For Lionel Messi, it should have been a few minutes of easy work.

But the Argentine soccer idol’s failure to leave the substitutes’ bench in a routine preseason exhibition match has unleashed an unexpected public relations nightmare in one of the world’s most lucrative sports markets where, until now, he had enjoyed widespread popularity.

The public backlash in China began Sunday when Messi didn’t appear for Major League Soccer club Inter Miami while in Hong Kong – and ramped up when he joined the team’s game in Japan just days later.

Messi, who was declared unfit to play in Hong Kong, came on as a 60th minute substitute against Vissel Kobe in Tokyo on Wednesday – an appearance that seemed to energize his teammates before they lost on penalty kicks.

Across social media in mainland China, scathing commentary on Messi was a dominant topic. One widely circulated video appears to show a blogger chopping up his collection of Messi jerseys with a pair of scissors.

Many on Chinese social media platform Weibo questioned how the star was able to make such a quick recovery three days after the Hong Kong game. The sarcastic hashtag “medical miracle” trended high with more than 1.3 million views.

Others lashed out against what they saw as disrespect for Hong Kong – and China.

“Messi must give Chinese fans and the Chinese people an explanation,” one user wrote in a comment liked 59,000 times.

“(He) played in five of the six preseason games and only missed the game in Hong Kong, China! Don’t come to China, China doesn’t welcome you,” another user wrote in a post liked by 20,000 others.

The backlash facing Messi, who has a huge fanbase in China, follows a litany of instances where foreign celebrities or brands have sparked ire in the country for perceived affronts.

The incident also comes as Hong Kong attempts to burnish its image as an international hub – even as it has come under increasing influence from mainland China, with Beijing tightening its control of the city and its government following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.

And it highlights both the political and financial risks major brands can face in the midst of such a backlash.

As public – and official – anger mounted throughout the week, Hong Kong match organizer Tatler XFEST announced on Friday that it would refund 50% of the ticket price for fans, a move it said would cost the company $7.1 million and leave it facing nearly $5.5 million in losses.

“We have invested millions of dollars and months of hard work into bringing a world-class event to Hong Kong, the city that is our home and where we have been headquartered for more than 45 years,” the company, which publishes multiple Tatler branded magazines across Asia, said in their statement.

“Our aspiration was to create an iconic moment in support of the government’s efforts to remind the world how relevant and exciting Hong Kong is. That dream is broken today for us and all those who bought tickets to see Messi on the pitch,” the company added.

After the Hong Kong game, frustration and disappointment from fans in the city ballooned into outrage across mainland China, as influential voices like Hong Kong lawmaker Kenneth Fok and mainland Chinese political pundit Hu Xijin condemned the behavior of the player and the team.

“Why didn’t Messi play in Hong Kong or participate in the handshake with HK (the Hong Kong) chief executive? And why did he smile, run freely and looked fit in Japan?” Hu wrote on social platform X, referring to a moment during Sunday’s post-match trophy ceremony, as he called for an “explanation and apology.”

The location of the match appeared to add a sting for many – given historic animosity and modern-day frictions between China and Japan.

State-affiliated Global Times took the backlash a step further, on Wednesday night publishing an editorial noting a “theory” suggesting without evidence that Messi and Inter Miami’s actions could have been linked to efforts from “external forces” who wish to embarrass Hong Kong.

The Chinese government has not commented on the incident.

‘Not sincere at all’

A statement released on Messi’s official Weibo social media account minutes before the start of the match in Tokyo appeared as an attempt to calm the backlash.

“It was a real shame not to be able to play in Hong Kong the other day due to a groin injury that had swollen and I was in pain,” the post said, reiterating comments the player made to reporters in Tokyo Tuesday, adding that he hopes to return to both Hong Kong and mainland China.

“Anyone who knows me knows that I always want to play, that’s what I always want, to do my best in any game. And especially in these games when we travel so far and fans are excited to see us attend the game healthily,” said the statement, posted in both Chinese and Spanish.

But the statement’s IP address showed it was posted in China’s Sichuan province, some 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) from Tokyo, fueling derision online. Major social media platforms in China require users to show their IP address location. “This is not sincere at all,” one Weibo user wrote in response.

Other users were vitriolic. “Don’t ever come again if you can’t provide a reasonable explanation. You are polluting China’s air by being here. Support the Hong Kong government.”

The situation is the latest example of how backlash against brands or celebrities can quickly snowball in China’s highly nationalistic social media sphere – in some cases with the potential for significant business ramifications in the country’s major consumer market.

China’s so-called “wolf-warrior” diplomats and other government agencies have also made sharp public statements in such instances.

In one such incident in 2019, the National Basketball Association appeared at risk of losing its lucrative footing in the country after the general manager of the Houston Rockets expressed support for Hong Kong’s protesters.

