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UK's biggest second world war prisoner camp unearthed in Yorkshire Josh Halliday North of England correspondent © Getty Images German prisoners of war clearing snow from the Whaley Bridge near Chapel-en-le-Frith, in Derbyshire in 1947. The forgotten history of what was once Britain’s biggest prisoner of war camp has been unearthed by archaeologists in the Yorkshire countryside. At its peak in the second world war, Lodge Moor camp near Sheffield held more than 11,000 mostly German captives. Its extraordinary stories have been overlooked for more than 60 years as its moss-covered remains were shrouded in thick woodland. Research by archaeology students shows the camp was used to hold the most fanatical of prisoners during the second world war, many of whom were from Germany, Italy and the Ukraine. FULL STORY

Frank Lampard: Chelsea appoint former midfielder as manager Chelsea have appointed former midfielder Frank Lampard as their manager on a three-year deal. Lampard, 41, has left Championship side Derby County to take over at a club where he spent 13 years as a player. He succeeds Maurizio Sarri, who left Stamford Bridge in June to take charge of Italian champions Juventus. Lampard led Derby to the Championship play-off final, where they lost to Aston Villa, in his first season as a manager. The former England international made 648 Chelsea appearances, winning 11 major trophies with them. He takes over with Chelsea under a transfer embargo after the club were given a two-window transfer ban by world governing body Fifa - a decision they are appealing against at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48632172

Palaeolithic Murder Where Victim's Skull Was Bashed in 33,000 Years Ago Revealed by Scientists Hannah Osborne Around 33,000 years ago, a man was bludgeoned to death in a cave in Romania, a team of scientists has said. After examining fractures on a fossilized skull dating to the Upper Paleolithic, the team say they have "indisputable hard evidence" of violence among Upper Paleolithic Europeans at this time, indicating murder was part of these ancient human's lives. The skull, known as Cioclovina calvaria, was uncovered by miners in a cave in South Transylvania in 1941. It was found alongside cave bear fossils and ancient stone tools. It is thought to be one of the earliest, well-preserved fossils of a modern human in Europe. Since its discovery, researchers have studied the skull, which belonged to an adult male, extensively. Katerina Harvati, from Germany's Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, told Newsweek: "He would have been a member of a hunter-gatherer population, living under probably relatively harsh climatic conditions...He probably belonged to the Aurignacian culture, a stone tool industry associated with the earliest Upper Paleolithic modern humans across Europe." He also suffered several skull fractures—two small ones at the front that were inflicted before death and another, large fracture on the right side of the skull. The timing of the latter fracture has been disputed, with researchers split over whether it happened before death or after. In a study published in PLOS One, the trauma has been reassessed using forensic science and experimental simulations, allowing scientists to work out how and when the injury was inflicted. Using synthetic models of the skull, the team threw it from heights and hit it with rocks and bats. Results showed there were two injuries that took place before or at the time of death. One fracture at the base of the skull, and another at the right side of the skull—the latter of which was inflicted with a bat-like object. Positioning indicates the fracture on the right of the skull was inflicted in a face-to-face confrontation, with the perpetrator striking the victim with the bat either in the left hand, or being held by both hands. The injuries did not heal, suggesting the blows were fatal. The team also notes that only the skull was recovered from the cave. It is possible that more bodily injuries were sustained in the attack and these could also have contributed to the man's death. Concluding, researchers say the injuries sustained do not fit with post-mortem damage, a fall or accidental injury: "Rather, they were sustained from multiple blows to the head with a club-like instrument, or from a combination of a fall and a blow to the head," they wrote. "The lack of any signs of healing associated with these fractures indicates that the Cioclovina individual did not survive these lesions. It is not clear whether the [fracture] alone could have caused his death. However, a depressed fracture of the extent and magnitude…would have caused fatal brain injuries resulting in a quick demise. "The location of this lesion suggests that it was inflicted by a blow from a likely left-handed perpetrator facing the victim. This may have been a result of a one to one conflict or murder by one or more perpetrators. Severe interpersonal conflict leading to death is, therefore, the hypothesis that is best supported by our findings." The point at which the man was killed was a period of intense technological innovation, cultural complexity and increased symbolic behaviour—for example, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic is considered the point where religion emerged. Understanding social relationships at this time are important in understanding how societies would later emerge. "Upper Paleolithic modern humans are often described in terms of innovation, art, and competitive cultural advantage when compared, for example, to Neanderthals," Harvati said. "We show that they were also capable of violence and murder, and thus also showed the darker sides of human nature." https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/paleolithic-murder-where-victims-skull-was-bashed-in-33000-years-ago-revealed-by-scientists/ar-AADP2ix

