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UNESCO: Nearly Half the World's Students Not at School

Pupils sit in desks with yellow dividers, set up as a measure against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Dajia Elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang
Pupils sit in desks with yellow dividers, set up as a measure against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Dajia Elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang
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UNESCO: Nearly Half the World's Students Not at School

Pupils sit in desks with yellow dividers, set up as a measure against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Dajia Elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang
Pupils sit in desks with yellow dividers, set up as a measure against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Dajia Elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang

More than 850 million young people, or nearly half the world's student population, are barred from their school and university grounds because of the coronavirus pandemic, UNESCO said Wednesday.

Calling it an "unprecedented challenge" for education, UNESCO said schools had been closed in 102 countries, with partial closures in 11 more -- and there would be more closures.

"Over 850 million children and youth -- roughly half of the world's student population -- had to stay away from schools and universities," the UN educational organization said in a statement.

"This represents more than a doubling in four days in the number of learners prohibited from going to educational institutions," it added, citing figures from late Tuesday.

"The scale and speed of the school and university closures represents an unprecedented challenge for the education sector," it said.

UNESCO said countries worldwide were rushing to fill the void by offering real-time video classes and other high-tech solutions.

Some countries were offering classes over television or radio.

The organization said it was holding regular virtual meetings with education ministers around the world to find the best solutions and determine priorities.

Coronavirus deaths in Europe have exceeded the toll in Asia for the first time, an Agence France Presse tally of official data showed Wednesday.

By 1100 GMT, Europe counted at least 3,421 deaths, compared with 3,384 for Asia, where China was the initial epicenter of a pandemic which has infected more than 194,000 people globally and killed 7,873.

Italy has the most fatalities in Europe with 2,503.

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Varieties

Police Help Families of Geese Cross London Street

The family of geese casually crossing the road... with the help of a police escort (X) 
The family of geese casually crossing the road... with the help of a police escort (X) 
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Police Help Families of Geese Cross London Street

The family of geese casually crossing the road... with the help of a police escort (X) 
The family of geese casually crossing the road... with the help of a police escort (X) 

Police escorts on The Mall are usually reserved for the visits of high-profile heads of state.

But when two families of Greylag Geese made a trip to St James's Palace, they, too, were awarded a special guard of honor by officers helping them back home, according to the Daily Mail.

The 11 goslings and four geese were attempting to cross The Mall to the Marlborough Gate entrance of St James's Park from the Palace when a police car flashing its sirens pulled up alongside.

Two officers got out and stopped traffic before marshalling the little ones and their parents to safety just after 8am on Sunday.

Bemused tourists instantly reached for their smartphones, no doubt expecting a convoy of gleaming limousines to speed by and on to Buckingham Palace at any moment.

But instead, they were treated to the wholesome sight of the geese, which was captured perfectly by passing photographer Jeremy Selwyn.

“I was driving up The Mall and hopped out of my car when I saw the police siren, and I thought ‘What is going on here?’” the 63-year-old told the Daily Mail.

“I was worried that something bad had happened at first, but then I saw these tiny creatures with their mums and dads waddling over the crossing accompanied by police officers,” he said.

Selwyn added, “It was a lovely sight, so I thought, I best take some pictures quickly! The police seemed to be loving it as well as the tourists.”

The photographer said, “I expect they all thought someone important was about to whiz past when the police car suddenly pulled out and stopped the traffic.”

Varieties

Astronomers Believe They’ve Detected an Atmosphere Around a Tiny, Icy World Beyond Pluto

This undated handout artist's impression released on May 4, 2026 shows the trans-Neptunian object (612533) 2002 XV93 occulting a background star as observations of a stellar occultation in January 2024 revealed gradual fading and recovery of the starlight, providing evidence for a very thin atmosphere around the object. (Handout / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Ko Arimatsu / AFP)
This undated handout artist's impression released on May 4, 2026 shows the trans-Neptunian object (612533) 2002 XV93 occulting a background star as observations of a stellar occultation in January 2024 revealed gradual fading and recovery of the starlight, providing evidence for a very thin atmosphere around the object. (Handout / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Ko Arimatsu / AFP)
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Astronomers Believe They’ve Detected an Atmosphere Around a Tiny, Icy World Beyond Pluto

This undated handout artist's impression released on May 4, 2026 shows the trans-Neptunian object (612533) 2002 XV93 occulting a background star as observations of a stellar occultation in January 2024 revealed gradual fading and recovery of the starlight, providing evidence for a very thin atmosphere around the object. (Handout / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Ko Arimatsu / AFP)
This undated handout artist's impression released on May 4, 2026 shows the trans-Neptunian object (612533) 2002 XV93 occulting a background star as observations of a stellar occultation in January 2024 revealed gradual fading and recovery of the starlight, providing evidence for a very thin atmosphere around the object. (Handout / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/Ko Arimatsu / AFP)

A new study suggests that a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike.

Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) or so across, this mini Pluto is thought to be the solar system's smallest object yet with a clearly detected global atmosphere bound by gravity, said lead researcher Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

“This is an amazing development, but it sorely needs independent verification. The implications are profound if verified,” said Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, the lead scientist behind NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. He was not involved in the study.

The finding offers fresh insight into our solar system’s farthest, coldest objects in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. Researchers used three telescopes in Japan to observe the object in 2024 as it passed in front of a background star, briefly dimming the starlight.

“It changes our view of small worlds in the solar system, not only beyond Neptune,” Arimatsu said in an email. Finding an atmosphere around such a small object was “genuinely surprising," he added, and challenges “the conventional view that atmospheres are limited to large planets, dwarf planets and some large moons.”

This so-called minor planet — formally known as (612533) 2002 XV93 — is considered a plutino, circling the sun twice in the time it takes Neptune to complete three solar orbits. At the time of the study, it was more than 3.4 billion miles (5.5 billion kilometers) away, farther than even Pluto, the only other object in the Kuiper Belt with an observed atmosphere.

This cosmic iceball’s atmosphere is believed to be 5 million to 10 million times thinner than Earth’s protective atmosphere, according to the study appearing Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

It’s 50 to 100 times thinner than even Pluto’s tenuous atmosphere. The likeliest atmospheric chemicals are methane, nitrogen or carbon monoxide, any of which could reproduce the observed dimming as the object passed before the star, according to Arimatsu.

Further observations, especially by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, could verify the makeup of the atmosphere, according to Arimatsu.

“That is why future monitoring is so important," he said. "If the atmosphere fades over the next several years, that would support an impact origin. If it persists, or varies seasonally, that would point more toward ongoing internal gas supply” from ice volcanoes.

Varieties

Is This the Real Face of Anne Boleyn?

A computer science team from the University of Bradford discovered a sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits. (University of Bradford)
A computer science team from the University of Bradford discovered a sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits. (University of Bradford)
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Is This the Real Face of Anne Boleyn?

A computer science team from the University of Bradford discovered a sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits. (University of Bradford)
A computer science team from the University of Bradford discovered a sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits. (University of Bradford)

Anne Boleyn won the heart of King Henry VIII, gave birth to one of the country's most well-known monarchs, and lost her head in 1536, but her appearance has continued to challenge art historians and online sleuths, according to BBC.

Now a computer science team believes they have discovered a previously unknown sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits.

Boleyn became Henry VIII's second wife in 1533, but her reign was short-lived: approximately three years. She was accused of adultery, incest and treason and was executed.

All the painted portraits that exist of her were made after her lifetime, creating a mystery around what she actually looked like and making her appearance the subject of fascination and debate for centuries.”

The research team, led by the University of Bradford, said the new discovery is “exciting” and the methodology could be replicated to do more art detective work. But there is skepticism from within the art history community over the findings.

“We don't have a lifetime painted portrait of her that's absolutely secure, a wonderful painting that we can use as a reference point,” said Dr. Charlotte Bolland, a senior curator for research and 16th-Century collections at the National Portrait Gallery, who is independent from the new study.

She added: “Her reign wasn't necessarily long enough for an established iconography... and there is this tantalizing suggestion that perhaps some of her images might have been deliberately destroyed.”

Although there are no known surviving paintings made in her lifetime, there are a handful of lifelike, yet contested, depictions left. Including a preparatory sketch with her name on it.

It exists within a precious collection of drawings of Tudor court members by the masterful artist Hans Holbein the Younger, now held by the Royal Collection Trust.

Many modern art historians, such as Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, accept the label on this drawing is correct and that it is a surviving contemporary likeness of her.

But there is a counter argument, which claims it was mislabeled.

Despite these opposing theories, what is widely believed, based on written evidence, is that the collection of Holbein drawings does indeed contain a portrait of Anne Boleyn - somewhere.