This bright, easy-to-find open cluster of young stars looks to some like a flock of birds flying through the sky.
The Wild Duck Cluster (M11), an open star cluster located in the constellation Scutum, is observable approximately two hours post-sunset.
M11, approximately 250 million years old, has a collective magnitude of 5.8, contains nearly 3,000 stars, and spans an area roughly half the size of the full Moon.
M11 is easily visible with binoculars or small telescopes, exhibiting several dozen stars even in low-power instruments.
The cluster’s common name originates from its visual resemblance to a flock of birds in flight, as noted by astronomer William Henry Smyth.
The Wild Duck Cluster, also cataloged as M11, flies high in Scutum this evening about two hours after sunset. Around 10 P.M. local daylight time, you can find it some 40° high in the south, some 3° west-southwest of the tail feathers of Aquila the Eagle.
As an open cluster, M11’s stars are young, estimated at about 250 million years old. Shining collectively at magnitude 5.8, M11’s nearly 3,000 suns cover a region about half the size of the Full Moon and can be spotted in binoculars or any size telescope. This is a great beginner object, with several dozen stars visible in even small beginner scopes. The cluster’s common name comes from astronomer William Henry Smyth, who thought it looked like a flock of wild birds in flight.
Sunrise: 6:10 A.M. Sunset: 7:59 P.M. Moonrise: 10:12 P.M. Moonset: 11:01 A.M. Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (77%) *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full Sky This Week column.
A heavily pregnant woman has issued a plea for someone to swap Coldplay tickets with her so she can still see them perform in Hull.
Lauren Sheppard and husband Josh were thrilled last year to secure much sought after standing tickets to see Coldplay perform on 19 August at Craven Park Stadium.
However, with just three weeks to go before their daughter is expected to enter the world, Ms Sheppard said she was in no condition to stand for the entirety of the performance.
Appealing to fans with seated tickets to agree to a swap, she said: “Standing for five hours in this heat would not be very fun for me really but I would still like to go if we can. Hopefully, someone will take pity on us.”
Pleading to viewers on BBC Look North, Mrs Sheppard, from Hull, said: “I would really, really like some seated tickets swapping for our standing. Think of my ankles, please!”
The UK shows – which are completely sold out – are part of the band’s European leg on their Music of the Spheres World Tour, which started in 2022.
Coldplay will take to the stage at Craven Park Stadium – the tour’s second-to-last stop – on 18 and 19 August, before finishing with the final 10 concerts at Wembley.
Hong Kong’s hygiene officers will adopt an “act first” approach by clearing stagnant water in unattended private places to tackle the threat of chikungunya fever, the city’s environment minister has said.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Wednesday pledged to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds, even in places where responsibility for maintenance was unclear.
“This is a critical time for disease prevention. I believe the public is most concerned about private alleyways where no government department is clearly responsible,” Tse told a radio programme, a day after the city recorded its sixth imported case of chikungunya fever.
“If the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department sees stagnant water or a potential mosquito problem, but cannot find the person in charge as the management of private streets and buildings can sometimes be unclear, it will act first to clean it.”
Tse referred to “three-nil” buildings that have neither an owners’ corporation nor a residents’ organisation and do not employ a property management company.
He added that other government departments were expected to adopt the same mindset, tackling issues as they arose and avoiding delays caused by jurisdictional disputes.
“We need everyone to work together on mosquito extermination. It would be inefficient if we were to divide the tasks among different departments,” Tse said.
The room is hot, sticky and covered in trampled confetti. A mashup of noughties bangers impels our bodies to move. As Club Nvrlnd draws to a close, the audience doesn’t want to get off the stage, our throats scratchy from screaming along. “I’m singing along to every word, every night,” grins the show’s writer, Jack Holden, bounding over after having just had a boogie on the platform. We are all glistening with sweat and nostalgia, this show’s giddy delirium impossible to resist.
