NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a computer glitch that’s causing a bit of a communication breakdown between the 46-year-old probe and its mission team on Earth.

Engineers are currently trying to solve the issue as the aging spacecraft explores uncharted cosmic territory along the outer reaches of the solar system.

Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth at about 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, while its twin Voyager 2 has traveled more than 12 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from our planet. Both are in interstellar space and are the only spacecraft ever to operate beyond the heliosphere, the sun’s bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends well beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Initially designed to last five years, the Voyager probes are the two longest-operating spacecraft in history. Their exceptionally long lifespans mean that both spacecraft have provided additional insights about our solar system and beyond after achieving their preliminary goals of flying by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune decades ago.

But their unexpectedly lengthy journeys have not been without challenges.

Voyager 1 has three onboard computers, including a flight data system that collects information from the spacecraft’s science instruments and bundles it with engineering data that reflects the current health status of Voyager 1. Mission control on Earth receives that data in binary code, or a series of ones and zeroes.

But Voyager 1’s flight data system now appears to be stuck on auto-repeat, in a scenario reminiscent of the film “Groundhog Day.”

A long-distance glitch

The mission team first noticed the issue November 14, when the flight data system’s telecommunications unit began sending back a repeating pattern of ones and zeroes, like it was trapped in a loop.

While the spacecraft can still receive and carry out commands transmitted from the mission team, a problem with that telecommunications unit means no science or engineering data from Voyager 1 is being returned to Earth.

The Voyager team sent commands over the weekend for the spacecraft to restart the flight data system, but no usable data has come back yet, according to NASA.

NASA engineers are currently trying to gather more information about the underlying cause of the issue before determining the next steps to possibly correct it, said Calla Cofield, media relations specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which manages the mission. The process could take weeks.

The last time Voyager 1 experienced a similar, but not identical, issue with the flight data system was in 1981, and the current problem does not appear to be connected to other glitches the spacecraft has experienced in recent years, Cofield said.

As both Voyager probes experience new trials, mission team members have only the original manuals written decades ago to consult, and those couldn’t account for the challenges the spacecraft are facing as they age.

The Voyager team wants to consider all of the potential implications before sending more commands to the spacecraft to make sure its operations aren’t impacted in an unexpected way.

Voyager 1 is so far away that it takes 22.5 hours for commands sent from Earth to reach the spacecraft. Additionally, the team must wait 45 hours to receive a response.

Keeping the Voyager probes alive

Along the way, both spacecraft have encountered unexpected issues and dropouts, including a seven-month period in 2020 when Voyager 2 couldn’t communicate with Earth. In August, the mission team used a long-shot “shout” technique to restore communications with Voyager 2 after a command inadvertently oriented the spacecraft’s antenna in the wrong direction.

While the team hopes to restore the regular stream of data sent back by Voyager 1, the mission’s main value lies in its long duration, Cofield said. For example, scientists want to see how particles and magnetic fields change as the probes fly farther away from the heliosphere. But that dataset will be incomplete if Voyager 1 can’t return information as it continues on.

The mission team has been creative with its strategies for extending the power supply on both spacecraft in recent years to allow their record-breaking missions to continue.

“The Voyagers are performing far, far past their prime missions and longer than any other spacecraft in history,” Cofield said. “So, while the engineering team is working hard to keep them alive, we also fully expect issues to arise.”

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN’s Security Council.

A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly’s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.

While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The US last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body.

Tuesday’s brief resolution calls for a ceasefire, for all parties to comply with international law, and for humanitarian access to hostages as well as their “immediate and unconditional” release. It notably contains stronger language than an October vote in the assembly that had called for a “sustained humanitarian truce.”

The vote, hailed as “historic” by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Monday.

The resolution “does not ‘call for’ or ‘urges’ – it demands, and we will not rest until we see compliance of Israel with this demand,” Mansour said. A ceasefire is necessary to move the “massive” amounts of humanitarian assistance needed by Gaza’s besieged civilian population, he added.

Israel has said it will not stop its military campaign until it eradicates Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza, following its October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. Over 100 hostages are thought to remain in captivity in Gaza.

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the resolution as a “disgraceful” attempt to bind Israel’s hands, warning that “continuing Israel’s operation in Gaza is the only way any hostages will be released.”

Israel has rejected previous calls for a ceasefire, though it agreed to a seven-day truce for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Israel voted against Tuesday’s resolution along with the US, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia and Nauru.

