Dutch Historian Finds Medieval Treasure Using Metal Detectorhttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4202826/dutch-historian-finds-medieval-treasure-using-metal-detector
Dutch Historian Finds Medieval Treasure Using Metal Detector
Photo of the treasure courtesy of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities Twitter account
A Dutch historian found a unique 1,000-year-old medieval golden treasure, consisting of four golden ear pendants, two strips of gold leaf and 39 silver coins, the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) announced on Thursday.
Lorenzo Ruijter, 27, who told Reuters he has been treasure hunting since he was 10, discovered the treasure in 2021 in the small northern city of Hoogwoud, using a metal detector.
"It was very special discovering something this valuable, I can't really describe it. I never expected to discover anything like this", Ruijter said, adding that it was hard to keep it a secret for two years.
But experts of the National Museum of Antiquities needed the time to clean, investigate and date the treasure's objects and have now found that the youngest coin can be dated back to around 1250, which made them assume the treasure was buried then.
By that time the jewelry was already two centuries old, the museum said, adding it must already have been "an expensive and cherished possession".
"Golden jewelry from the High Middle Ages is extremely rare in the Netherlands," the museum also said.
While it will remain a mystery why exactly the treasure was buried, the museum pointed out there was a war raging between Dutch regions West Friesland and Holland in the middle of the 13th century, with Hoogwoud being the epicenter.
Lorenzo said it is possible someone powerful at the time buried the valuable objects as a way to protect them and hopefully dig them up once it was safe again.
Given its archaeological significance, the treasure was given as a loan to the museum which will display it, but it will remain the official property of finder Lorenzo Ruijter.
NSG at LEAP 2026 Shapes the Future of Saudi Arabia’s Space Sectorhttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5314135-nsg-leap-2026-shapes-future-saudi-arabia%E2%80%99s-space-sector
The transformation of Saudi Arabia’s space sector reflects a national vision that positions space as a natural extension of the Kingdom’s technological capabilities. (SPA)
NSG at LEAP 2026 Shapes the Future of Saudi Arabia’s Space Sector
The transformation of Saudi Arabia’s space sector reflects a national vision that positions space as a natural extension of the Kingdom’s technological capabilities. (SPA)
The transformation of Saudi Arabia’s space sector reflects a national vision that positions space as a natural extension of the Kingdom’s technological capabilities and a strategic domain for strengthening national sovereignty and advancing a knowledge-based economy, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.
At LEAP 2026, Neo Space Group (NSG) stood out as a key national entity driving this transformation through an integrated approach that encompasses developing and operating space capabilities, building infrastructure, localizing knowledge and expertise, and developing Saudi talent.
NSG contributes to strengthening the Kingdom’s independence in the space sector by developing and operating space capabilities locally, including, most notably, the Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1 (SGS-1), which represents a pivotal step toward establishing space communications systems managed from within the Kingdom.
The company is also developing advanced operational systems, including the infrastructure and supporting systems required to manage satellites and their services, thereby enhancing the Kingdom’s ability to manage its space sector efficiently and with full sovereignty.
Global Warming Will Exceed Limit, UN Says as it Maps Path to Get Back Below Danger Zonehttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5313797-global-warming-will-exceed-limit-un-says-it-maps-path-get-back-below-danger-zone
This aerial picture shows a villager walking between dried-up rice fields with cracked soil caused by a prolonged dry season at Wening Galih village in Bogor, West Java on August 28, 2026. (AFP)
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Global Warming Will Exceed Limit, UN Says as it Maps Path to Get Back Below Danger Zone
This aerial picture shows a villager walking between dried-up rice fields with cracked soil caused by a prolonged dry season at Wening Galih village in Bogor, West Java on August 28, 2026. (AFP)
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. So now the world must figure out how to get temperatures below the danger zone and back to safety, officials say.
Earth is soon going to exceed the safe temperature threshold agreed upon by the world in the 2015 Paris climate accord because of warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, according to a bleak first-of-its-kind report issued by the United Nations Environment Program Wednesday.
Instead of giving up, scientists and UN officials recommend trying to limit excessive warming and then bring the temperature back down to the agreed-upon threshold. But it still will mean decades of increased weather-related disasters, rising seas, extinctions and melting ice and glaciers.
“Humanity is speeding past the limit to avoid climate catastrophe,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said.
After a period of over-the-limit warming, the new strategy envisions getting back below the limit by ending fossil fuel use and developing some kind of way to suck industries' carbon dioxide out of the air.
“It's a reality check. We have to live with this warmer world,” said report co-author Richard Betts, a climate scientist at the University of Exeter. “But there's still a lot we can do to limit warming.”
A dog sits in the middle of a haze-shrouded road caused by forest and land fires in Palangkaraya city, Central Kalimantan, on August 28, 2026. (AFP)
Passing the longtime warming threshold
After the Paris climate accord, the United Nations ordered its climate science arm to study different warming limits. A goal of 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above mid-19th century temperatures became generally accepted after the scientists found dramatic impacts that affect people and the planet at 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 degrees Fahrenheit) but not at 1.5 degrees.
The world is now at 1.4 C (2.5 F) above pre-industrial levels, some scientists have calculated. The measure is based on a 20-year average, rather than a single year's temperatures.
Despite experts saying there's no way to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, UN officials long maintained the 1.5 window was still open. Wednesday's report finally admitted that the world will cross the 1.5 threshold “in the next few years.”