Stromboli: One dead as volcano erupts on Italian island 3 July A volcano has erupted on the Italian island of Stromboli, killing one person and sending frightened tourists fleeing. The victim is a male hiker who was hit by a falling stone, while other people were injured. The navy has been deployed for a possible mass evacuation, with 70 people already evacuated. The volcano is one of the most active on the planet and has been under a regular state of eruption since 1932. "Unfortunately one man is dead, there are a few injured, but none seriously," emergency worker Calogero Foti told Italy's Rai television. The victim was a 35-year-old man from Sicily who was hiking when the volcano erupted twice. His Brazilian friend was discovered dehydrated and in a state of shock, the AGI news agency reported. MORE

Premier League step closer to Women's Super League takeover from FA The Premier League has moved a step closer to taking over the Women's Super League from the Football Association. Clubs unanimously agreed to conduct a feasibility study into the idea at a shareholders' meeting last month. It follows talks between the Premier League and FA over the past six months, and no timeframe has yet been proposed. The FA is understood to be open to the idea, and see the women's England teams and grassroots participation as their long-term priorities. Neither they or the Premier League would comment. Any takeover could still be several seasons away. The FA set up the WSL in 2011 and oversaw its development to become Europe's only full-time professional competition with 12 teams for 2019-20. MORE

David de Gea: Man Utd offer improved new deal to stay Manchester United have made goalkeeper David de Gea an improved contract offer in a bid to keep the Spain international at Old Trafford. De Gea's current deal runs out in 12 months and efforts to get the 28-year- It is understood United's latest offer would make De Gea the highest-paid goalkeeper in the world. He came within a minute of joining Real Madrid in 2015. Whilst it is felt the former Atletico Madrid man wants to remain in Manchester, it is understood his advisors believe his status as one of the key figures in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's squad, and United's player of the year in four seasons out of five, should make him one of the club's highest earners. Out-of-favour forward Alexis Sanchez's £390,000-a-week contract is seen as the benchmark. Senior United figures have previously indicated they would allow De Gea's contract to run down in the hope an agreement will be reached, even though it risks one of their most saleable assets leaving for nothing at the end of the season. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48854483

Remote Mount Michael volcano hosts persistent lava lake Satellite pictures confirm there is a persistent lava lake inside the crater of a remote British Overseas Territory (BOT) volcano. Few enduring lava lakes are known globally; the one at Mount Michael on Saunders Island in the South Atlantic may be only the eighth such example. The 990m-high stratovolcano's setting makes it extremely difficult to climb. Pictures taken from space are really, therefore, the only way of looking inside the opening at the summit. Orbiting sensors from as far back as the 1990s have detected heat anomalies in the crater. But it has taken the most modern satellites to resolve the crater floor and to verify the presence of the lake. Satellites show the extent of volcano collapse Space project to monitor all volcanoes Scientists from University College London and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) assessed data from 2003 to 2018. This information indicates a continuous molten lava feature that is between 90m and 215m wide, with a temperature of around 1,000C. There are some 1,500 active volcanoes on the Earth's land surface but it is extremely rare for them to maintain a broiling liquid mass in their craters. Saunders Island is part of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands British Overseas Territory. "The island has been visited on numerous occasions, but no-one has ever climbed the mountain," commented Dr Peter Fretwell from BAS. "If you look at the imagery you can see why: the peak is surrounded by a huge snow-mushroom, extremely soft snow with an icing sugar like consistency, probably caused by the continual venting of steam by the volcano. "You cannot walk over this, you would have to dig through it, but taking the time to do this on such an active volcano would be dangerous," he told BBC News. A key question is how Mount Michael is able to maintain the lake. Why doesn't it solidify from time to time? BAS colleague Dr Alex Burton-Johnson said this had been a puzzle for a long time. "Our understanding is that volcanoes emit two types of material: rock (in the form of lava, pumice, and volcanic ash) and what we call volatiles (hot gases, including water, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Hence the white clouds (the water) and the smell (the sulphur)),' he explained. "Both of these are incredibly hot, transferring heat from the depths of the mantle. For most volcanoes, the rock outpourings result in lava flows, but for a lava lake to stay molten but not overflow, the flow of lava from depth must be low, and instead, the majority of the expelled matter and the source of the heat must be from the gases. "This implies that the lava beneath the volcano is very gas-rich." This requirement for a constant flux of heat purely from the emitted gases might explain why a cloud of vapour emissions is seen always to be coming from the volcano, Dr Burton-Johnson said. This is something that has been noticed right back to the first recorded documentation of the island in 1820 by Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. "In contrast, observations of eruptive activity are rather rare," the geologist added. The UCL/BAS team reports its assessment of Mount Michael's lava lake in the journal Volcanology and Geothermal Research. Lava lakes are also known at Nyiragongo volcano, DR Congo; Erta Ale volcano, Ethiopia; Mount Erebus, Antarctica; Mount Yasur, Vanuatu; Ambrym volcanic island, Vanuatu; Kilauea, Hawaii; and Masaya volcano, Nicaragua. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48852670