‘One singular priority’

“We have one singular priority – only one – to save lives,” said General Assembly President Dennis Francis, opening the emergency session on Tuesday afternoon, warning that civilians in Gaza have nowhere safe to shelter from the fighting and aerial bombardment.

“Even war has rules, and it is imperative that we prevent any deviation from these principles and values – the validity of which resides in their universal application,” he said.

With vital infrastructure blasted to rubble and limited access to water, medicine and food, more Gaza civilians may end up dying of diseases than from bombs and missiles, UN officials have warned. Hunger is a growing issue in the enclave.

Addressing the assembly, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Washington does “agree that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire…and that civilians must be protected with international humanitarian law,” but urged nations to support an amendment to the resolution condemning Hamas, which did not pass.

”A ceasefire right now would be temporary at best, and dangerous at worst,” she said. “Dangerous to Israelis, who would be subject to relentless attacks, and also dangerous to Palestinians who deserve the chance to build a better future for themselves free from a group that hides behind innocent civilians.”

In a break with its southern neighbor, Canada cast its vote in support of the resolution, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issuing a joint statement with the leaders of Australia and New Zealand in support of “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire.”

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australian officials had been engaging with Canadian officials for some time on the issue, and more recently with New Zealand’s new government.

“We think that it’s important that very close allies and likeminded countries speak together in support of the position that we’ve articulated,” Wong told reporters Wednesday.

“We are democracies, and we expect of ourselves a high standard, and we expect that we will all work to comply with international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilian life,” she said.

Canadian ambassador to the UN Bob Rae called on Hamas to lay down its weapons and stop using civilians as “human shields.”

He added: “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of Palestinian civilians.”

South Africa’s representative Mathu Joyini meanwhile invoked her country’s “own painful past experience of a system of apartheid” to impress on fellow states the need to “take action in accordance with international law.”

Tuesday’s vote, she said, “presents an opportunity for us to illustrate that the organization that was created to give hope for peace is not tone-deaf to the suffering of the most vulnerable.”

In a short statement, Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, welcomed the resolution and condemned what he termed as a “war of genocide and ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinian people.

Two unidentified men stormed the lower house of India’s parliament on Wednesday, in a major security breach that fell on the anniversary of a deadly attack on the complex more than two decades ago.

Video broadcast live on Sansad TV, the official channel for the country’s parliament, showed a man jumping over tables and running toward the speaker’s chair as panicked lawmakers tried to subdue him.

Another man standing in the visitor’s gallery was seen spraying yellow smoke inside the building.

The parliament’s session was briefly adjourned as lawmakers made their way outside.

Two more people outside the building were seen chanting slogans as police gathered around them.

All four people have been arrested and their belongings have been confiscated, Om Birla, the speaker of parliament’s lower house, told lawmakers as parliament resumed.

Opposition lawmakers raised their concerns over the security breach.

“The issue is very serious,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of India’s main opposition Congress party. “This is about how two people were able to come inside despite such elaborate security and cause a security breach.”

Another Congress lawmaker K.C. Venugopal said the incident was “extremely troubling.”

“I am glad there was no major injury or damage done to anyone,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Parliament is among the most high-security buildings of our country. Such a major security lapse is unacceptable. We demand answers from the Home Ministry and there must be a thorough review of the security arrangements in the new Parliament building.”

India’s parliament was attacked by gunmen on December 13, 2001, who killed more than a dozen people. New Delhi blamed Pakistan-linked terror groups for that attack, plunging relations further and pushing the two nuclear-armed nations to the brink of war.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the people who lost their lives in that incident earlier Wednesday.

“Today, we remember and pay heartfelt tributes to the brave security personnel martyred in the Parliament attack in 2001. Their courage and sacrifice in the face of danger will forever be etched in our nation’s memory,” he wrote on X.

A senior doctor in northern Gaza says that dozens of medical staffers at his hospital have been taken to an undisclosed location by the Israeli military, as the enclave’s wider healthcare system teeters on the edge of collapse.

The troops told all men between the ages of 16 and 65 to leave the building to be searched, he said.

More than 70 medical staff were “arrested and taken to an unknown area,” according to Abu-Safia, including hospital director, Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot. His claim was echoed in a statement by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

Asked about the arrests, the Israel Defense Forces said that it continues “to act against Hamas strongholds in the north of Gaza, among them the area of Beit Lahia.”

Kamal Adwan hospital is located in Gaza City, not Beit Lahia.