Soccer is a massively popular sport in China and major clubs will often incorporate stops in the country on what can be highly profitable pre-season tours.

Ardent support for Messi gripped mainland China last summer after the Argentina national team played a friendly match against Australia in Beijing. That was the superstar’s seventh time in China, and his eighth could come in March when Argentina has two friendly matches scheduled in the country. 
 
This week, the social media page of a Chinese liquor company whose product campaign features Messi was also inundated with comments calling for boycotts or “contract termination.”

Following the Hong Kong game, Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino explained the decision not to field Messi was made on very late notice and under the recommendation of the club’s medical staff. He also asked for fans’ forgiveness.

But it added: “We do feel it necessary to express that injuries are unfortunately a part of the beautiful game, and our player’s health must always come first.”

David Rowe, an emeritus professor at Western Sydney University focused on media and sport, said there could have been better communication with fans before and during the game.

“Messi is a human being not a machine or a replicant. However, these games are not mainly about football, but promotional and commercial exercises,” he said.

“In the case of Messi, is it more important that he performs in matches that mean very little in strict footballing terms, or preserves his body for actual competitive sport contests such as in MLS? Purist football fans would say the latter – but they are not the majority at touring exhibition games like this one.”

Hong Kong outrage

The furor comes as Hong Kong officials aim to restore the city’s international image, which has been damaged by years of stringent anti-Covid controls and a crackdown on civil liberties following the mass and at times violent 2019 pro-democracy protests.

The Inter Miami game was widely promoted by its organizer in the city for months, with Messi featured prominently in adverts. The sold-out game, with some tickets at eyewatering prices, featured as part of the city’s campaign to host “mega events” meant to drive a tourism rebound.

The Hong Kong government has issued multiple statements expressing its “extreme” disappointment with the outcome as it scrambled to respond to public anger over Sunday’s match – and avoid becoming its target.

On Wednesday after the Tokyo match, Hong Kong officials swiftly released a statement demanding Inter Miami explain how Messi appeared to have played so “actively and nimbly” at Japan’s National Stadium.

Several pro-Beijing politicians also took to the internet to slam Messi.

Among them, veteran lawmaker Regina Ip, also a top adviser to Hong Kong’s chief executive, called Messi’s snub “deliberate and calculated,” saying “his lies and hypocrisy are disgusting.” “Messi should never be allowed to return to Hong Kong,” she wrote on X.

But some questioned whether such a response would help officials’ efforts to burnish Hong Kong’s appeal.

“Although the government has tried hard to woo the world back, mood swings and occasional outbursts have the opposite effects, undermining confidence because the climate has become more volatile and less predictable,” said Kenneth Chan, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, who drew parallels to the so-called “wolf-warrior” rhetoric used by officials on the mainland.

Many social media users in Hong Kong continued to criticize Messi and voice their frustration with the lost opportunity and perceived wasted funds, but others too questioned how the response would play out for the city.

One social media user noted that it was not only Messi who played in Tokyo, but not Hong Kong. The Japanese capital is also hosting pop superstar Taylor Swift this week for one of only two Asia stops on her Eras Tour.

“Tokyo is the real ‘capital of mega events,’” the user wrote.

This story has been updated.

The deadly Hamas attacks of October 7 united a shocked, grieving Israel behind its leaders, burying at a stroke the divisions that had riven the country for years. Four months into the war and with hopes for a new deal to return Israeli hostages from Gaza in doubt, those divisions are re-emerging – and Israelis are increasingly ready to speak their mind.

Many, including the families of those hostages still held by Hamas, direct their anger toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who dismissed the terms of a ceasefire and hostage deal put forward by Hamas in forthright terms.

“Surrendering to Hamas’ delusional demands will only ask for another disaster for the State of Israel, another massacre,” Netanyahu said, adding that continuing military pressure was a “necessary condition” for Israel’s safety.

Survivors of the October 7 terror attack and the families of hostages were furious at the uncompromising repudiation of a deal that – ultimately – could have resulted in the return of all the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Adina Moshe, 72, who was released during a ceasefire deal agreed in November, was among five former hostages who spoke out against Netanyahu on Wednesday.

“Mr. Netanyahu, I’m turning to you. It’s all in your hands. You are the one. And I’m really afraid that if you continue the way you do, the destruction of Hamas, there won’t be any hostages to release,” Moshe said at a press conference for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Moshe’s words carried power – she was kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz and held hostage in Gaza for seven weeks. Her husband David (Sa’id) Moshe was murdered by Hamas.

Another former hostage, Sahar Kalderon, 16, said she was grateful to the government for bringing her back, but asked: “But what about my father who is abandoned anew every day, uncertain if he will live or die?”