Lampard wants two assurances as Chelsea move edges closer Date published: Tuesday 2nd July 2019 9:51 Derby manager Frank Lampard will reportedly be confirmed as the new Chelsea boss by Thursday. Sky Sports News reports that the 41-year-old has been seeking assurances about owner Roman Abramovich’s expectations and the club’s plans once FIFA’s transfer embargo expires. The report goes on to add that ‘the interview process included an open exchange of views, with both sides wanting to be certain the relationship would work for them’. Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia is said to have ‘asked Lampard about his lack of experience as a manager, his vision for the club, and whether he would look to give opportunities to Chelsea’s younger players’. Similarly, Lampard ‘asked searching questions about Chelsea’s expectations, what constitutes success, and their transfer plans once the club is free to trade again’. However, Chelsea’s all-time leading goalscorer is also said to have told Abramovich that he does not expect any special treatment, and that he wants to be judged by results on the pitch. Sky Sports goes on to state that Lampard didn’t ask for guarantees to be given time to make an impact – even though when he signs the contract, Lampard will be Chelsea’s fourth manager in less than four years. Negotiations over the financial terms and length of Lampard’s contract were relatively easy to agree, Sky have also been told. Derby are expected to pursue his replacement as soon as Lampard is confirmed, with former PSV Eindhoven and Fenerbahce head coach Philip Cocu remaining their first choice. https://www.teamtalk.com/news/lampard-wants-two-assurances-as-chelsea-move-edges-closer

'The nation's sweetheart': Thailand falls in love with orphaned baby dugong Jamie Fullerton in Bangkok She eats sea grass, drinks milk from a rubber glove, snuggles up to passing canoes and frequently beaches herself. But these idiosyncrasies have not stopped an entire nation from falling in love with her. Thailand has a new national sweetheart – an orphaned baby dugong called Mariam. Mariam is being hand-reared after she was found alone near a beach in Thailand’s southern Krabi province in April and rescued. After photos showing the five-month-old marine creature appearing to hug her human helpers went viral online, Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) dubbed her “the nation’s sweetheart”. Now she is poised to become the star of a live video feed and experts are designing a coastal holding pen to protect her from passing boats. MORE