Over the next few months, the spotlight is sticking to Holden. A powerhouse of a performer and a deft, emotive writer, the 35-year-old’s jukebox-nightclub musical already has audiences at the Edinburgh fringe lining up in the street. His adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s queer classic novel The Line of Beauty, meanwhile, is soon to be staged at the Almeida in London, and the true-crime thriller Kenrex, that he co-wrote and stars in, is returning for a London run. “I’m an optimist,” he says, smiling bashfully over coffee earlier in the day. “I say yes to things then work out how to do them.”
Proving his muscle as an actor in War Horse and comedy series Ten Percent, Holden showed his strength as a writer with Cruise, an electronically scored story of a survivor of the Aids crisis blended with his time volunteering at LGBTQ+ listening service Switchboard. Seeing the Olivier-nominated show, producer David Adkin and director Steve Kunis approached Holden with another challenge: to write the book for a musical transposing the familiar story of Peter Pan into a noughties nightclub. “I’m a Peter Pan myself,” Holden admits. “Afraid of growing up, trying to create musical, euphoric, hedonistic neverlands of my own. With Club Nvrlnd, I’ve been able to realise it in my purest, most silly, unashamed way.”
‘Absolute chaos’ … Jukebox musical Club Nvrlnd features 00s hits. Photograph: Mihaela Bodlovic
In this hazy, fairy-dust-fuelled world we, the lost boys, join Peter (a petulant Thomas Grant) on the eve of his 30th birthday. Having peaked in high school, he’s now refusing to grow up. RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Le Fil shines as our compere Tiger Lily while a rival club owner, a glimmering, bare-chested Hook (Matthew Gent), tries to sabotage Nvrlnd. “It’s absolute chaos,” Holden grins. “I think we found our audience last night. They are young and ready to dance.”
Music pulsates through all of Holden’s work. For Kenrex, his thriller co-written with Ed Stamboulian, he has continued his collaboration with The Little Unsaid’s John Patrick Elliot, who scored Cruise. The show has been seven years in the making. “We’ve cooked it low and slow,” Holden says. “It’s not a cost-effective process.” But it has given them time to find the right form for what began as an experiment, asking whether it was possible to stage a true-crime podcast. They had workshopped the show with a cast of 10 when lockdown hit. “We realised, in true-crime radio, you hear voices in sequence,” he reasons, “so it could be coming from one voice.” Holden now plays every part.
‘It’s a tightrope walk every night’ … Jack Holden in Kenrex. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
To watch his performance over the course of Kenrex is to see a shapeshifter in action. With Elliot’s music and clever tech, Holden rolls through the roster of distinct characters who, in 1981, finally decide to take justice into their own hands. Holden found inspiration in Andrew Scott’s one-man show Vanya, which revealed the power in taking time to transition between characters. “Kenrex is an exercise in stillness,” he says. “It’s a tightrope walk every night.”
Holden’s theatrical exploration of the 80s continues with The Line of Beauty, which he is adapting for Rupert Goold’s last season at the Almeida. His version streamlines the text to focus on the four young men as they navigate the decade’s societal shifts with varying levels of privilege. “It’s about how much has changed,” says Holden, “but also how much of that entrenched class structure and snobbery is absolutely the same.” The story also returns his focus to the Aids crisis. “I have fictional arguments in my head about why I’m doing another play about [this topic],” he says. “But then I argue back and go: how many war movies have been made?”
Shapeshifter … Jack Holden in Cruise, which is set against the Aids crisis of the 80s. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
Born in 1990, Holden questions his place to write about the 80s, but he sees its long shadow snaking through his life, with the homophobic legislation Section 28 only repealed when he was a teenager. “Older gay friends who remember before the Aids crisis say everyone was just having a wild time,” he says ruefully. “Then Aids came along and instilled so much terror.”