“Bring him back, do not make me lose faith in our country a second time,” the teenager said.

Protesters back in the streets

As the war drags on, the emergency unity government that was established after the attacks is looking increasingly fragile, with disagreements mounting over Netanyahu’s strategy for getting hostages home, the future of Gaza and attempts to recruit more soldiers.

The families of the hostages held in Gaza have emerged as a leading voice and they attract huge support among Israelis. For months, they mostly held off from criticizing the government and stayed away from politics. But this has now changed.

Israel was consumed by months of weekly anti-government protests before the Hamas attack – October 7 was meant to be the 44th consecutive Saturday of mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s controversial plans to overhaul the judicial system.

The proposed reform would have weakened the power of the courts and given the government more control over the appointment of judges. The opposition and the protesters criticized the plan as an attempted power grab by Netanyahu.

Lital Shochat Chertow, from Israel Democracy HQ, the group that organizes the protests, said that most Israelis found themselves in “survival mode” after the October 7 attacks and that everyone’s focus immediately shifted from political protest to aid. There was a sense that it was not the time to oppose the government.

There were protests and gatherings, but they were apolitical and solemn in nature. Most were held to express solidarity with the hostages and their families, to call for more action to bring them back, and to honor the victims.

Political protesters like Shochat Chertow were keeping themselves away from these events.

“And before we even dared to think of going out and protesting, we had bereaved families approaching us and saying ‘we lost our son or daughter, our entire family, and we haven’t heard from the government. They didn’t come to the funeral, they didn’t come to the shiva, we didn’t get a letter, nothing,’” Shochat Chertow said. Shiva is the traditional seven-day Jewish mourning period.

Crowds filled the square outside Israel’s national theater, waving flags and carrying posters that called Netanyahu “Crime Minister,” a play on his official title referencing the fact that the prime minister is currently on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.

The protesters have urged the government to call new elections as soon as possible – the first time such a demand was made since the terror attacks. These anti-government protests are still strictly separate from the hostage families’ events, which tend to take place just down the road at what has become known as the Hostage Plaza. But more people are coming to both.

Hamas militants stormed the town during the October 7 attacks, killing 18 police officers and some 20 civilians. At one point, they were on Shabtai’s roof, he said. The vast majority of the town’s residents were evacuated following the attacks, but the government is now trying to convince them to return – something Shabtai said he was not prepared to do since rockets are still targeting Sderot on a regular basis.

On Monday, Shabtai spent five hours traveling to Jerusalem with a small group of people to protest outside the government building.

“In Gaza, we see a lot of use of civilians for military purposes (as human shields); in Israel, the government actually paid me to find shelter,” he said.

Like hundreds of thousands of Israelis, Shabtai serves in the reserves and has spent the past three months fighting in Gaza. He is now being sent up north to Israel’s border with Lebanon.

The idea of sending his wife and two young children back to Sderot is a non-starter. “To put it gently, I really disagree with that. I feel like my government is trying to bring us back before they can make sure it’s secure – because of the financial cost (of housing the families elsewhere),” he said.

Shochat Chertow said this is exactly why the protesters are back in the streets.

“This is the worst crisis and the families (of the victims of the attack) have been abandoned and they still have no support from the government,” she said.

“They say ‘it’s war time, we don’t do politics and we don’t protest during wartime’ but the government is doing politics,” she said pointing to a recent controversy over the state budget, which saw Netanyahu allocating billions of shekels to provide monthly payments to ultra-orthodox Jews who study the Torah full-time, instead of investing money into aiding survivors of the October 7 attacks and soldiers returning from the war.

The government has left the criticism largely unanswered. Netanyahu has held a couple of meetings with representatives of the hostage families, but most were reported to be hostile and ended up with the families being angry with him.

The latest political row consuming the country is over a proposal by the government to extend the length of both the mandatory military service and time served in the reserves for Israeli citizens.

At the same time, the government is insisting on keeping the exemption for Haredi ultra-orthodox men, who do not have to serve in the military – although they can join, if they choose to, and more have been signing up since the October 7 attacks.

The minority ultra-Orthodox community is a key electorate for Netanyahu, which makes the controversial exception a vital issue for him.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, from the centrist Yesh Atid party, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the proposed law would be a “betrayal of IDF soldiers.”

“It’s not ‘together we win’, and it’s not ‘we fight together’. It’s young men and women who will serve the country and risk their lives, unlike those who got themselves exempt,” he said.

But even as some call for a new election – which would be Israel’s sixth in just four years – many are not prepared to ditch Netanyahu. The prime minister, known as “Bibi” in Israel, can rely on a shrinking, but sizable number of voters who would vote for him no matter what.

And even some of those who didn’t vote for him before see him as the only possibility.