July 2, 2019 Atmosphere of Mid-Size Planet Revealed by Hubble and Spitzer Two NASA space telescopes have teamed up to identify, for the first time, the detailed chemical "fingerprint" of a planet between the sizes of Earth and Neptune. No planets like this can be found in our own solar system, but they are common around other stars. This artist's illustration shows the theoretical internal structure of the exoplanet GJ 3470 b. It is unlike any planet found in the Solar System. Weighing in at 12.6 Earth masses the planet is more massive than Earth but less massive than Neptune. Unlike Neptune, which is 3 billion miles from the Sun, GJ 3470 b may have formed very close to its red dwarf star as a dry, rocky object. It then gravitationally pulled in hydrogen and helium gas from a circumstellar disk to build up a thick atmosphere. The disk dissipated many billions of years ago, and the planet stopped growing. The bottom illustration shows the disk as the system may have looked long ago. Observation by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have chemically analyzed the composition of GJ 3470 b's very clear and deep atmosphere, yielding clues to the planet's origin. Many planets of this mass exist in our galaxy. Credits: NASA, ESA, and L. Hustak (STScI) The planet, Gliese 3470 b (also known as GJ 3470 b), maybe a cross between Earth and Neptune, with a large rocky core buried under a deep crushing hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Weighing in at 12.6 Earth masses, the planet is more massive than Earth but less massive than Neptune (which is more than 17 Earth masses). Many similar worlds have been discovered by NASA's Kepler space observatory, whose mission ended in 2018. In fact, 80% of the planets in our galaxy may fall into this mass range. However, astronomers have never been able to understand the chemical nature of such a planet until now, researchers say. By inventorying the contents of GJ 3470 b's atmosphere, astronomers are able to uncover clues about the planet's nature and origin. "This is a big discovery from the planet formation perspective. The planet orbits very close to the star and is far less massive than Jupiter—318 times Earth's mass—but has managed to accrete the primordial hydrogen/helium atmosphere that is largely "unpolluted" by heavier elements," said Björn Benneke of the University of Montreal, Canada. "We don't have anything like this in the solar system, and that's what makes it striking." Astronomers enlisted the combined multi-wavelength capabilities NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to do the first-of-a-kind study of GJ 3470 b's atmosphere. This was accomplished by measuring the absorption of starlight as the planet passed in front of its star (transit) and the loss of reflected light from the planet as it passed behind the star (eclipse). All totalled, the space telescopes observed 12 transits and 20 eclipses. The science of analyzing chemical fingerprints based on light is called "spectroscopy." "For the first time we have a spectroscopic signature of such a world," said Benneke. But he is at a loss for classification: Should it be called a "super-Earth" or "sub-Neptune?" Or perhaps something else? Fortuitously, the atmosphere of GJ 3470 b turned out to be mostly clear, with only thin hazes, enabling the scientists to probe deep into the atmosphere. "We expected an atmosphere strongly enriched in heavier elements like oxygen and carbon which are forming abundant water vapour and methane gas, similar to what we see on Neptune", said Benneke. "Instead, we found an atmosphere that is so poor in heavy elements that its composition resembles the hydrogen/helium-rich composition of the Sun." Other exoplanets called "hot Jupiters" are thought to form far from their stars, and over time migrate much closer. But this planet seems to have formed just where it is today, says Benneke. The most plausible explanation, according to Benneke, is that GJ 3470 b was born precariously close to its red dwarf star, which is about half the mass of our Sun. He hypothesizes that essentially it started out as a dry rock, and rapidly accreted hydrogen from a primordial disk of gas when its star was very young. The disk is called a "protoplanetary disk." "We're seeing an object that was able to accrete hydrogen from the protoplanetary disk, but didn’t run away to become a hot Jupiter," said Benneke. "This is an intriguing regime." One explanation is that the disk dissipated before the planet could bulk up further. "The planet got stuck being a sub-Neptune," said Benneke. NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will be able to probe even deeper into GJ 3470 b's atmosphere thanks to the Webb's unprecedented sensitivity in the infrared. The new results have already spawned large interest by American and Canadian teams developing the instruments on Webb. They will observe the transits and eclipses of GJ 3470 b at light wavelengths where the atmospheric hazes become increasingly transparent. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/atmosphere-of-mid-size-planet-revealed-by-hubble-and-spitzer

July 2, 2019 Mars 2020 Rover Gets a Super Instrument In this image taken June 25, 2019, engineers install the SuperCam instrument on Mars 2020's rover. This image was taken in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have installed the SuperCam Mast Unit onto the Mars 2020 rover. The instrument's camera, laser and spectrometers can identify the chemical and mineral makeup of targets as small as a pencil point from a distance of more than 20 feet (6 meters). SuperCam is a next-generation version of the ChemCam instrument operating on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. It has been developed jointly in the U.S., France and Spain. Once France delivered the last piece of flight hardware, the instrument was fully integrated on the Mars 2020 rover on June 25, 2019, in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility's High Bay 1 clean room at JPL. "SuperCam has come a long way from being a bold and ambitious idea to an actual instrument," said Sylvestre Maurice, the SuperCam deputy principal investigator at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, France. "While it still has a long way to go — all the way to Mars — this is a great day for not only SuperCam but the amazing consortium that put it together." Mars 2020 scientists will use SuperCam to examine Martian rocks and soil, seeking organic compounds that could be related to past life on Mars. "SuperCam's rock-zapping laser allows scientists to analyze the chemical composition of its targets," said Soren Madsen, the payload development manager at JPL. "It lets the Mars 2020 rover conduct its cutting-edge science from a distance." Also to be installed in the next few weeks is Mars 2020's Sample Caching System, which includes 17 separate motors and will collect samples of Martian rock and soil that will be left on the surface of Mars for return to Earth by a future mission. Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July of 2020. It will land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. NASA will use Mars 2020 and other missions, including to the Moon, to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. The agency plans to establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans... SuperCam is led by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the instrument's Body Unit was developed. That part of the instrument was installed in the body of the rover in May and includes several spectrometers, control electronics and software. The Mast Unit was built with contributions from numerous academic laboratories in France, led by the French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales, and includes the high-powered laser, a telescope, a camera, an infrared spectrometer and a microphone. Calibration targets on the rover deck are provided by Spain's University of Valladolid. JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/mars-2020-rover-gets-a-super-instrument

