, they will be the next target,” an unidentified source in the Islamic Republic’s armed forces told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Tough balancing act

US and Israeli officials sought to play up the role of Arab states in thwarting Iran’s attack. But Jordan pushed a different narrative.

“What we did was consistent with our long-standing policy and any projectiles, drones, whatever that enters our space” Safadi said. “We are in the range of fire and any missiles or projectile that could fall in Jordan would cause harm to Jordan. So, we did what we have to do. And let me be very clear: We will do the same regardless of where those drones are from. From Israel, from Iran, from anybody else. Our priority is to protect Jordan and to protect Jordanian citizens.”

And Jordan’s leadership seems intent on sending that message to its people. Fighter jets have been patroling its skies since Monday. The military says it has increased air sorties to prevent any violations of its airspace and to protect the country.

“Jordan will not be a battlefield for any party, and the protection of Jordanians comes above all else” King Abdullah told local leaders in a visit to the northern governorate of Mafraq on Tuesday.

The country’s message to the international community and its allies this week has been that the focus should return to Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians there. Ending the war in Gaza is the only way to deescalate regional tensions, is the message that King Abdullah gave to US President Joe Biden in a call on Sunday, according to the Jordanian Royal Court.

The Jordanian monarch has faced a tough balancing act since October as anger over the mounting death toll in Gaza has driven thousands to the streets.

Abdullah and his wife Queen Rania, who is of Palestinian descent, have been among the loudest and most critical voices of Israel and its devastating war in Gaza. The kingdom has also been at the forefront of the effort to deliver humanitarian aid into the enclave, turning its military airport into a hub for international airdrops and carrying out dozens of such missions.

But for many in Jordan that has not been enough. Protesters since October have urged the kingdom to do more, with pressure growing on it to cut ties with Israel and shut its embassy in Amman, the scene of many protests over the past six months.

It is no secret that Jordan’s relationship with Israel under Netanyahu’s leadership has been strained for years, but is now perhaps at its lowest in decades. Those frustrations were laid bare by Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, who ruled out breaking relations, but said the Jordan-Israel peace treaty is now “a document collecting dust.”

As Israel weighs how to respond to Iran’s attack, the region sits on a knife’s edge with the very real threat of an all-out war in the Middle East. And the stakes could not be higher for Jordan, a key Western ally that has prided itself as a bedrock of stability in a turbulent region.

A preliminary report from Chile’s aviation authority on the LATAM Airlines plane that plunged mid-air on March 11 says that the captain’s seat experienced an “involuntary movement forward” midflight.

LATAM Flight 800 was flying from Australia to New Zealand when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner descended 400 feet, and the cause of the sudden plunge is yet to be determined, according to the report.

It says crews that worked on the plane during and before the flight have been interviewed, including maintenance personnel that “verified the condition of the captain’s seat.”

Authorities are also studying any history related to the seats inside the plane’s cockpit.

The black box will be handed over to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the captain’s seat will be inspected by the FAA and Boeing, the report said.

The sudden drop injured 50 people.

Days after the incident, Boeing sent an advisory to airlines that operate the Boeing 787 Dreamliner recommending they inspect cockpit seat switches on the planes. It has sent a similar notice to airlines in 2017.

This is a developing story and will be updated.