【推荐1】TOKYO - A powerful typhoon is heading northeast to Japan’s main island of Honshu on Sunday after sweeping parts of the country’s southern islands with heavy rains and winds that caused flooding and some light injuries.

Typhoon Tapah was passing near Nagasaki in southern Japan on Sunday afternoon, after hitting other parts of southern Japan, including Okinawa, the two former days. Okinawa government had made an evacuation advisory(疏散警告) to nearly 334,000 people.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the storm was moving northeast at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour, with the strongest winds of 162 km/h. It would travel through the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula before moving toward northern Japan on Monday, when it is expected to be weak and slow the pace, the agency said.

More than 400 flights were stopped because of the storm, according to NHK. The typhoon hit Okinawa on Friday and Saturday and left 21 people with not serious injuries. The storm upset air and train travel in this area during what is a three-day weekend.

In Nobeoka City in Miyazaki, a strong dangerous wind believed to have been triggered by the typhoon damaged at least one house and injured two people a little, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. The coming typhoon also caused fears in parts of Chiba, near Tokyo, which was hit hard by another typhoon earlier this month. That typhoon damaged many houses and electrical power stations, causing widespread electricity’s being cut off in the area.

The Chinese Shenzhou-13 spacecraft and its crew of three taikonauts ended their six-month mission with a return to Earth on Saturday, 16 April after completing the first long-duration stay aboard the Chinese Space Station.

The astronauts performed two spacewalks, conducted more than 20 different science experiments and delivered two live educational lectures in space, the report said. Leading China’s most recent human spaceflight was Zhai Zhigang, a major general in the People’s Liberation Army and an experienced taikonaut, having joined the Chinese human spaceflight program in 1998 and becoming the first Chinese person to conduct a spacewalk during the Shenzhou-7 mission in September 2008.

Female taikonaut and People’s Liberation Army Air Force colonel Wang Yaping also has experience within the Shenzhou program. She became the second Chinese woman to fly to space when she flew on Shenzhou-10 in June 2013, and now holds the distinction of being the first Chinese woman ever to conduct a spacewalk.

Ye Guangfu, a PLAAF pilot, was the only Shenzhou-13 crew member who was a first-time flier. He was selected to join the taikonaut corps (兵团) alongside Wang Yaping in 2010, serving as a backup crew member for the Shenzhou-12 mission that launched in June 2021.

The mission marks that China has completed the verification (验证) of key technologies of its space station, and also sets a record for Chinese astronauts’ duration in orbit, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Calling the success of the astronauts a major win for China’s space exploration program, Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based international relations scholar, pointed out that as a major developing country, China’s stride in space science is an inspiration to the developing country.

By building its own space station, China will expand its scientific reach, Adhere said, adding that China’s space exploration program is also open to other developing countries. For example, Beijing is working with African countries across a range of space exploration themes, the scholar noted. “Such exchange programs have significantly boosted capacity for space development programs on the continent.”

Saying the mission is “definitely a success,” Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the Australian National University, told Xinhua that it is “important to move forward with a long-term space station and full operation.”

This mission has shown that China’s astronauts “are capable of long-term space flight, which makes Earth’s future goals and plans for the Moon and beyond exciting,” Tucker said.

【推荐2】Japan adopted a plan on Thursday to extend the life length of nuclear reactors (反应堆), replace the old and even build new ones, a major shift in a country scarred by the Fukushima disaster that once planned to phase out (逐步淘汰) atomic power.

In face of global fuel shortages, rising prices and pressure to reduce carbon emissions, Japan has begun to turn back toward nuclear energy. Under the new policy, Japan will maximize the use of existing reactors by restarting as many of them as possible and extending the operating life of aging ones beyond a 60-year limit. The government has also guaranteed to develop next-generation reactors.

In 2011, a powerful earthquake and the following tsunami caused multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, known as the Fukushima disaster historically, which supercharged much anti-nuclear emotion in Japan and led the government to promise to phase out the energy. But still, restart approvals for nuclear reactors have come slowly since the Fukushima disaster, which led to stricter safety standards. Companies have applied for restarts at 27 reactors in the past decade. Extensions are allowed every 10 years for reactors after 30 years of operation. Officer Shinichi Yamanaka says it will be safer than the current permit every 20 years for 40-year-old reactors. But experts cast some doubt on that.

According to the paper laying out the new policy, nuclear power serves “an important role as a carbon-free energy source in achieving supply stability and carbon neutrality” and it guaranteed to “keep use of nuclear power into the future”. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida planned to get the Cabinet to approve the policy and submit necessary bills to Parliament.

While public opinion on nuclear energy has softened since Fukushima, opponents still argue atomic power is not flexible and not even cheaper than renewables when final waste management and necessary safety measures are considered — and that it can cause immeasurable damage in an accident. Ruiko Muto, a survivor of the Fukushima disaster, called the new policy “extremely disappointing”. She added: “The Fukushima disaster is not over yet and the government seems to have already forgotten what happened.”

【推荐3】FORT WORTH, Texas — If 14-year-old Ruhani Ahluwalia had her way, her days would be filled with time to let her curiosity run free. How can a doctor attack cancer with medicines that don’t damage the patient? How can an artist touch a person with a hidden message in an oil painting? This is Ruhani’s world — where the pursuit of learning leads to more learning for a self-described Renaissance teenager, who is multi-talented and has interests.

Since age 11, she has been working summers in a lab at the University of North Texas Health Science Center researching cancer cells. She is testing drugs that can kill cancer cells while limiting the side effects on healthy cells. It’s a special mission guided by the heart because she lost a great aunt to leukemia (白血病) when she was in the sixth grade.

“What really damaged her eventually was the treatment and the side effects of it, which kills both cancer and normal cells.” Ruhani explained. Due to this, Ruhani started her cancer research. “I wanted to find a better way to target cancer cells.”

During the summer between sixth and seventh grade, Ruhani began research in the study of cancer with the help of her mother, Parmeet Jodhka, a microbiology professor, who taught her daughter the necessary biology. Working from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the lab, she has finally presented her findings at multiple science fairs. Her list of accomplishments is five pages long and includes placing third in Brazil’s science fair, MOSTRATEC, for her breast cancer research.

“I like learning,” she said, “There is a difference between learning and studying. Studying, you are too stuck in finishing it and in turning it in. Learning, you are doing more for yourself.”