Evyatar Cohen, a law student, said that while he is no big fan of Netanyahu, and has never voted for him, he doesn’t see another option.

“He is our best alternative right now. As a rational person, I have to choose between alternatives. As a right-wing person, I of course, want someone who would be more aggressive, who will have no tolerance against terrorists… but he is the best real alternative that we have right now.”

There is never a good time to find out a parent has cancer. It’s a particularly difficult moment for Prince William.

His father’s cancer diagnosis comes as the heir to the British throne was already navigating a health scare at home. It was only last month that his wife Catherine had abdominal surgery that will sideline her for several months.

Little is known about the Princess of Wales’ procedure, but her lengthy recovery signals a serious operation. With three young children to care for, William’s diary was also cleared. His priority abundantly clear: Family comes first.

With Charles’ candid disclosure, those plans are evolving. William is now unexpectedly needed to pick up some of his father’s public-facing responsibilities, given he’s the next-in-line. He’s been thrust into a role that not too long ago Charles was doing for the late Queen Elizabeth II – stepping in as needed while the monarch was temporarily unavailable.

The demands of being the immediate heir saw William make a partial return to royal duties on Wednesday after a three-week absence. He kicked things off by hosting an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle. Dressed in his RAF uniform, he smiled warmly, charming guests while doling out honors on his father’s behalf.

Later, he attended a gala dinner in central London as the patron of the London Air Ambulance, where he publicly addressed the royal double health scare for the first time.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, also, for the kind messages of support for Catherine and for my father, especially in recent days. It means a great deal to us all,” William said.

He then quipped: “It’s fair to say the past few weeks have had a rather ‘medical’ focus. So, I thought I’d come to an air ambulance function to get away from it all.”

Beyond those two engagements, there is nothing else scheduled for him in the days ahead. That could partly be down to a school break next week but also because the 41-year-old royal is continuing to make his family his focus.

Charles, who flew to his Sandringham home after a blink-and-you-miss-it reunion with Prince Harry on Tuesday, is still handling state matters while going through his unspecified treatments. That will give William some flexibility as it means the prince appears not to be needed to pick up any constitutional business. But that will be something his staff are carefully coordinating with Buckingham Palace.

While it could be some time before we next see him, the Prince of Wales will likely be called on to lead the family for the annual Commonwealth Day service – a staple celebration in the royal calendar that will be held at Westminster Abbey on March 11.

The developments this week will have been an eye-opener for William, with the future surely occupying some of his thoughts. The Prince of Wales has never been in a rush to be King. He knows a greater share of the royal burden falls on him with every passing year and has taken it on willingly. He’s not shy about taking on the top job one day, but he has other things he wants to do first.

As William himself put it during a sit-down with the BBC in 2016, he thinks it’s “important to grow into a particular role with the right characteristics and right qualities.”

He has repeatedly said and shown that he wants to be a more present parent. With his public service, he has spent the last 17 months reinventing his version of the Prince of Wales role in a way that is noticeably different to his father’s tenure.

William has narrowed in on key themes – his ambitious eco-prize and pioneering five-year plan to tackle homelessness – where he wants to bring measurable change. He’s also seen his father’s strong international relationships, and ramped up his diplomatic efforts by taking trips designed to build his own ties with Britain’s allies and partners.

The King’s diagnosis means William is now one of the most prominent faces of the clan – alongside Queen Camilla. As such, the demands on his time increase and he doesn’t have as many working royals backing him up as he had once hoped to.

Queen Camilla, for example, has been undertaking a full program of public duties in recent weeks, with no sign of taking her foot off the gas. Meanwhile, Princess Anne – known for her no-fuss attitude and quietly steadfast service – already stepped in this week with an investitures ceremony on Tuesday.

William’s challenge in the days and weeks ahead is how he uniquely balances his personal and professional commitments.

There is never a good time to find out a parent has cancer. It’s a particularly difficult moment for Prince William.

His father’s cancer diagnosis comes as the heir to the British throne was already navigating a health scare at home. It was only last month that his wife Catherine had abdominal surgery that will sideline her for several months.

Little is known about the Princess of Wales’ procedure, but her lengthy recovery signals a serious operation. With three young children to care for, William’s diary was also cleared. His priority abundantly clear: Family comes first.

With Charles’ candid disclosure, those plans are evolving. William is now unexpectedly needed to pick up some of his father’s public-facing responsibilities, given he’s the next-in-line. He’s been thrust into a role that not too long ago Charles was doing for the late Queen Elizabeth II – stepping in as needed while the monarch was temporarily unavailable.

The demands of being the immediate heir saw William make a partial return to royal duties on Wednesday after a three-week absence. He kicked things off by hosting an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle. Dressed in his RAF uniform, he smiled warmly, charming guests while doling out honors on his father’s behalf.

