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China announced Monday the discovery of a crude oil reserve estimated at 100 million tons in the northeastern part of the South China Sea, according to a statement from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The reserve was located at the "Huicou 19-6" oil field, situated approximately 170 kilometers off the coast of Guangdong province in southern China. The field lies in waters averaging 100 meters in depth.

CNOOC said test drilling at the site yielded 413 barrels of oil and 68,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day.

As US President Donald Trump prepares to announce reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he calls “Liberation Day,” attention is turning to the potential impact on global trade.

Trump’s tariff plans remain a major source of global uncertainty, with fears that countermeasures from other countries could deepen trade tensions.

His announcement that the US would impose 25% tariffs on car imports has brought renewed attention to Türkiye’s automotive exports to the American market.

According to data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), the US remains a key destination for Türkiye’s automotive sector.

https://archive.ph/H5h3n

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon

The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE have begun dismantling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), beginning with stated plan is to cut half of the agency’s workforce.

Their biggest cuts appear to be in the Large Business and International division, which audits wealthy individuals and companies with more than $10 million in assets. These are essentially the workers that make sure billionaires and corporations pay their taxes.

Musk and Trump claim to be sage businessmen, but it would be hard to find a business owner in America that would dismantle their accounts receivable department when their wealthiest clients still owe them money.

So make no mistake: These cuts will cost taxpayers a lot more than they save.

The coronavirus membrane protein (M) is the main organizer of coronavirus assembly1,2,3. Here, we report on an M-targeting molecule, CIM-834, that blocks the assembly of SARS-CoV-2. CIM-834 was obtained through high-throughput phenotypic antiviral screening followed by medicinal-chemistry efforts and target elucidation. CIM-834 inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 (including a broad panel of variants) and SARS-CoV. In SCID mice and Syrian hamsters intranasally infected with SARS-CoV-2, oral treatment reduced lung viral titres to nearly undetectable levels, even (as shown in mice) when treatment was delayed until 24 h before the end point. Treatment of infected hamsters prevented transmission to untreated sentinels. Transmission electron microscopy studies show that virion assembly is completely absent in cells treated with CIM-834. Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy reveals that CIM-834 binds and stabilizes the M protein in its short form, thereby preventing the conformational switch to the long form, which is required for successful particle assembly. In conclusion, we have discovered a new druggable target in the replication cycle of coronaviruses and a small molecule that potently inhibits it.

We show that the human brain contains diverse mitochondrial phenotypes driven by both topology and cell types. Compared with white matter, grey matter contains >50% more mitochondria. Moreover, the mitochondria in grey matter are biochemically optimized for energy transformation, particularly among recently evolved cortical brain regions. Scaling these data to the whole brain, we created a backwards linear regression model that integrates several neuroimaging modalities11 to generate a brain-wide map of mitochondrial distribution and specialization.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20241729

Rice University researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called “forever chemicals.” A study led by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and graduate student Phelecia Scotland unveils a method that not only eliminates PFAS from water systems but also transforms waste into high-value graphene, offering a cost-effective and sustainable approach to environmental remediation. This research was published March 31 in Nature Water.

Following months of testing, Plex has started to roll out its redesigned mobile app to Android and iOS devices, and it will arrive to everyone within the next week. The new app comes with an updated navigation system that should make it easier to access different parts of the app and find content to watch, along with a dedicated tab for centralized media libraries.

It also has a button in the top-right corner of the screen for your Watchlist and more artwork across detail pages for shows and movies, as well as cast and crew profiles. In a post on the Plex forum, the company outlines a ton of improvements it has made to the app since the preview, including faster load times and scrolling, the addition of a sleep timer, and picture-in-picture support.

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Now, thousands of protesters have been detained and government-owned media appears to be running a blackout on any coverage of the protests. A number of journalists have been arrested and a BBC reporter has even been deported after his reporting of demonstrations.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have gathered across Turkey in what was initially to express opposition to Imamoglu’s arrest, but have quickly bloomed into wider anti-government gatherings. However, Turkish state media has been accused of censoring any coverage of the protests. The Guardian reported that government owned channels broadcast interviews with ministers unrelated to the protests and that:

Substantive coverage of the protests has instead been the preserve of the small slice of newspapers and cable channels that exist outside the well funded and slick pro-government broadcasting networks.

Meanwhile, in 2023, there was a massive jump in arms exports to Europe. Overall, the value of UK companies’ arms export contracts to Europe more than quadrupled between 2013–17 and 2019–23, reaching £16.15 billion in the latter period. This reflects a trend towards European rearmament that has been going on for many years, but which greatly accelerated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Then, despite not being as high as in previous years, sales to human rights abusing regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar remain high. In 2023, the UK issued single licenses worth £515m (10.4% of the total) to Saudi Arabia, and £351m (7.1% of the total) to Qatar.

Hegseth’s visit to the Philippines comes in the midst of a critical mid-term election, scheduled to be held on May 12, that is functioning for the elite as a referendum on the geopolitical allegiance of the Philippines. The tariffs, spending freezes, and volatility of the Trump administration have thrown into sharp relief the question of Manila’s loyalty to its former colonial ruler. The Marcos administration, functioning as a proxy of US imperialism, has brought the Philippines to the brink of war with China.

The opposition to Marcos is headed by the Duterte family, which has sought to improve relations with China by distancing Manila from Washington. Over the past month, the Marcos government has overseen the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the arrest and extradition to The Hague of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, on charges of crimes against humanity. The current political situation in the Philippines is deeply unstable.

Hegseth announced that the Trump White House was lifting its funding freeze on $500 million in military funding to the Philippines committed in the final year of the Biden administration. However, hundreds of millions of dollars in USAID grants, for malaria eradication, educational improvement, and HIV/AIDS prevention, remain frozen and are likely to be scrapped. The release of military funding is seen as shoring up the political prospects of the Marcos administration slate.

Clearly supportive of the Marcos administration, Hegseth declared, “There is a very real reason why our first trip and our first visit is here to your great country,” to which Marcos responded, “Your visit to the region, and especially the fact that you have come to the Philippines as your first stop, is a very strong indication and sends a very strong message.”