The statement added that the IDF is taking “all feasible precaution to mitigate harm to non-combatants, and is fighting against the Hamas terrorist organization, and not the civilians in Gaza or the medical teams operating there.”

‘Horrendous conditions’

Israeli actions in and around hospitals in Gaza have come under fierce criticism, as medical workers and NGOS warn that the health system in the territory is barely functional and cannot tolerate any more strain.

Last month, the Israeli army raided Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, in search of conclusive proof of the large-scale command and control center it had claimed was there, as doctors rushed to evacuate patients and dozens of newborn infants in need of incubators.

At Al-Rantisi children’s hospital, medical staff were also told to leave, as the IDF conducted operations inside; Israeli military officials later alleged that one room in the building’s basement was a Hamas armory, which had a handful of weapons and a chair with a rope next to it – a claim Gaza health officials denied.

Many medical centers serve as shelters for displaced Gazans seeking safety, in addition to caring for patients. But those seeking refuge in hospitals are finding that “this is just not the case,” Marie-Aure Perreaut, the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in the enclave.

While hospitals as a category are protected by international law, they may be viewed as legitimate military targets if found to be housing able-bodied combatants and weapons. The Israeli military has said it only carries out operations in and around hospitals where they are being used by Hamas and other armed groups.

According to Dr. Abu-Safia, he and just five other doctors were allowed to stay at Kamal Adwan Hospital to attend to patients in intensive care unit and premature babies.

“They asked us to gather in only one section or building [and] close all the doors and windows, and not to be near doors or windows,” he said.

But the care that the hospital’s remaining staff can offer patients too weak to be moved has been minimal, he said, “due to acute shortages of fuel, water, food, and medical supplies even before the siege.” Today the hospital has no water or power, he added, noting that doctors are “working with primitive flashlights to follow up on the patients left in the hospital.”

Across the besieged enclave, only 11 hospitals remain even partially functional, according to Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza, in a press conference Tuesday.

“In just 66 days the health system has gone from 36 functional hospitals to 11 partially functional hospitals – so, one in the north and 10 in the south,” he said.

In the same day, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “extremely worried” about “reports of a raid at Kamal Adwan Hospital in #Gaza after several days of siege,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Several hospitals in northern Gaza have ceased operations in recent weeks, saying they received orders from the Israeli military to evacuate. The Israeli military disputes issuing such an order.

Fuel shortages have forced several hospitals in Gaza to close, while others have shut down due to airstrike damage, according to the WHO.

Salwa Tibi recalls how she covered several miles on foot in southern Gaza, in a desperate search for blankets and sheets that might help keep her four children and other young relatives warm at night.

“I felt bad for the kids, they had nothing to keep them warm and we were dying from the cold at night,” said Tibi, who works at the humanitarian agency CARE International. She is staying in a rented house with at least 20 relatives including eight children and babies – the youngest of whom is three months old.

The kids, she said, “were screaming all day from hunger.”

Senior US officials have warned Israel to minimize civilian casualties in the south, where it has now stepped up its military campaign targeting Hamas, after previously telling Gazans to flee there from the north of the strip.

“If the situation stays this tragic, then Gaza is going to starve,” said Tibi.

Forcibly displaced Palestinians could not flee with winter clothes

Islam Saeed Muhammad Barakat did not have time to gather the belongings his family needs for winter when they fled their home in Gaza City.

The average temperature in Gaza falls to between 10°C and 20°C (50F to 68F) in December, dipping a couple of degrees lower on average in January. The rainy season typically lasts from November to February, with January the wettest month. One reporting station near the border of southern Gaza and Israel indicated nearly twice the amount of average rainfall to date, while other surrounding reporting stations to the north showed less rain than normal.

Almost 1.9 million people, more than 85% of the enclave’s total population, have been displaced since the beginning of the war, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

More than 1.1 million of those are sheltering in facilities in central and southern Gaza, including in Khan Younis and Rafah where strikes have been reported, UNRWA said.

“I had to take off the bag I was carrying and throw it away,” said Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi, the director of an orphanage in Gaza City who was among those heading south. “People did the same thing like me, they started throwing their bags.”

Al-Naizi was forced to flee to Rafah with the 40 people under his care – most of whom are children and infants living with disabilities. He recalled being too fatigued to hold the bag, crammed with baby milk, biscuits, dates, diapers, water and clothing, at the same time as carrying one of the orphans, 8-year-old Ayas.

“The road was filled with bags, which led to people falling to the ground when they were walking,” he said.