Now, with the ready availability of the drug PrEP, Holden hopes the debilitating weight of that fear is finally lifting. “It’s a bit of a sexual renaissance,” he laughs. Freedom is starting to unfurl again. The looseness of bodies. The embrace of a wild night out. The unadulterated fun that Club Nvrlnd encourages. Holden smiles. “The best drama always happens on the dancefloor.”
WASHINGTON – Aug. 13, 2025 | Verra is proud to announce that the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has approved the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program’s biochar and improved forest management (IFM) methodologies (VM0044, v1.2 and VM0045, v1.2) as meeting the Core Carbon Principles (CCP) criteria. With this approval, the ICVCM recognizes both methodologies as meeting the highest global benchmarks for scientific rigor and environmental integrity.
Verra’s biochar methodology, VM0044 Biochar Utilization in Soil and Non-Soil Applications, v1.2, sets a new benchmark for the responsible production and use of biochar: a highly stable form of carbon that, when applied to soil or incorporated into durable products, locks carbon away for centuries.
VM0045 Improved Forest Management Using Dynamic Matched Baselines from National Forest Inventories, v1.2, one of Verra’s IFM methodologies, introduces a groundbreaking approach to forest carbon accounting by moving away from static, model-based baselines and instead using continuously monitored, real-world forest inventory data to establish dynamic baselines.
Description of confirmed malaria cases and precipitation data
A total of 5,522,650 confirmed malaria cases were reported during the study period in Togo (Table 1). Between 2013 and 2017, confirmed malaria cases increased from 915,117 to 1,204,192 cases. This increase was observed in all three target groups. Children < 5 years old, children ≥ 5 years old and adults, and pregnant women represented 36.6%, 58.5% and 4.9% of the total number of confirmed malaria cases, respectively.
Table 1 Number of confirmed malaria cases from 2013 to 2017 by target group in Togo
The intensity of monthly precipitation and duration of the rainy season varied between northern and southern health districts (Figure S1). In the north, precipitation was more intense than in the south, especially between July and September. The maximum monthly rainfall was observed in the Binah district in August 2017, with 411 mm. In the south, maximum precipitation occurred mainly in May, June, September or October depending on the year.
Epidemic periods in children < 5 years old
The monthly observed and predicted cases in children < 5 years old from 2013 to 2017 are shown in Figure S2 for each health district. In children < 5 years old, 29 health districts recorded one epidemic period per year, five health districts recorded two epidemic periods per year, one health district recorded three epidemic periods per year, and five health districts recorded no epidemic period (Fig. 2, Table S1). A time lag of at least one month was observed between the onset of precipitation and the start of the epidemic periods, except for the Wawa district. The duration of the epidemic periods varied from one to nine months. The maximum duration of an epidemic period was observed in the Kpele district from April to December.
In the health districts of the Savanes region, the epidemic periods were observed from July to November. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 168 to 347% and occurred in July, August or October.
In the health districts of the Kara region, the epidemic periods began between May and July, and ended in October or November. The maximum relative increase in cases occurred in July or August (increase ranging from 127 to 264%).
In the health districts of the Centrale region, the epidemic periods began in April or May, and ended between August and November. The months with the highest relative increase in cases were May and July (increase of between 140 and 230%).
In the Plateaux region, some districts had one long epidemic period (from six to nine months), and other had several short epidemic periods (from one to five months) or a single month with an excess of cases compared to January. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 46 to 164%.
In the health districts of the Maritime region, the epidemic periods began in May or June and varied from one to seven months. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 52 to 130%.
In the Lome-commune region, only the District 2 recorded a one-month epidemic period in July with a relative increase in cases of 123%.