Climate change: Antarctic Peninsula 'can still avoid irreversible change' Even if global warming can be kept to a 1.5-degree Celsius rise from pre-industrial times, the Antarctic Peninsula is set for some big changes. This is the assessment of an expert panel of scientists. The group says reaching the threshold will likely result in a 50-150% increase in the number of days a year the frozen peninsula spends above zero. But although this means more melting, the team also stresses the "benefits" that come from not breaching 1.5C. Keeping below this figure should allow the peninsula to hang on to its remaining ice shelves, they argue. That's important because these floating platforms of ice that fringe the long spine of mountainous land work to hold back glaciers, preventing them from dumping more ice into the ocean and rising sea-levels. Recent decades have seen a dozen or so shelves either disintegrate or lose significant volume, as the peninsula has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet. "A 1.5-degree world" increases the likelihood of thinning and iceberg production, according to the panel. However, it's possible the largest ice shelves can still retain sufficient integrity to avoid further catastrophic failures. "Under 1.5, we don't expect ice shelves to be lost - but under more warming, they look far more vulnerable with consequences for sea-level and other impacts," explained Prof Martin Siegert from Imperial College London, UK. "The 'benefits' of 1.5 need to be explained - and we're trying to explain that while the peninsula is locked into change. It's still possible to avoid severe problems that would change the peninsula beyond recognition and without historic precedence," he told BBC News. Glaciers to honour 'satellite heroes' Antarctic instability 'is spreading' Prof Siegert and colleagues from UK and US institutions have written a briefing note that is being presented to an Antarctic Treaty meeting on Tuesday by the British Foreign Office. It sets out the consequences for the peninsula of a further half-degree rise in global temperature (the world has already warmed by about 1C since 1850). 1.5C is the preferred target to limit warming set out in the Paris climate agreement. The scientists stress that any rise will almost certainly be amplified in the polar regions. The extra half a degree globally is likely to translate in the Antarctic Peninsula to an increase of 1-2C in winter and 0.5-1.0C in summer. Co-author Prof David Vaughan, the director of science at the British Antarctic Survey, commented: "Local warming in the Antarctic Peninsula over the last few decades has been higher than almost anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere. "If similar high levels of local warming occur in the future, magnifying rates of change on the Antarctic Peninsula, then summer melt will move south and ice shelves that have not yet shown any progressive retreat or collapse could be threatened. "Larsen-C is probably the most vulnerable on the east coast and, if we're unlucky, could be impacted in the next couple of decades," he told BBC News. One mechanism that may mitigate the impact on ice shelves is if ponding meltwater can form efficient rivers that drain across and away from the platforms, rather than filtering down through crevasses. It's the downward movement of meltwater that can open up fissures, driving them through to the base of a shelf. This process, known as hydrofracturing, will weaken the structure. But there are examples where the meltwater finds an easier route to the sea via a network of channels cut in the top of a shelf. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48840528

Tottenham sign Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon Tottenham have signed France midfielder Tanguy Ndombele from Ligue 1 side Lyon for a club record 60m euros (£53.8m). The 22-year-old, who had spells at Guingamp and Amiens before a switch to Lyon in 2017, has signed a deal until 2025. He helped Lyon to finish third the French top-flight last season and twice played against Manchester City in Champions League group games. Ndombele has also made six appearances for the France national team. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48841318