Civilians may not have expected their displacement to last into the winter months without access to their homes, said Rebecca Inglis, an intensive care doctor in Britain who regularly visits Gaza to teach medical students. Some have resorted to searching under the rubble of destroyed buildings for blankets and other essential supplies.

Seeking shelter from the rain

Shadi Bleha has no roof to protect himself from the worsening weather. Instead, he is sheltering in the courtyard of a school.

“We try to play some games with my family and sing together … to make them happy, at least for a small time.”

Elsewhere, patches of land have turned into sprawling tent camps, where thousands of civilians are living in cramped conditions. Flash flooding caused by torrential rains spills rubbish and sewage into the streets, contaminating people’s limited food and water supplies.

Some displaced children in a tent camp in Deir Al-Balah, in southern Gaza, could be seen playing in the water following intense downpours on Tuesday.

“We are nine people living in this tent. Our tent is flooded with water, my siblings are freezing, and we don’t know what to do. We want to go back to our homes and not drown,” she said.

‘I see people starving’

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), says it is “facilitating various humanitarian aid initiatives” to help the civilian population in Gaza, including allowing in aid deliveries – subject to security checks – supplying water and facilitating the establishment of field hospitals. On Tuesday, four tankers of fuel and two tankers of cooking gas were allowed in, as well as 195 trucks of humanitarian aid, COGAT said.

The price of food and water has surged as supplies diminish, leading to widespread hunger and dehydration. The World Food Programme declared a “catastrophic hunger crisis” in Gaza on December 5. The relief organization said it was forced to shut down its last remaining bakery because it had no fuel or gas, adding that it ran 23 bakeries before the war.

Reduced daylight hours mean people are less able to rely on solar power for generators needed to power water pumps. Tibi, the mother of four in Rafah, saves mineral water for the children and infants. The adults drink water sent through aid trucks, she said, which is “not 100% clean.”

Adults ration their meals so that children do not go hungry. “I see people starving, literally starving,” said Bleha, who eats one meal a day.

Aid workers described surviving on a diet of canned beans, bread, and hummus because they cannot cook their food without fuel. Others have set up makeshift cooking facilities in clay ovens, and over open fires, burning solid fuels like plastic, wood, garbage and cardboard instead of cooking with electricity or gas. Some use tin rocket stoves, where wood is burned in a vertical heat chamber to reduce smoke fumes, according to the UN’s children’s agency.

Those relying on solid fuels to heat indoor spaces are exposed to potential carbon monoxide poisoning, said Ghalayini. Outside, street vendors are using burnable waste for fuel, which can release toxic fumes such as black carbon. Cars powered by cooking oil or corn oil release “huge plumes of black smoke” into the atmosphere, he added.

The price of automotive transport has increased six-fold, according to Jamal Al Rozzi, executive director of the National Society for Rehabilitation, who has fled to Bani Suhelia, in the south, for his children’s safety. The cost of moving goods in carts pulled by horses or donkeys has tripled, he added.

Diseases ‘spread like wildfire’

For those already struggling to stay safe, warm and fed, illness poses an additional risk.

In crowded shelters that cannot meet basic sanitation and hygiene needs, diseases “spread like wildfire,” said Inglis, the intensive care doctor.

She anticipates an uptick in upper respiratory tract infections because coughs, colds and viruses spread more quickly when people are clustered together without proper ventilation. Civilians will be exposed to other illnesses including diarrhea and hepatitis A, as well as body lice and scabies, because they cannot wash properly, Inglis added.

Roughly 160,000 to 165,000 cases of diarrhea have been recorded among children under the age of five, a WHO official said Tuesday, describing the figure as “much more” than usual. More than 130,000 cases of respiratory tract infections and 35,000 cases of skin rashes have been recorded, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza said in a report Monday, as well as thousands of cases of chickenpox, lice and scabies.

A colleague in southern Gaza, Inglis said, had told her of treating people with wounds “full of maggots” and elderly people suffering “dehydration and exhaustion” after fleeing from the north to the south.

Vulnerable populations, including malnourished children, pregnant and menstruating women, and those with disabilities, are more likely to have symptoms that are left untreated. Israel’s complete siege and restrictions on aid entering Gaza have diminished drug supplies, leaving health workers unable to help many patients who are sick or treat those who have suffered injuries in the bombardment, increasing their risk of infection.

Barakat, in Khan Younis, said: “I and many of my children got sick with several viruses that have spread recently, namely the flu and many colds, and other unknown but painful and contagious viruses.”