Later, he attended a gala dinner in central London as the patron of the London Air Ambulance, where he publicly addressed the royal double health scare for the first time.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, also, for the kind messages of support for Catherine and for my father, especially in recent days. It means a great deal to us all,” William said.

He then quipped: “It’s fair to say the past few weeks have had a rather ‘medical’ focus. So, I thought I’d come to an air ambulance function to get away from it all.”

Beyond those two engagements, there is nothing else scheduled for him in the days ahead. That could partly be down to a school break next week but also because the 41-year-old royal is continuing to make his family his focus.

Charles, who flew to his Sandringham home after a blink-and-you-miss-it reunion with Prince Harry on Tuesday, is still handling state matters while going through his unspecified treatments. That will give William some flexibility as it means the prince appears not to be needed to pick up any constitutional business. But that will be something his staff are carefully coordinating with Buckingham Palace.

While it could be some time before we next see him, the Prince of Wales will likely be called on to lead the family for the annual Commonwealth Day service – a staple celebration in the royal calendar that will be held at Westminster Abbey on March 11.

The developments this week will have been an eye-opener for William, with the future surely occupying some of his thoughts. The Prince of Wales has never been in a rush to be King. He knows a greater share of the royal burden falls on him with every passing year and has taken it on willingly. He’s not shy about taking on the top job one day, but he has other things he wants to do first.

As William himself put it during a sit-down with the BBC in 2016, he thinks it’s “important to grow into a particular role with the right characteristics and right qualities.”

He has repeatedly said and shown that he wants to be a more present parent. With his public service, he has spent the last 17 months reinventing his version of the Prince of Wales role in a way that is noticeably different to his father’s tenure.

William has narrowed in on key themes – his ambitious eco-prize and pioneering five-year plan to tackle homelessness – where he wants to bring measurable change. He’s also seen his father’s strong international relationships, and ramped up his diplomatic efforts by taking trips designed to build his own ties with Britain’s allies and partners.

The King’s diagnosis means William is now one of the most prominent faces of the clan – alongside Queen Camilla. As such, the demands on his time increase and he doesn’t have as many working royals backing him up as he had once hoped to.

Queen Camilla, for example, has been undertaking a full program of public duties in recent weeks, with no sign of taking her foot off the gas. Meanwhile, Princess Anne – known for her no-fuss attitude and quietly steadfast service – already stepped in this week with an investitures ceremony on Tuesday.

William’s challenge in the days and weeks ahead is how he uniquely balances his personal and professional commitments.

Astronomers have discovered a “super-Earth,” or a world larger than our planet, orbiting a star about 137 light-years away. A second planet, thought to be the size of Earth, may also be orbiting the same star.

The super-Earth exoplanet, known as TOI-715b, orbits a red dwarf star that is cooler and smaller than our sun. Astronomers spotted the planet using NASA’s TESS, or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, mission. A study detailing the discovery was published in January in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Researchers have determined that the planet, estimated to be one and a half times as wide as our planet, takes just over 19 Earth days to complete one orbit around its star. The planet is close enough to its star to exist within the habitable zone, or the distance from a star that provides a planet with the right temperature for liquid water to exist on its surface.

The habitable zone is usually calculated based on factors such as the size, temperature and mass of a star as well as the reflectivity of a planet’s surface. But there can be large margins of error associated with these factors, calling into question whether a planet really resides in the habitable zone, said lead study author Dr. Georgina Dransfield, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy in the United Kingdom.

Astronomers believe that TOI-715b exists in a narrow and more optimal region around the star known as the conservative habitable zone, which is less likely to be affected by the margins of error.

“This discovery is exciting as it’s the first super-Earth from TESS to be found within the conservative habitable zone,” Dransfield said. “Additionally, as it’s relatively close by, the system is suitable for further atmospheric investigations.”

TESS, the planet hunter

Since it launched in 2018, TESS has helped astronomers spot planets around relatively nearby stars suitable for follow-up observations with ground- and space-based observatories.

“This is allowing us to get a much clearer picture of the diversity of exoplanetary systems orbiting a broad range of stellar types,” Dransfield said.

Telescopes can pick up on dips in starlight that indicate the planet is passing in front of its star, and those dips in starlight are called transits. TOI-715b is close to its star and has a quick orbit, meaning that the planet passes in front of its star, or transits, frequently. As a result, the exoplanet is an optimal candidate for future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb telescope sees the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, and can peer inside the atmospheres of planets.

As the planet transits the star, starlight filters through it, allowing Webb to look for evidence of an atmosphere and even determine the planet’s atmospheric composition. And understanding whether planets have atmospheres can reveal more about their ability to be potentially habitable for life.