June Was The Hottest Month Ever Recorded On Earth Rebecca Shepherd in NEWS There's no denying it, June was blazing but would you believe that it actually became the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, according to the European Satellite Agency? This means that across the entire globe, temperatures have never been as high ever before following a record-breaking heatwave across Western Europe. This might not be all that surprising given that parts of the UK were blasted with temperatures of up to 35C on one of the last days of June. Warnings were issued regarding barbecues, fires started all thanks to the ball of fire in the sky and if you were at Glastonbury, well, we just hope you packed your sun cream along with the wet wipes. Let's not forget that last June was up there with the best/worst (depending on how you look at it) weather as a mini-heatwave hit the sixth month of the year which was set to be the hottest for the UK in 42 years. The Independent spoke to Professor Hannah Cloke, natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading, who said: "We knew June was hot in Europe, but this study shows that that temperature records haven't just been broken. They have been obliterated. "This is the hottest June on record in Europe by a country mile, and the warmest June we have ever seen globally. "Heatwaves occur in any climate, but we know that heatwaves are becoming much more likely due to climate change. The global climate just keeps getting hotter, as greenhouse gases continue to build up, as scientists have predicted for decades." You might want to wait before packing away the shorts and shoving the fan back on top of the wardrobe because it's expected that Britain is set for the hottest July on record as well after odds were slashed. We all know that when bookmakers slash their odds, there might be something in it. So, with bets that July being the hottest on record going to 6-4 from 2-1 things are looking... well, probably. As well as bets for July, the bookies also make it 1-2 that this summer will be the hottest ever (we've already got June in the bag) and it's 4-5 for there to be a hosepipe ban. Speaking to the Metro, Coral spokesman John Hill said: "The mini heatwave over the last couple of days has prompted a flurry of bets on next month being the hottest July on record as many punters feel as though the hot weather is going to continue." Let's not even think about what this means for hay fever sufferers... https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-june-was-the-hottest-month-ever-recorded-on-earth-20190702?c=1562080978058

Women's World Cup: The English coach who helped USA's Rose Lavelle 'fall in love with the game' In 2017, US soccer star Rose Lavelle made her international debut against England in the She Believes Cup. After the match, she put her cherished jersey in an air-mail envelope, addressed to Roger and Averil Bradford in Gloucestershire, UK. Why? Because Lavelle - part of the USA squad set to face England in the Women's World Cup semi-final on Tuesday - credits the Bradfords' late son, Neil, as the reason she "fell in love with the game". Neil Bradford was Rose's first coach as a junior player in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sadly, after years of treatment for cancer. Neil died, aged just 44, in 2016 - just before Lavelle's international breakthrough. "Sport was his life," Neil's father Roger told BBC Sport on Tuesday. "He was in his element when he was teaching. It was his greatest gift." Neil was working as an academy coach at Cincinnati United Soccer Club when he spotted the talent of a young Lavelle. "I had hoped he would be able to be alive for when I got my first cap," midfielder Lavelle, 24, said in May. "I feel like it was kind of poetic that we played England. "I did get to play a club match in front of him before he died. It was nice to play one last time in front of the guy who basically made me who I am today. "He is a constant reminder of why I do what I do. He is the reason I got to this level. He is the reason I started to go out into the back yard and play around with the ball." Lavelle has gone on to win 31 international caps to date, scoring nine goals - two of them at this World Cup. Neil's father Roger added: "We used to always visit Neil in the States. "We have known Rose and her family since she was 10 years old. She was an outstanding player, always very quick. "It's lovely to hear her say she credits Neil with her success - but we always knew she would make it." Roger says he and Averil are in two minds over who to support during Tuesday's match: "The perfect result would be England to win 4-3 with Rose scoring a hat-trick." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48825640

Hubble’s Brand New Image of Eta Carinae NASA Goddard Published on Jul 1, 2019 In the mid-1800s, mariners sailing the southern seas navigated at night by a brilliant star in the constellation Carina. The star, named Eta Carinae, was the second brightest star in the sky for more than a decade. Those mariners could hardly have imagined that by the mid-1860s the brilliant orb would no longer be visible. Eta Carinae was enveloped by a cloud of dust ejected during a violent outburst named “The Great Eruption.” Because of Eta Carinae's violent history, astronomers have kept watch over its activities. Although Hubble has monitored the volatile superstar for 25 years, it still is uncovering new revelations. Using Hubble to map the ultraviolet-light glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas, astronomers were surprised to discover the gas in places they had not seen it before. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html

