Foreign News
Mystery tremors were from massive nine-day tsunami
A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days.
The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from.
The landslide – a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it – triggered a 200m wave.
That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord – moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations.
Landslides like this, scientists say, are happening more frequently with climate change – as the glaciers that support Greenland’s mountains melt.
The results of the investigation into this event, which are published in the journal Science are the result of a detective mission involving an international team of scientists and the Danish Navy.
“When colleagues first spotted this signal last year, it looked nothing like an earthquake. We called it an ‘unidentified seismic object’,” recalled Dr Stephen Hicks from UCL, one of the scientists involved.
“It kept appearing – every 90 seconds for nine days.”
A group of curious scientists started to discuss the baffling signal on an online chat platform.
“At the same time, colleagues from Denmark, who do a lot of fieldwork in Greenland, received reports of a tsunami that happened in a remote fjord,” explained Dr Hicks. “So then we joined forces.”
The team used the seismic data to pin down the location of the signal’s source to Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. They then gathered other clues, including satellite imagery and photographs of the fjord that were taken by the Danish Navy just before the signal appeared.
A satellite image showed a cloud of dust in a gully in the fjord. Comparing photographs before and after the event revealed that a mountain had collapsed and swept part of a glacier into the water.
The researchers eventually worked out that 25 million cubic metres of rock – a volume equivalent of 25 Empire State Buildings – slammed into the water, causing a 200m-high “mega-tsunami”.
In the “after” photographs of the location, a mark is visible on the glacier – left by the sediment that the giant wave hurled upwards.
Tsunamis, usually caused by underground earthquakes, dissipate within hours in the open ocean. But this wave was trapped.
“This landslide happened about 200km inland from the open ocean,” Dr Hicks explained. “And these fjord systems are really complex, so the wave couldn’t dissipate its energy.”
The team created a mould that showed how, instead of dissipating , it sloshed back and forth for nine days.
“We’ve never seen such a large scale movement of water over such a long period,” said Dr Hicks.
Scientists say the landslide was caused by rising temperatures in Greenland, which have melted the glacier at the base of the mountain.
“That glacier was supporting this mountain, and it got so thin that it just stopped holding it up,” said Dr Hicks. “It shows how climate change is now impacting these areas.”
While this event was in a a remote area, these fjords are visited by some Arctic cruise ships. Fortunately none were in the area where this landslide occurred. But the lead researcher, Dr Kristian Svennevig from the National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said this was an increasingly common phenomenon in the Arctic.
“We are witnessing a rise in giant, tsunami-causing landslides, particularly in Greenland,” he told BBC News.
“While the Dickson Fjord event alone doesn’t confirm this trend, its unprecedented scale underscores the need to carry out more research.”
The event at Dickson Fjord, Dr Hicks added, “is the perhaps first time a climate change event has impacted the crust beneath our feet all the world over.”
(BBC)
The chief executive of the Washington Post is stepping down, the newspaper has announced, days after overseeing mass lay-offs.
William Lewis said it was the right time to leave, saying in a message to staff that was shared online that “difficult decisions” had been made to ensure the paper’s future.
On Wednesday the newspaper announced it was cutting a third of its workforce, dramatically scaling back its coverage of sport and international news.
The decision was condemned by many journalists and prompted criticism of the Post’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. Executive editor Matt Murray said the cuts would bring “stability”.
Jeff D’Onofrio, who joined as chief financial officer of the newspaper last year, will serve as acting publisher and CEO, the Post said as it announced Lewis’s departure.
A former Dow Jones chief executive and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Lewis was appointed to the role at the Washington Post in 2023.
He has faced criticism from subscribers and employees as he tried to reverse financial losses at the daily.
Hundreds protested in front of the paper’s headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday after the mass lay offs, which included the paper’s entire Middle East staff and its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent.
Marty Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said the cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations”.
The departure of Lewis marks the latest upheaval for the leading US newspaper, which has seen a series of staff cuts and controversial editorial decisions in recent years.
Shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, Bezos, the founder of Amazon, broke with decades of tradition by deciding the newspaper would not endorse a presidential candidate.
The newspaper had endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s – all of whom had been Democrats.
The move caused widespread criticism and led to the loss of tens of thousands of subscribers.
Meanwhile, the opinion editor resigned in February last year when Bezos decided to focus the paper’s comment section on “personal liberties and free markets”.
Bezos, who acquired the newspaper in 2013, said pieces opposing those views would not be published.
[BBC]
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host Nigeria’s president in the country’s first state visit to the UK in 37 years, Buckingham Palace has announced.
Bola Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu have accepted an invitation to be guests of the King at Windsor Castle from 18 to 19 March.
State visits are considered a form of soft-power diplomacy, using the pomp of royal hospitality to strengthen relations with important international partners.
The last Nigerian state visit to the UK took place in 1989, when military ruler Gen Ibrahim Babangida travelled to meet the late Queen Elizabeth II for a four-day trip.
Although this will be Tinubu’s first formal state visit to the UK, he has already met the King since taking office following Nigeria’s disputed election in 2023.
Tinubu and his wife were received at Buckingham Palace in September 2024 and also held a bilateral meeting with the King on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai.
But a state visit allows for ceremonial pageantry aimed at elevating the occasion and demonstrating the importance with which the UK views those visiting.
The visit comes at a time of improving diplomatic and economic links between the UK and Nigeria – with trade between the two worth more than £8bn in the year to October, government figures show. This makes the African nation one of the UK’s most important partners in the continent.
In 2024, the two countries signed a new trade and investment partnership designed to expand opportunities for business.
The agenda for the March visit has not been disclosed, nor details of the events planned for it – but state visits typically include carriage processions and a state banquet, and usually coincide with visiting leaders having political meetings.
In 2025 alone, the King presided over three state visits – those of French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Donald Trump and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier – the first time the UK had held such a number in a single year since 1988.
The King has longstanding ties to Nigeria, a Commonwealth country, having expressed a love for Pidgin English and Nigerian Afrobeats music.
Before becoming monarch, he visited the country four times as the Prince of Wales – in 1990, 1999, 2006 and 2018. Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, joined him on the latter trip.
In 2023, the King’s Trust International – formerly the Prince’s Trust – officially launched in Nigeria, announcing a project aimed at tackling youth unemployment.
[BBC]
The co-owner of a Colorado funeral home where nearly 200 decaying bodies were found has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for corpse abuse.
Before Jon Hallford was sentenced, he apologised in court and listened to family members describe having nightmares about their loved ones decomposing in his care. They called him a “monster” who should rot in jail.
His ex-wife and co-owner Carie Hallford has pleaded guilty to similar charges and is awaiting sentencing.
The Return to Nature home, in the town of Penrose, Colorado, had given fake ashes to grieving relatives instead of their loved-ones’ remains. Prosecutors said 189 bodies were improperly stored in the building over four years.
Afghanistan to bat first against New Zealand
‘I’d like to play on flat tracks’ – Shanaka links Sri Lanka’s batting woes to spin-friendly pitches at home
Washington Post chief executive steps down after mass lay-offs
Australia’s opposition coalition reunites after row over hate-speech laws
Showers may occur in the Western, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Matale, Nuwara-Eliya, Ampara, Batticaloa, Galle, Matara and Polonnaruwa districts
King Charles to host Nigeria’s first UK state visit in 37 years
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