Civilians with chronic illnesses including diabetes and high blood pressure are also more vulnerable to winter illnesses because the blockade has prevented access to treatment, said Inglis.

In Gaza, there are more than 2,000 cancer patients, 1,000 people with kidney disease, 50,000 people with cardiovascular disease and 60,000 diabetes patients, according to WHO. Poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes can lead to complications including skin infections, heart attacks or strokes, Inglis said, adding that patients with treatable cancer are “going to die.”

The number of functioning hospitals along the strip has plummeted from 36 to 11, WHO said.

“The entire system has been systematically destroyed in this conflict in such a way that it will take years to rebuild,” said Inglis.

Al-Rozzi said Palestinians were in a state of “fear, anxiety and pain,” adding: “They feel worthless, and they have no clear view of tomorrow, or today.”

Barakat called on the international community to protect Palestinian lives, in the hope that peace will return to Gaza.

“Enough siege, enough starvation, enough killing, enough abuse, we have the right to live,” he said. “Our children have the right to play.”

The world agreed to a new climate deal in Dubai on Wednesday at the COP28 summit after two weeks of painstaking talks, making an unprecedented call to transition away from fossil fuels, but using vague language that could allow some countries to take minimal action.

The gavel went down on the agreement, known as the Global Stocktake, in the morning after the talks were pushed into overtime by marathon negotiations between countries bitterly divided over the future role for oil, gas and coal.

COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber called the agreement “historic” in his speech before national delegates at the final session approving the agreement. “We have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement for the first time ever,” he said, adding that the deal represented “a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies.”

Some countries claimed the deal signalled the end of the fossil fuel era, but more ambitious nations and climate advocates said it was still far from sufficient to reflect the growing urgency of the climate crisis.

“At long last the loud calls to end fossil fuels have landed on paper in black and white at this COP,” said Jean Su, the energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, “but cavernous loopholes threaten to undermine this breakthrough moment.”

The agreement falls short of requiring the world to “phase-out” oil, coal and gas — which more than 100 countries and many climate groups had been calling for, language which was included in an earlier version of the draft.

Instead, the agreement “calls on” countries to “contribute” to global efforts to reduce carbon pollution in ways they see fit, offering several options, one of which is “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems … accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050.”

COP28 has taken place at the end of a year defined by unprecedented global heat, which has driven deadly extreme weather, including record wildfires, deadly heat waves and catastrophic floods. This year is officially the hottest on record, due to a combination of human-caused global warming and El Niño, and next year is set to be hotter still.

The conference in Dubai has been marred by controversy and criticism that oil interests were influencing the talks.

The conference also saw deep divisions, with Saudi Arabia leading a group of oil-producing nations rejecting language on phasing out fossil fuels. On the other side, more ambitious parties, including the European Union and a group of island states, expressed anger over a previous draft with watered-down language on fossil fuels.

Nonetheless, many Western nations involved in the talks are viewing the deal as a success and a vindication of multilateralism.

“All of us can find a paragraph or sentences, or sections, where we would have said it differently,” said US climate envoy John Kerry after the deal was agreed. But, he added, “to have as strong a document as has been put together, I find is cause for optimism, cause for gratitude and cause for some significant congratulations to everybody here.”

He added that the agreement was “much stronger and clearer as a call on 1.5 than we have ever heard,” referring to the internally-agreed ambition to restrict global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.

Deal gives fossil fuel industry ‘escape routes’

Several parties expressed disappointment and concerns over how quickly Al Jaber struck his gavel and adopted the draft deal. Typically countries voice their support or objections and agreement follows a debate.

“It seems that you gavelled the decisions and the small island developing states were not in the room,” Anne Rasmussen, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said to Al Jaber once they entered the room.

AOSIS, an intergovernmental organization of countries disproportionately at risk from the climate crisis, is one of the most powerful voices at the annual climate talks.

AOSIS was “exceptionally concerned” about the agreement, Rasmussen added. While the text contains “many good elements,” she said, “the course correction that is needed has not yet been secured.”

“It is not enough for us to reference the science and then make agreements that ignore what the science is telling us we need to do,” she said in her speech which was met with a standing ovation from delegates.

Many climate experts, while cautiously welcoming the reference to fossil fuels in the agreement, point to serious weaknesses, including leaving the door open for fossil fuel expansion to continue.

Harjeet Singh, the head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International, said “after decades of evasion, COP28 finally cast a glaring spotlight on the real culprits of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. A long-overdue direction to move away from coal, oil, and gas has been set.”

