WORLD

A 150-year-old Banyan tree imported from India and one of the largest in the US is today struggling for its survival as deadly wildfires swept through the Hawaiian island of Maui, scorching buildings and killing more than 50 people.

The 46-trunk Banyan tree, called paniana in Hawaiian, was a mere 8-foot sapling when it was planted in Maui's Lahaina town in 1873, according to the online portal lahainatown.com.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled a puzzling cosmic phenomenon, resembling a colossal 'question mark' in space, leaving scientists bewildered. The telescope, operated by the European Space Agency, captured a highly detailed image in June, revealing two actively forming young stars known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, situated approximately 1470 light-years away in the Vela Constellation. The stars are enveloped by a feeding disk, nurturing their growth over millions of years.

Intriguingly, beneath the stars, within the captivating deep-space snapshot, an enigmatic object resembling a gigantic 'question mark' hung suspended against the night sky. The true nature of this oddity remains uncertain, yet experts from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, which manages JWST's operations, suggest the 'question mark' might be a remote galaxy or a pair of galaxies entrapped within each other's gravitational embrace.

Ukraine said its sea drones struck a major Russian port Friday and damaged a warship in an attack that underlined Kyiv’s growing capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war.

The strike on Novorossiysk — which halted maritime traffic for a few hours — marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the nearly 18-month-old conflict. The Black Sea port — which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports — lies about 110 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Crimea, where Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight.

The Islamic State group on Thursday announced the death of its leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, stating that he was killed in clashes in northwestern Syria, news agency AFP reported.

In a recorded statement on its channels on the Telegram messaging app, an IS spokesman said that the leader "was killed after direct clashes" with the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib province. 

We should have known as soon as the famously private Sebastian Vettel joined social media that something was up.

Sure enough, a few hours later, a video emerged from the four-time World Champion on his new Instagram account announcing his retirement from Formula 1 at the end of 2022, and silly season was officially underway.

The first twist in the tale came shortly afterwards, when Fernando Alonso, as he often has in the past, announced a shock move from Alpine to Aston Martin. The good news from Alpine’s perspective was that they had the reigning Formula 2 champion, Oscar Piastri, ready and waiting in the wings to step up…