Fig. 2
Relative variation in the number of confirmed malaria cases for each month of the year compared to January with its 95% confidence interval in children < 5 years old by health district in Togo, 2013–2017. Estimates were derived from generalised additive models. At the top left is the northernmost district and at the bottom right is the southernmost district
Epidemic periods in children ≥ 5 years old and adults
The monthly observed and predicted cases in children ≥ 5 years old and adults from 2013 to 2017 are shown in Figure S3 for each health district. In children ≥ 5 years old and adults, 29 health districts recorded one epidemic period per year, nine health districts recorded two epidemic periods per year, and two health districts recorded no epidemic period (Fig. 3, Table S2). A time lag of at least one month was observed between the onset of precipitation and the start of the epidemic periods, except for the Wawa and Danyi districts. The duration of the epidemic periods varied from one to nine months. The maximum duration of an epidemic period was observed in the Tchaoudjo district from April to December.
In the health districts of the Savanes region, the epidemic periods were observed from July to November or December. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 126 to 381% and occurred between August and October.
In the health districts of the Kara region, the epidemic periods began between May and August, and ended in November (except for the Keran district). The maximum relative increase in cases occurred in May, June or between August and November (increase ranging from 82 to 192%).
In the health districts of the Centrale region, the epidemic periods began in April or May, and ended between September and December. The months with the highest relative increase were May, July and August (increase of between 112 and 166%).
In the Plateaux region, some districts had one epidemic period from one to seven months, and other had several epidemic periods from one to five months. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 75 to 122% and occurred mainly in May or October.
In the health districts of the Maritime region, the epidemic periods began in May or June and varied from one to four months. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 57 to 172%.
In the health districts of the Lome-commune region, the epidemic periods began in June or July and varied from one to three months.
Fig. 3
Relative variation in the number of confirmed malaria cases for each month of the year compared to January with its 95% confidence interval in children ≥ 5 years old and adults by health district in Togo, 2013–2017. Estimates were derived from generalised additive models. At the top left is the northernmost district and at the bottom right is the southernmost district
Epidemic periods in pregnant women
The monthly observed and predicted cases in pregnant women from 2013 to 2017 are shown in Figure S4 for each health district. In pregnant women, 22 health districts recorded one epidemic period per year, seven health districts recorded two epidemic periods per year, three health districts recorded three epidemic periods per year, and eight health districts recorded no epidemic period (Fig. 4, Table S3). A time lag of at least one month was observed between the onset of precipitation and the start of the epidemic periods, except for the Tchaoudjo district and the District 3. The duration of the epidemic periods varied from one to seven months. The maximum duration of an epidemic period was observed in the Tchamba district from May to November.
In the health districts of the Savanes region, the epidemic periods began in July or August, and ended between September and December. The maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 55 to 260% and occurred in August or September.
In the health districts of the other five regions, the epidemic periods did not follow a specific pattern as observed in the other target groups. A single long epidemic period was observed in the health districts of Binah, Tchamba, Est mono and Anie (4 to 7 months), while multiple short epidemic periods were observed in some health districts such as Assoli, Blitta or Agou. Of the 12 health districts in the Maritime and Lome-commune regions, seven districts recorded no epidemic period and three districts recorded a one-month epidemic period. In the health districts of these five regions, the maximum relative increase in cases ranged from 41 to 167%.
Fig. 4
Relative variation in the number of confirmed malaria cases for each month of the year compared to January with its 95% confidence interval in pregnant women by health district in Togo, 2013–2017. Estimates were derived from generalised additive models. At the top left is the northernmost district and at the bottom right is the southernmost district
Dairy farmers have warned that a long-running shortage of workers, exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic, has put the UK’s food security under pressure.
Five in six farmers who have looked for workers said they have received very few or zero applications from qualified people for their job vacancies, according to a survey of dairy producers by Arla, the UK’s largest dairy cooperative and the owner of the Lurpak and Cravendale brands.
The fifth annual poll of Arla’s 1,900 British dairy farmers has highlighted the worsening struggle to find workers with the right skills and experience, with 79% of farmers highlighting this problem in 2021, rising to 84% this year.
The difficulties in hiring staff had grown worse since Brexit and the pandemic, milk producers reported, as the combination of the end of free movement for EU workers and other economic factors since Covid have made it harder to find suitable staff, while there has been a similar story across the whole of the agricultural sector.