“We really want to know the planet’s mass with high precision to understand if it’s a true super-Earth or a member of the novel category of ocean worlds,” Dransfield said, referring to moons with global oceans such as Jupiter’s Europa or Saturn’s Enceladus. “This will allow us to really shape our follow-up investigations and learn more about exoplanet demographics as a whole.”

To confirm the existence of the likely Earth-size second planet, researchers need more successful observations of the planet’s transits in different wavelengths of light, Dransfield said.

If the Earth-size planet is confirmed, it will become the smallest planet yet that TESS has found in a habitable zone.

The search for Earth-like planets

Red dwarf stars are the most common stars in our galaxy, and a number of them have been found to host small, rocky worlds, such as the recently discovered TRAPPIST system with its seven planets, located 40 light-years away. Planets that orbit more closely to these smaller, cooler stars could receive enough warmth to be potentially habitable.

But a key question is whether these planets are also close enough to be lashed by stellar flares and radiation, which could erode their atmospheres, evaporate water and limit their ability to be habitable for life.

TOI-715b’s star has only shown a couple of flares within the past two years and isn’t considered active, making it an old star, Dransfield said.

In the future, astronomers hope to have the ability to search for planets around stars more similar to our sun, which will require the ability to block intense starlight to find faint Earth-size planets.

Upcoming missions such as the European Space Agency’s PLATO, or PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, will carry 26 cameras to study Earth-like planets in habitable zone orbits around sun-like stars. The mission is expected to launch in 2026.

“So far, no telescope has been capable of this, but it should be possible within the next decade,” Dransfield said, referring to PLATO. “This will be one of the most anticipated discoveries, as it will begin to show us how common planets truly similar to Earth really are.”

A man accused of killing his girlfriend in Boston before fleeing to Kenya has escaped from a Nairobi jail, where he was awaiting extradition after his capture last week.

Kevin Kangethe, 42, was being held without bail after officials in the United States filed an extradition request for him to be returned to the US to face a murder charge.

He’s accused of killing his girlfriend, Maggie Mbitu, whose body was found in his SUV in a parking garage at Boston Logan International Airport on November 1, two days after she was reported missing. Mbitu, 31, had slash wounds on her face and neck, Massachusetts State Police said.

Authorities searched for Kangethe for three months before he was arrested January 29, when an undercover officer spotted him at a nightclub in Nairobi.

On Wednesday evening local time, a man claiming to be Kangethe’s attorney appeared at the law enforcement complex where he was being held and asked to speak to him, Kenyan authorities said in a statement. They were given a private room in which to talk, and Kangethe took off shortly afterward, police said.

Police said Kangethe slipped out of the police station and boarded a matutu, or public transportation bus, according to Nation, an African news outlet.

At the time of his escape, the station’s commander was in a meeting with the anti-crime unit in her office, police said.

“She was alerted by a loud noise of officers who were chasing the prisoner along Thika Super Highway but they did not manage to rearrest him,” the statement said, referring to a busy eight-lane freeway bustling with cars in the capital.

The man who claimed to be Kangethe’s attorney has been detained, along with four officers at the station, police said.

He was arrested 3 months after he boarded a flight from Boston

Within hours, authorities identified him as the Boston-area fugitive who US investigators said boarded a plane to Kenya shortly after killing his girlfriend. Authorities in Massachusetts had obtained a warrant for his arrest on a murder charge.

Kangethe arrived in Kenya last fall through Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the nation’s director of public prosecutions said in a statement. He went into hiding in the city’s suburbs but stayed in touch via phone with his friends and relatives, including those in the United States, the statement said.

Kenya has an extradition treaty with the United States. The nation’s director of public prosecutions said Kenya has received a formal extradition request from the US and determined there’s “sufficient evidence” against him.

Mbitu lived in a Boston suburb and was the youngest in a family of health care workers. Her two older sisters and her mother are all nurses.

She was reported missing in late October after she didn’t show up for work. Her family notified the police and called nearby hospitals to check if she was a patient. The next evening, police made a gruesome discovery: her bloodied body, in the SUV inside a parking garage at the airport.

In a criminal complaint from the Massachusetts State Police, authorities say they “were led to Mbitu’s boyfriend” after she went missing.

The day before her body was found, Kangethe boarded flights from Boston to Kenya. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the parking garage and entering an airport terminal, police said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the dismissal of Ukraine’s top commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in the biggest military shakeup since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion almost two years ago.

The president’s move follows tensions between Zelensky and his hugely popular military chief after the failure of Ukraine’s much-vaunted counteroffensive, and with Ukraine facing a renewed Russian onslaught, manpower and ammunition shortages, and US aid stalled in Congress.