But, he added, “the resolution is marred by loopholes that offer the fossil fuel industry numerous escape routes, relying on unproven, unsafe technologies.”

His reference is to the controversial technology known as carbon capture and storage — a set of techniques being developed to pull carbon pollution from polluting facilities such as power plants and from the air, and store it underground. The agreement calls for an acceleration of the technology.

Many scientists have expressed concern that carbon capture is unproven at scale, a distraction from policies to cut fossil fuel use and too expensive.

Some countries and experts have also expressed concern about the agreement’s recognition of a role for “transitional fuels” in the energy transition — largely interpreted to mean natural gas, a planet-heating fossil fuel.

“We want to raise the alarm that transition fuel will become permanent especially in developing countries,” said an Antigua and Barbuda delegate.

Last weekend’s clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea send troubling signals that their standoff is worsening to a point where lives could be lost, potentially dragging the world’s two most-powerful militaries into open conflict, analysts warn.

“The escalatory cycle is worrying,” said Ray Powell, director of SeaLight, a project at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University that monitors maritime activities in the South China Sea.

Analysts described Sunday’s clash, in which Chinese Coast Guard water cannons disabled a Philippine boat, as the most serious of four publicized showdowns this year between the two countries in the waters near Second Thomas Shoal, a feature China claims as its territory but where Philippine marines man an outpost on a grounded ship.

The Philippine boats were attempting to bring supplies to the badly deteriorating ship, the Sierra Madre, when the Chinese Coast Guard tried to stop them, both countries acknowledge.

A Chinese Coast Guard ship “deployed a water cannon against the Philippine supply vessels causing severe damage to (one’s) engines, disabling the vessel and seriously endangering the lives of its crew,” the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said in a statement.

While no injuries were reported Sunday, the clash, which also included a collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels, shows that serious injuries or deaths are “certainly possible,” Powell said.

And because the Philippines, like nearby Japan and South Korea, has a mutual defense treaty with the United States, deaths of Filipinos could trigger US forces to respond.

US officials have repeatedly cited the treaty in public remarks on the South China Sea and the US State Department this week reiterated Washington’s stance following Sunday’s clash.

The United States “stands with our Philippine allies in the face of these dangerous and unlawful actions,” the statement said.

China’s Foreign Ministry, however, told Washington it has no standing in the dispute, saying “no third party has the right to intervene.”

Beijing claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the South China Sea, including many features hundreds of miles from mainland China. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.

In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines and concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea. But Beijing has ignored the ruling.

Flashpoint outpost

Second Thomas Shoal, known as Ayungin Shoal to the Philippines and Ren’ai Reef to China, sits in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Manila grounded the Sierra Madre, a World War II-era former US Navy transport ship, on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 and has manned it with Filipino marines to enforce its claims to the area. But the rusting vessel is falling apart and is badly in need of regular repairs.

The situation on the shoal largely fell out of headlines while China set up military installations on other contested territories in the South China Sea over much of the past decade.

And the administration of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte tried to forge new economic ties with Beijing.

But President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022, has taken a harder line on Chinese territorial claims and strengthened military cooperation with Washington.

But Beijing has been steadfast in its claim that Manila is illegally occupying the shoal.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning accused the Philippines of seriously violating China’s sovereignty and endangering the safety of Chinese vessels and personnel.

But analysts counter that Beijing comes across as the aggressor.

“China acts, looks like and is being exposed as a bully,” said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.

And Beijing is looking to press its claim, the analysts say.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Koh said it may not even take explosive weapons to trigger the US-Philippine mutual defense treaty.

“When your water cannon attack actually caused physical damage, injury and potentially death, it begs the question about whether it matters whether you use firearms or just the kinetic force of water to qualify as an ‘armed attack’,” Koh wrote.

Any death might not have to be intentional, he said.

“Even if the Chinese try their best to avoid vertical escalation, what if there’s an inadvertent loss of lives, or severe injuries? Will that qualify as armed attack?” Koh asked.

US involvement

Koh, Schuster and others said Washington may have let the situation go too far already, emboldening Beijing to keep up the pressure on Manila to back off on its South China Sea claims.

Eric Sayers, a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote on X that Washington needs to “escalate” things with Beijing.

“They are estimating we won’t because we largely haven’t for the last 13 years since this type of behavior started,” he wrote.

Schuster said Washington needs more than State Department statements to dissuade China.

“Unless (the US) moves forces into position, Beijing will see no reason to avoid escalation,” he said.