Nearly half (48.6%) of those surveyed said it was now harder to retain staff than it was before Brexit and the pandemic, while only 5% said the situation had improved.
More than one in 10 (13%) respondents said they would leave farming altogether in the next 12 months if there was no improvement in labour shortages, and 6% said they had been forced to cut the amount of milk they produced.
Arla itself has seen a reduction in milk producers over the past few years, although production volumes have remained constant. Its membership has fallen by about 300, from 2,100 three years ago, as farmers have retired or through consolidation of farms, amid a trend for keeping larger herds. Arla members represent almost a third of all UK dairy farmers.
Nearly 200 British dairy farmers quit the industry over the 12 months to April 2025, according to the most recent figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), taking the total number of producers to 7,040.
The industry has been warning for some time that a continued exodus of dairy farmers could jeopardise the UK’s current self-sufficiency in liquid milk.
“What we’re seeing is the real impact of these workforce shortages on our farming industry, whether that’s in higher costs or lower milk production,” said Bas Padberg, managing director of Arla Foods UK.
“The effect of this is ultimately going to be seen in the price and availability of products on the supermarket shelves, affecting the millions of people that rely on dairy as a source of nutrition in their diet.”
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Arla – which, like other companies, runs its own apprenticeship schemes as well as industrial placements – said the government had acknowledged the ongoing difficulties with recruiting staff, and welcomed the focus on talent and development as part of the upcoming food strategy.
However, Padberg called for “practical steps that the industry, the education sector and government can take together” to attract more people, especially younger workers, to the dairy sector.
Dairy, like much of the rest of agriculture, has an ageing workforce and nearly half (47%) of farmers are aged 55 and over. Younger workers are most likely to enter the industry if it is in the family: two-thirds (66%) of farmers said their farms had been passed down at least four generations, while only 3% of respondents said they were first-generation.
The ITTF World Para Table Tennis Championships 2026 will make history when 165 male and 165 female athletes compete in Pattaya from 23-29 November, marking the first time the event has achieved complete gender equality.
This groundbreaking milestone coincides perfectly with the ITTF’s centenary celebrations, creating what promises to be a special ITTF World Para Championships in the sport’s history.
The ITTF World Para Championships, held every four years since 1990, have grown from modest origins to become one of sport’s most prestigious gatherings. This ninth edition promises to be the most significant yet.
Pattaya, Thailand
Thailand’s selection as host reflects their exceptional contribution to Para table tennis development. Since Rungroj Thainiyom’s breakthrough gold at London 2012 sparked the nation’s Para table tennis revolution, Thailand has consistently demonstrated world-class hosting capabilities.
Events
The 330-athlete field will contest 37 medal events across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles competitions, spanning wheelchair (classes 1-5), standing (classes 6-10), and intellectual impairment (class 11) categories.
Singles: 10 male and 10 female events (Classes 1, 2, 3, 4-5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11)
Doubles Competition: Five male events (MD4, MD8, MD14, MD18, MD22) and five female events (WD5, WD10, WD14, WD20, WD22)
(Reuters) – New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Wednesday that Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu had “lost the plot” as the country weighs up whether to recognise a Palestinian state.
Luxon told reporters that the lack of humanitarian assistance, the forceful displacement of people and the annexation of Gaza were utterly appalling and that Netanyahu had gone way too far.
Luxon said earlier this week New Zealand was considering whether to recognise a Palestinian state. Close ally Australia on Monday joined Canada, the UK and France in announcing it would do so at a U.N. conference in September.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached “unimaginable levels”, Britain, Canada, Australia and several of their European allies said on Tuesday, calling on Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Israel has denied responsibility for hunger spreading in Gaza, accusing Hamas militants of stealing aid shipments, which Hamas denies.
Ahead of Wednesday’s parliamentary session, a small number of protesters gathered outside the country’s parliament buildings, beating pots and pans. Local media organisation Stuff reported protesters chanted “MPs grow a spine, recognise Palestine.”