In a Telegram post sent shortly before the formal announcement, Zelensky said he held a meeting with Zaluzhnyi, and “discussed what kind of renewal the Armed Forces of Ukraine need.”

“The time for such a renewal is now,” Zelensky wrote.

Zaluzhnyi’s replacement will be Oleksandr Syrskyi, who since 2019 has served as the Commander of Ukrainian Land Forces.

Zaluzhnyi wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday that “the tasks of 2022 are different from those of 2024.

“Therefore, everyone must change and adapt to the new realities as well. [We] have just met with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. It was an important and serious conversation. It was decided that we need to change our approaches and strategy.”

Zaluzhnyi – who had been appointed army chief by Zelensky in July 2021 – was offered a new position by the president, which he turned down, according to one of the sources. It remains unclear whether Zaluzhnyi has decided to remain involved with the military in some capacity.

Differences between the two men had been simmering for many months but appeared to grow wider towards the end of last year, after Zaluzhnyi said the war had reached a stalemate in a long essay and interview in The Economist magazine in November.

Writing after Ukraine’s counteroffensive was mostly rebuffed by heavily fortified Russian defenses, he warned that without a great technological leap forward “there will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,” but instead an equilibrium of devastating losses and destruction.

His remarks drew immediate criticism from Zelensky’s office, which said such commentary about the war only benefitted Russia.

More recently, the two leaders clashed over whether Ukraine needed a mass mobilization effort. The army chief had suggested up to half a million draftees were required, which Zelensky resisted.

The president told a press conference in December mobilization was a ‘highly sensitive’ issue and that he wanted to hear more arguments in favor before he felt fully ready to back the move.

“This is a very serious number,” Zelensky said. “It is a question about people, about justice, about defense capabilities. It is also a financial question.”

A political gamble for Zelensky

When Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, many of Ukraine’s allies feared Kyiv would fall in just a few days and the rest of the country within weeks. But Ukraine’s troops, under Zaluzhnyi’s direction, were able to drive Moscow’s forces from the capital and later in the year managed to reclaim large parts of the southern and eastern territories occupied by Russia in the early weeks of the war.

Ukraine had hoped to drive Moscow’s forces back further in 2023 but battlefield success proved elusive.

Launched last June, Ukraine’s counteroffensive in particular aimed to push south towards the Sea of Azov, splitting Russia’s forces in two and cutting its land bridge to Crimea.

But Ukraine’s gains were modest. Its forces attempted to advance from Orikhiv towards Tokmak, but only made it as far as Robotyne, a little over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south. Russia still occupies around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.

Since then, Ukraine has been put back on a defensive footing by a flurry of Russian offensives along much of the frontlines, with intense fighting reported in northeastern Kharkiv region and in Zaporizhzhia in the south. Russia has also renewed its aerial assaults on cities across the country, and Ukraine has warned that its air defenses risk being overwhelmed.

Zaluzhnyi’s firing is a political gamble for Zelensky. Despite the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the now-former military chief remains one of the most popular leaders in the country. A poll by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology found 88% of Ukrainians supported the general. Zelensky’s approval rating, though also high, was markedly lower at 62%.

Analysts have long speculated about whether Zaluzhnyi could one day emerge as a political rival to Zelensky in future elections, although the general has shown scant political ambition so far.

At the same time, Zaluzhnyi warned Ukraine was now having to “contend with a reduction in military support from key allies” as they have become ensnarled by their own political tensions and distracted by conflicts elsewhere.

He said the best way for Ukraine’s army to avoid being drawn into a “positional war,” in which fighting is conducted along permanent and fortified frontlines, is for Ukraine to “master” unmanned weapons systems – or drones – which Zaluzhnyi called the “central driver of this war.”

He will now be replaced by the 59-year-old Syrskyi, who began his soldiering career during the last years of the Soviet Union, training in Moscow.

With Ukraine’s independence in 1991, he rose through the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces becoming a Major General in 2009. He played a prominent role in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invaders in the eastern Donbas region in 2014 and 2015.

Two years later he became the commander of all Ukrainian forces involved in the Anti-Terrorist Operation, as the conflict with Russia in eastern Ukraine became known.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Syrskyi led the defense of Kyiv, and then later that year commanded the successful counteroffensive in the region of Kharkiv, which saw Russian forces driven out of hundreds of settlements.

Another, a frontline commander, also serving in Ukraine’s east, was more critical of the appointment.

Scientists and engineers near the English city of Oxford have set a nuclear fusion energy record, they announced Thursday, bringing the clean, futuristic power source another step closer to reality.

Using the Joint European Torus (JET) — a huge, donut-shaped machine known as a tokamak — the scientists sustained a record 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel. That’s enough to power roughly 12,000 households for the same amount of time.