The report said the most optimistic scenario has warming peaking at 1.8 C (3.2 F) around mid-century if countries pursue ambitious climate goals, but that governments' current policies should push temperatures to 2.6 C (4.7 F) above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
So instead of preventing warming of 1.5 degrees, now the UN said it wants policymakers to “prepare for and navigate a future” in which the globe crosses that limit and then corrects course and cools temperatures. The report envisions that global temperatures will pass 1.5 “within the next few years,” follow a hump-shaped path of more warming, peak, then gradually cool to below the 1.5 mark, ideally by the end of the century. The report and experts call it “overshoot.”
“Let’s be very clear, 1.5 target is still the goal. But now we need to approach it differently from above,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.
The 1.5 limit is not “some magical climate cliff” where it’s just game over, said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, who wasn’t part of the study. “Every tenth of a degree we avoid still means less damage.”
Limiting how high temperatures go past threshold is key
It's most important to first limit the new peak temperature and then reduce the amount of time above 1.5 degrees, Andersen said.
But the world likely will be in that overshoot period for “many, many decades,” Betts said.
Every five years of delay in reducing emissions adds at least a tenth of a degree to peak warming, said report co-author Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.
“If we act now we can limit overshoot,” the report said. “Not a safe world, but safer than remaining above” 1.5 degrees for the long term.
“This is among the bleakest UN climate reports I have read. It carries the unmistakable tone of desperation, frustration and urgency — but not resignation,” Weaver said.
Climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, said that “although UNEP does a good job of describing the hole we've dug ourselves into, it does a poor job of showing us that there's a way out.”
A photograph taken on August 24, 2026 shows a cornfield with dry ears, in Figarol, southwestern France. Due to the repeated heatwaves that have hit the south-west, Sébastien Maylin will be able to “barely cover the cost” of his fertilizer and seeds. (AFP)
Adapting to a deadlier, hungrier, thirstier world
Governments need to increase efforts to adapt to worsening warming, which hits the poor hardest, “because some impacts simply cannot be avoided,” Andersen said.
The report calls this phase “coping and containment.”
During this overshoot period, more people will die or get sick because of the worsening climate change and its extreme weather, the report said. Food production will drop, people will go hungry, water shortages will worsen, economies will be hurt and species like coral will go extinct, the report said.
Although the triggers behind the recent deadly Nepal flooding that came as part of a Himalayan glacier dislodging are complex, Betts said “unfortunately we do expect to see more of such things and this is exactly why we need to limit peak warming.”
The report warns of “tipping points” with irreversible and cascading effects, including the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, the loss of the Amazon rain forest and the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that keeps much of Europe warm.
“Some locations might become more or less uninsurable or even uninhabitable,” the report said.
The last phase in overshoot is cooling the planet by removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it somewhere. The report said the traditional approach of this is planting more trees, but it says planting trees could, at most, shave a tenth of a degree off global temperatures. So the authors said more novel carbon removal approaches will be needed.
Other scientists called that unreliable and expensive.
“We were unable to stop the runaway train of global emissions to avoid 1.5 C of warming,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who wasn't part of the report. “Now overshoot scenarios require us to stop the train quickly and to back it up. Is it our best hope? Absolutely. Is it likely? Absolutely not.”
New York City to Ban AI in Public Schools Through Eighth Gradehttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5313791-new-york-city-ban-ai-public-schools-through-eighth-grade
New York City to Ban AI in Public Schools Through Eighth Grade
The words “artificial intelligence,” a keyboard and robotic hands are seen in this illustration. (Reuters)
New York City will ban the use of artificial intelligence for students in public schools through eighth grade, a source close to the matter told AFP on Wednesday, confirming US media reports.
Teachers and parents have warned against the use of AI in schools over concerns about harming children's mental health and cognitive development, as well as environmental damage.
AI use will only be allowed in high school, which begins in the ninth grade in the American school system, the source said.
Even then, it will be limited to specific uses, such as learning about the technology itself, they said.
Eighth graders in the US are typically about 13 years old.
New York City Hall and the city's education department did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.
According to the New York Times, AI "companion chatbots" offering psychological support will also be banned.
The rules, however, allow teachers to use AI for tasks including preparing lessons or writing messages.
The new rules are to be announced on Wednesday, the Times reported.
The city's education department recommends limiting screen time to 45 minutes in class for middle schoolers -- sixth through eighth grade -- and 30 minutes for elementary school students.
But the question remains of how to monitor AI use, since it often takes place outside the school environment.
The new rules follow an initial framework published in March, which used a traffic light system to determine which tasks AI would be used for.
The framework, which allowed students to use AI for research, exploration and creative projects, sparked fury among many parents and teachers who considered it too lenient.
In response, the city's schools chancellor Kamar Samuels said that leaders had "missed the mark" in their communications, adding his office would carefully review parents' feedback for incorporation into future rules.
The city had long planned to follow the March framework with a more comprehensive "guidebook" to take feedback into account, the education department has said.
The department will set up a task force made up of teachers, elected officials, experts and union representatives.
The task force is to produce a report in April, intended to serve as the basis for New York's AI-in-schools policy.
The city's public school technology policies are closely watched by the rest of the United States, as it is by far the largest school district in the country, with over 900,000 students in 2024-2025.
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