Those forces could be direct US resupply of the grounded ship, the Sierra Madre, or at least joint escorts on the Philippine resupply missions, Koh said.

And the resupply missions are vital, said Sayers.

If Manila can’t get enough supplies to its ship on Second Thomas Shoal, Beijing could be even more assertive, he said.

And he warned that Washington can’t lose sight of the importance of support for Manila even while “the rest of the world is burning,” referring to ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza that appear to be dominating the foreign policy space in the US government.

The US needs to demonstrate that Asia is a priority along with Europe and the Middle East, Sayers said.

Can Washington “walk and chew gum like my Euro-centric American friends insist?” is a question that needs a strong answer, he wrote.

A major cyberattack on Ukraine’s largest mobile operator on Tuesday disrupted a regional air raid warning service and some banking services for Ukrainians, according to the operator and local authorities.

The attack appeared to be one of the more impactful cyberattacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly two years ago. It damaged IT infrastructure at mobile operator Kyivstar, forcing the company to shut down network connections to contain the incident, CEO Oleksandr Komarov said on Ukrainian television.

Kyivstar had 24.8 million customers at the end of 2022, according to Ukrainian state information agency Ukrinform.

In the northern Sumy region of Ukraine, air raid services experienced outages, according to the local military administration. “Due to a malfunction of the Kyivstar operator, the air alert system will temporarily be out of service in the territory of Sumy city territorial community,” the Sumy city military administration said in a Telegram post. “While the mobile operator’s specialists are troubleshooting technical issues, the community will be notified during the air raid by patrol police and the State Emergency Service,” the statement said.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it had opened a criminal probe into the incident and that one line of inquiry is whether “Russian special services may be behind the hacker attack.”

SBU teams arrived at the company headquarters to begin the investigation and “to document all the circumstances of the attack,” the intelligence service said.

The Russian embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russian state-backed hackers have launched an array of cyberattacks against Ukrainian critical infrastructure alongside airstrikes and other physical attacks to try to degrade Ukrainian defenses, according to Ukrainian officials, US officials and private experts.

The impact of cyberattacks is difficult to assess because of the fog of war, but Ukraine’s cyber defenses have largely proved resilient, according to independent experts.

As Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, hackers knocked out service for Viasat, a satellite service provider used by the Ukrainian military in the country. The Biden administration blamed Russia for the hack. Moscow routinely denies involvement in cyberattacks.

“So far, [the Kyivstar incident] seems to be the most effective attack on [critical infrastructure] in Ukraine” since Russia’s full-scale, Victor Zhora, a former top Ukrainian cyber official said on social media platform X.

Thousands of years ago, a star in our galaxy violently exploded and created a glowing supernova remnant called Cassiopeia A that has intrigued scientists for decades.

Now, a new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the closest and most detailed look inside the exploded star, according to astronomers. Analyzing the image could help researchers better understand the processes that fuel these massive incendiary events.

The space observatory has also allowed astronomers to glimpse mysterious features that haven’t appeared in images taken of the remnant using telescopes like Hubble, Chandra or Spitzer or Webb’s other instruments.

The new image was shared on Monday by first lady Dr. Jill Biden as she debuted the first-ever digital White House Advent Calendar, which includes Webb’s new perspective of Cassiopeia A that seems to shine like a Christmas ornament.

“We’ve never had this kind of look at an exploded star before,” said astronomer Dan Milisavljevic, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University, in a statement. “Supernovae are primary drivers of cosmological evolution. The energies, their chemical abundances — there is so much that depends on our understanding of supernovae. This is the closest look we’ve had at a supernova in our galaxy.”

Swirls of gas and dust are all that remain of the star that went supernova 10,000 years ago. Cassiopeia A is located 11,000 light-years away in the Cassiopeia constellation. A light-year, equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers), is how far a beam of light travels in one year.

The light from Cassiopeia A first reached Earth about 340 years ago. As the youngest known supernova remnant in our galaxy, the celestial object has been studied by a multitude of ground- and space-based telescopes. The remnant stretches for about 10 light-years across, or 60 trillion miles (96.6 trillion kilometers).

Insights from Cas A, as the remnant is also known, allow scientists to learn more about the life cycle of stars.

Seeing Cas A in a new light

Astronomers used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, called NIRCam, to see the supernova remnant at different wavelengths of light than those used in previous observations. The image shows unprecedented details of the interaction between the expanding shell of material created by the supernova as it collides with the gas released by the star prior to the explosion.