Nuclear fusion is the same process that powers the sun and other stars, and is widely seen as the holy grail of clean energy. Experts have worked for decades to master the highly complex process on Earth, and if they do, fusion could generate enormous amounts of energy with tiny inputs of fuel and emit zero planet-warming carbon in the process.

The scientists fed the tokamak deuterium and tritium, which are hydrogen variants that future commercial fusion plants are most likely to use.

To generate fusion energy, the team raised temperatures in the machine to 150 million degrees Celsius — around 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. That extreme heat forces the deuterium and tritium to fuse together and form helium, a process that in turn releases enormous amounts of heat.

The tokamak is lined with strong magnets that hold the plasma in. The heat is then harnessed and used to produce electricity.

The experiment is the last of its kind for JET, which has operated for more than 40 years. Its last experiment — and new record — is promising news for newer fusion projects, said Ambrogio Fasoli, CEO of EUROfusion, the consortium of 300 experts behind the experiment. He pointed to ITER, the world’s biggest tokamak being built in southern France, and DEMO, a machine planned to follow ITER with the aim of producing a higher amount of energy, like a fusion plant prototype.

“Our successful demonstration of operational scenarios for future fusion machines like ITER and DEMO, validated by the new energy record, instil greater confidence in the development of fusion energy,” Fasoli said in a statement.

While fusion energy would be a gamechanger for the climate crisis — which is caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels — it’s a technology that’s still likely to need many years to commericialize. By the time it’s fully developed, it would be too late to use it as a main tool to address climate change, according to Aneeqa Khan, research fellow in nuclear fusion at the University of Manchester.

And myriad challenges remain. Khan points out that the team used more energy to carry out the experiment than it generated, for example.

“This is a great scientific result, but we are still a way off commercial fusion. Building a fusion power plant also has many engineering and materials challenges,” she said. “However, investment in fusion is growing and we are making real progress. We need to be training up a huge number of people with the skills to work in the field and I hope the technology will be used in the latter half of the century.”

The record was announced the same day that the European Union’s climate and weather monitoring service, Copernicus, confirmed that the world has breached a global warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius over a 12-month period for the first time.

Scientists are more concerned with longer-term warming over that threshold, but it is a symbolic reminder that the world is hurtling toward a level of climate change that it will struggle to adapt to.

Climate science shows that the world must nearly halve its greenhouse gas emissions this decade and reach zero net emissions by 2050 to keep global warming from spiraling to catastrophic levels. That means making a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas.

This story has been updated with additional information.

At least 30 people were killed and another 40 injured in two different explosions in Balochistan province on Wednesday, a day before Pakistan’s general elections.

The blasts took place in the Killa Saifullah district outside an election office belonging to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and in the Pishin district near the office of an independent candidate.

The explosion hit 170 kilometers away from Quetta, where JUI candidates Maulana Samiul Haq and Maulana Abdul Wasay are contesting elections.

According to police, a large number of workers were in the office at the time of the explosion.

Shortly before, a separate explosion near the office of Asfand Yar Kakar, an independent candidate in the Pishin district, killed 18 people and injured 23, according to Deputy Commissioner Pishin Jumma Dad Mandokhail.

Those injured in the Pishin blast have been taken to hospital, Medical Superintendent Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Dr. Habib Ur Rehman said.

Initial reports suggested the explosives were planted on a motorcycle.

The blasts come amid rising tensions in Pakistan ahead of Thursday’s election. Violence has escalated across the country as candidates have been shot and killed while campaigning.

On Tuesday, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said there had been at least 24 reported instances of staged attacks by armed groups against members of political parties.

The Islamic State Pakistan Province (ISPP) claimed responsibility for the blasts in Balochistan, releasing a statement on the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq that said it had killed and wounded “about 35 apostates.”

The Balochistan provincial government has announced three days of mourning.

This is a developing story and will be updated

Nicaragua said Wednesday it had granted political asylum to former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli days after Panama’s top court rejected an appeal to annul his prison sentence in a money laundering case.

According to a diplomatic note that Nicaragua’s government sent to Panama’s foreign ministry, Martinelli requested asylum because he “considered himself persecuted for political reasons and thinks that his life, physical integrity and safety are at imminent risk.”

Last July, Martinelli was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of more than $19.2 million after he was declared guilty, along with four other people, of money laundering in a case known as “New Business.”

The case is related to a publishing group that, according to the public ministry, was purchased with funds that came from state contracts that were handled irregularly. Martinelli declared in court that he was innocent and a victim of political persecution.

Despite the conviction, the former president did not go to jail and was even allowed to register as a presidential candidate in the current race.

Last week, Panama’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal in the “New Business” case, which left Martinelli’s prior conviction in place and disqualified him from running as a presidential candidate.

This is a developing story and will be updated