On Tuesday, Greens parliamentarian Chloe Swarbrick was removed from parliament’s debating chamber after she refused to apologise for a comment insinuating government politicians were spineless for not supporting a bill to “sanction Israel for its war crimes.”
Swarbrick was ordered to leave the debating chamber for a second day on Wednesday after she again refused to apologise. When she refused to leave, the government voted to suspend her.
“Sixty-eight members of this House were accused of being spineless,” House speaker Gerry Brownlee said. “There has never been a time where personal insults like that delivered inside a speech were accepted by this House and I’m not going to start accepting it.”
As Swarbrick left, she called out “free Palestine.”
2024/25 will see us reach 100 consecutive seasons in England’s top-flight, but the story about how that run started has gone down in football folklore, and contributed to our biggest rivalry.
While our derby days between us and Tottenham Hotspur are sparked by geographical location and football history, one particular decision in 1919 that kick-started our century of top-flight campaigns did little to bond us with our neighbours.
The story begins with us finishing sixth in the 1914/15 Second Division season – the final campaign before football was suspended due to World War I. After a four-year wait, in 1919 the Football League decided to restart and increase in size from 40 to 44 teams, split equally into leagues of 22.
During previous expansions in 1898 and 1905, the top Second Division sides were promoted as usual, and indeed on this occasion Derby County and Preston North End did move into the First Division. The two teams that were relegated meanwhile would appeal to the rest of the Football League clubs to avoid demotion, and in this case, Chelsea and Tottenham were looking for a stay of execution.
The Blues’ nomination was a foregone conclusion because their relegation had been controversial. Manchester United had only escaped the drop on the final day as a result of fixing their game against Liverpool, and ultimately the other clubs unanimously voted to reinstate the hard-done-by west Londoners.
With one other spot up for grabs, Tottenham pleaded their case to the other league clubs, while Barnsley, who finished third in the Second Division, thought they also merited a spot if the Lilywhites were demoted.
However, our chairman Sir Henry Norris was also pushing hard for us to be included in the promotion discussions. Norris had saved the club from voluntary liquidation in 1910, and moved us to north London in 1913 when we swapped Woolwich in south-east London for Highbury. Now he was looking for us to return to English football’s elite, albeit by an unconventional method.
This is where the rumours start creeping in. Over the years, it has commonly been alleged that Norris influenced the Football League chairman and owner of Liverpool, John McKenna, who then delivered an impassioned speech to a Football League committee when the time came to cast the votes for the 22nd and final spot in the First Division in March 1919
However, despite newspapers at the time reporting many other details from that AGM, none made any mention of McKenna’s suggestion that we should be elected ahead of Tottenham. What is known is that of the 41 votes cast, we received 18, 10 more than second-placed Tottenham.
Votes for election to the First Division in 1919
Club
Votes
Arsenal
18
Tottenham
8
Barnsley
5
Wolves
4
Nottingham Forest
3
Birmingham
2
Hull
1
Some of the reasons suggested as to why we were granted promotion were that we had always been supporters of the Football League rather than the rival Southern League – indeed we had been the first team from the south to be included in the Football League when we joined in 1893, even if it meant we regularly had to pay for costly travel up north for away matches.
It was also suggested that with Chelsea being the only other London-based side, another would help boost publicity for the division from the Fleet Street press, stave off competition from the Southern League, and that our opponents enjoyed playing in London more frequently.
Whatever the reasons, the Gunners were back in the top-flight for the first time since 1913, and we kicked off the campaign with a 1-0 loss against Newcastle United at Highbury on August 30. We would end our first campaign back in the elite a credible 10th, while Spurs made a swift return by winning the Second Division at the first attempt.
What can’t be disputed is that Norris’ legacy is still felt 106 years later. He could never have imagined that his canvassing would start the ball rolling for us to become the only club to complete 100 consecutive top-flight seasons, and make derby days all the more sparky.
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