But the image looks completely different from one taken by Webb in April using the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. In each image, certain features stand out that are invisible in the other.

Webb observes the universe in wavelengths of infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. As scientists process Webb’s data, the light captured by the telescope is translated into a spectrum of colors visible to humans.

The new NIRCam image is dominated by orange and light pink flashes of color within the supernova remnant’s inner shell. The colors correspond to gaseous knots of elements shed by the star, including oxygen, argon, neon and sulfur. Mixed within the gas are dust and molecules. Eventually, all of these ingredients will combine to form new stars and planets.

Studying the remnant allows scientists to reconstruct what happened during the supernova.

“With NIRCam’s resolution, we can now see how the dying star absolutely shattered when it exploded, leaving filaments akin to tiny shards of glass behind,” Milisavljevic said. “It’s really unbelievable after all these years studying Cas A to now resolve those details, which are providing us with transformational insight into how this star exploded.”

Webb’s dual perspectives

When comparing the NIRCam image with the MIRI image taken in April, the new perspective seems less colorful. The bright swirls of orange and red from the April image look smokier through NIRCam’s eyes, showing where the shock wave from the supernova crashed into surrounding material.

The white light in the NIRCam image is due to synchrotron radiation, which is created when charged particles accelerate and travel around magnetic field lines.

A key feature missing from the NIRCam view is the “Green Monster” from the MIRI image, or a circle of green light in the remnant’s center, that has puzzled and challenged astronomers.

But new details can be seen in the near-infrared image that point to circular holes wreathed in white and purple, designating charged particles of debris that shape the gas shed by the star before it exploded.

Another new feature in the NIRCam image is a blob nicknamed Baby Cas A that can be seen in the bottom right corner, which looks like an offspring of the larger supernova remnant and is located 170 light-years behind Cassiopeia A.

Baby Cas A is actually a feature called a light echo, where the supernova’s light interacted with dust and caused it to heat up. The dust continues to glow as it cools over time.

“It’s staggering,” said Milisavljevic, who led a project team that contributed to the new image. “Some features have popped up that are completely new — that will change the way we think about stellar life cycles.”

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN’s Security Council.

A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly’s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.

Tuesday’s brief resolution calls for a ceasefire, for all parties to comply with international law, and for humanitarian access to hostages as well as their “immediate and unconditional” release. It notably contains stronger language than an October vote in the assembly that had called for a “sustained humanitarian truce.”

The vote, hailed as “historic” by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in the enclave since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Monday.

Israel has said it will not stop its military campaign until it eradicates Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza, following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. Over 100 hostages are thought to remain in captivity in Gaza.

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the resolution as a “disgraceful” attempt to bind Israel’s hands, warning that “continuing Israel’s operation in Gaza is the only way any hostages will be released.”

Israel has rejected previous calls for a ceasefire, though it agreed to a seven-day truce for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Israel along with the United States, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Austria, Czechia, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia and Nauru voted against Tuesday’s resolution.

While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and is seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The United States last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body.

‘One singular priority’

“We have one singular priority – only one – to save lives,” said General Assembly President Dennis Francis, opening the emergency session on Tuesday afternoon, warning that civilians in Gaza have nowhere safe to shelter from the fighting and aerial bombardment.

“Even war has rules, and it is imperative that we prevent any deviation from these principles and values – the validity of which resides in their universal application,” he said.

With vital infrastructure blasted to rubble and limited access to water, medicine and food, more Gaza civilians may end up dying of diseases than from bombs and missiles, UN officials have warned. Hunger is a growing issue in the enclave.

Addressing the assembly, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Washington does “agree that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire…and that civilians must be protected with international humanitarian law,” but urged nations to support an amendment to the resolution condemning Hamas, which did not pass.

”A ceasefire right now would be temporary at best, and dangerous at worst,” she said. “Dangerous to Israelis, who would be subject to relentless attacks, and also dangerous to Palestinians who deserve the chance to build a better future for themselves free from a group that hides behind innocent civilians.”

In a break with its southern neighbor, Canada cast its vote in support of the resolution, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issuing a joint statement with the leaders of Australia and New Zealand in support of “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire.”

South Africa’s representative Mathu Joyini meanwhile invoked her country’s “own painful past experience of a system of apartheid” to impress on fellow states the need to “take action in accordance with international law.”

Tuesday’s vote, she said, “presents an opportunity for us to illustrate that the organization that was created to give hope for peace is not tone-deaf to the suffering of the most vulnerable.”