June 30, 2019 How Historic Jupiter Comet Impact Led to Planetary Defense Twenty-five years ago, humanity first witnessed a collision between a comet and a planet. From July 16 to 22, 1994, enormous pieces of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9), discovered just a year prior, crashed into Jupiter over several days, creating huge, dark scars in the planet’s atmosphere and lofting superheated plumes into its stratosphere. The SL9 impact gave scientists the opportunity to study a new celestial phenomenon. It was also a wake-up call that big collisions still occur in the solar system – after all, if Jupiter was vulnerable, maybe Earth is, too. Had the comet hit Earth instead, it could have created a global atmospheric disaster, much like the impact event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. "Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a sort of punch in the gut," said Heidi Hammel, who led visible-light observations of the comet with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and is now the executive vice president at The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy AURA (which manages astronomers’ interface to Hubble). "It really invigorated our understanding of how important it is to monitor our local neighbourhood, and to understand what the potential is for impacts on Earth in the future." 25 years ago, humanity had its first glimpse of a cosmic collision when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter — and the whole world watched. We’ve seen evidence of impacts all throughout our solar system, but we had never before been able to watch an impact while it was happening. Credits: NASA 360 Comets, cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun, are just one type of object that can wreak havoc on planetary bodies. Asteroids — the rocky, airless remnants left over from the formation of our solar system — are another. In honour of World Asteroid Day, June 30, we look back at this historic Shoemaker-Levy 9 event, which taught us the importance of looking out for potential impacts. Discovering the Comet Astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy discovered comet SL9 in March 1993. The Shoemakers were already a well-known comet-discovering astronomical duo, having discovered 32 comets together or separately in their careers. Calculations indicated that the comet, broken up into large pieces (some over a half a mile wide) by the planet’s gravity, was orbiting Jupiter and would impact in July 1994. Fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 as seen by Hubble on May 17, 1994. This image includes all 21 fragments and spans about 710,000 miles (114,000 kilometers), roughly three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The fragments impacted Jupiter in July 1994. Credits: NASA/ESA/H. Weaver and E. Smith (STSci) The news whipped the astronomical community into a frenzy – here was an opportunity to actually observe an impact. Other planets and moons are covered in craters, but we had never seen an impact happen. On Earth, scientists had recently confirmed that many of our own craters were created by impacts rather than volcanic eruptions, like the mile-wide (1.6-kilometer-wide) Meteor Crater in Arizona, and the 93-mile-wide (150-km-wide) Chicxulub Crater in the Gulf of Mexico. The SL9 impact with Jupiter would be an extraordinary opportunity to study how impacts affected a planet. MORE (FULL REPORT)

Frank Lampard: Derby manager excused from training for Chelsea talks Derby has excused Frank Lampard from reporting for pre-season training duties, with the club expecting him to be offered the head coach role at Chelsea. Lampard will not be at training on Monday or Tuesday as he continues talks with his former club. A statement said the decision has been made to allow the move to be "concluded as soon as possible". Derby said they will now step up "efforts to find a replacement". https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48823088

And I thought we were bad with heat, rain, thunder and lightning Freak hail storm strikes Mexican city of Guadalajara afp.com © ULISES RUIZ A freak heavy hail storm damaged buildings and buried cars and trucks in the area around Guadalajara, Mexico A freak hail storm on Sunday struck Guadalajara, one of Mexico's most populous cities, shocking residents and trapping vehicles in a deluge of ice pellets up to two meters (yards) deep. "I've never seen such scenes in Guadalajara," said the state governor, Enrique Alfaro. © ULISES RUIZ The hail deluge in Guadalajara trapped vehicles of all kinds "Then we ask ourselves if climate change is real. These are never-before-seen natural phenomenons," he said. "It's incredible." Guadalajara, located north of Mexico City and with a population of around five million, has been experiencing summer temperature of around 31 Centigrade (88 Fahrenheit) in recent days. While seasonal hail storms do occur, there is no record of anything so heavy. © ULISES RUIZ Not Siberia -- Guadalajara, Mexico in the summer after the powerful hail storm At least six neighbourhoods in the city outskirts woke up to ice pellets up to two meters deep. While children scampered around and hurled iceballs at each other, Civil Protection personnel and soldiers brought out the heavy machinery to clear the roads. Nearly 200 homes and businesses reported hail damage, and at least 50 vehicles were swept away by the deluge of ice in hilly areas, some buried under piles of pellets. While no casualties were reported, two people showed "early signs of hypothermia," the state Civil Protection office said. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/freak-hail-storm-strikes-mexican-city-of-guadalajara/ar-AADFoit