Brent crude hit $75 per barrel on Thursday for the first time in nearly six months after quality concerns suspended some Russian crude exports to Europe while the United States prepared to tighten sanctions on Iran. Poland and Germany suspended imports of Russian crude via the Druzhba pipeline, citing contamination. Russia, the world's second-largest crude exporter, said it planned to start pumping clean fuel to Europe through the pipeline on April 29.

Even if a planet is in the habitable zone, a young star can wreak havoc on its atmosphere.

At least four firms have raised their price targets on the stock over the past two days, but in each case, the call was tempered with caution, particularly over iPhone sales. Wolfe Research lifted its target by $10 to $185 on Thursday but said it “wouldn’t chase” the shares, which it described as overbought. “The iPhone faces headwinds, China relations still could blow up, we don’t see major new hardware in the next 12 months, and the stock’s discount to the market has closed,” analyst Steven Milunovich wrote in a note to clients.

NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) told reporters Elon Musk's rocket company continues to investigate the cause of the 'anomaly' during a test of engines designed to propel the crew to safety at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Orange smoke was seen rising above SpaceX's facilities by a photographer working for local newspaper Florida Today. The capsule, which conducted a six-day test flight to the International Space Station in March, was one of at least six models SpaceX has in production.

NASA and SpaceX remained tight-lipped Thursday about what caused a mysterious but apparently serious incident last weekend during engine tests on the Crew Dragon capsule designed to carry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year. SpaceX said that an "anomaly" had occurred during Saturday's ground tests at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The video has not been authenticated, nor has SpaceX denied its veracity.

Cute name, not so cute consequences.

Bring on the pancakes!

KwaZulu-Natal province, where most of the deaths occurred after the downpours led to flooding and mudslides, has heavy rain every year, but they rarely kill so many people in such a short space of time. Some of the worst-hit areas were informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal, where people live in flimsy houses without proper foundations or drainage systems. Sixty-seven people had died in KwaZulu-Natal, and six more in neighboring Eastern Cape province, authorities said.

Antarctic's Halley Bay colony of emperor penguins has seen a "catastrophic breeding failure" over the past three years linked to melting sea ice.

Diplomats and scientists from 130 nations gather in Paris next week to vet and validate the first UN global assessment of the state of Nature in more than a decade, and the news is not good. A quarter of 100,000 species already assessed are on a path to extinction, and the total number facing a forced exit from the world stage is closer to a million, according to an executive summary, obtained by AFP, of a 1,800-page scientific report three years in the making. A score of 10-year targets adopted in 2010 under the UN's biodiversity treaty -- to expand protected areas, slow species and forest loss, and reduce pollution impact -- will almost all fail, the draft Summary for Policy Makers reports.

Earlier this month, Japan's space agency JAXA launched an explosive projectile at the space rock known as Ryugu from its Hayabusa2 asteroid probe. Japan wanted to blow a crater into the surface of the rock in order to collect some samples of the material lying underneath, and early observations suggested it nailed its mark as planned. Now we can finally see exactly what the crater looks like.To blow a hole in an asteroid without destroying the spacecraft itself -- and without the force of the shot pushing Hayabusa2 back out into space -- JAXA equipped the probe with explosive cannon-like charges that it releases into space above the asteroid's surface. The probe them retreats to a safe distance, the single-shot explosive charge fires its bullet-like projectile at the surface, and the probe returns to the site later.The deployment and firing of the projectile took place in early April, and now that the dust and debris has settled, Hayabusa2 has returned to the location and observed the crater it created.As you can see in the GIF above, the projectile struck Ryugu as intended, pushing some of the larger rocks away and displacing much of the pale white dust that covered the surface. What's left behind is a dark area of "fresh" asteroid material, which is exactly what JAXA was hoping for.JAXA scientists were initially skeptical that the projectile could create a hole of a reasonable size. Some more pessimistic estimates suggested the crater might be as small as three meters across. This crater is significantly larger, and Hayabusa2's engineers noted that they were pleasantly surprised with the results.It's a huge success for Hayabusa2, but the probe's job isn't done yet. JAXA ultimately wants to retrieve a sample of this fresh material before it commands Hayabusa2 to return to Earth, but the safety of the spacecraft is paramount and it's unclear if or when such a maneuver would happen. The spacecraft is expected to spend much of the rest of the year in orbit around the asteroid, so JAXA will have plenty of time to decide how to proceed.

Paris (AFP) - Most scientists agree that a "mass extinction" event is underway on Earth, with species disappearing hundreds of time quicker under the influence of human activity.

As STD rates rise, researchers are looking to reinvent the most reliable disease-preventing contraception

LONDON/BENTONVILLE, Ark. (Reuters) - Britain's competition regulator on Thursday blocked Sainsbury's proposed 7.3 billion pound ($9.4 billion) takeover of Walmart-owned Asda - a huge blow to the supermarket groups who wanted to combine to overtake market leader Tesco. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruling is also a major setback for Sainsbury's Chief Executive Mike Coupe, the architect of the deal and the group's boss since 2014. For Walmart , the deal was a way to exit Britain, one of the weakest performers in its global portfolio, as it moves to revamp its international operations.

The details of 007's next big adventure are finally dropping.

Morgan Neville, Imagine Documentaries, and Peanuts have teamed for Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10, a documentary of sorts that seeks to answer the question: Was Snoopy a world famous, top-secret astronaut? It will launch in May will be available in May on the Apple TV app. Aaron Bergeron wrote the script. Imagine's Ron […]

HERNDON, Va.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Since 1982, Susan G. Komen has worked toward one vision: to create a world without breast cancer. Continental Building Products announced today that it stands by this vision and will support Susan G. Komen and its mission to save lives by meeting the most critical needs in our communities and investing in breakthrough […]

California-based Gilead has been counting on its drug pipeline, including the NASH drug selonsertib, as sales of its hepatitis C treatments fall due to a smaller patient pool and intensifying competition, denting profits. Oppenheimer & Co analyst Hartaj Singh said the expectation were low after the drug failed another late-stage study in February. Successful treatments for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis have remained elusive, and Gilead stopped developing another treatment for the disease in 2016.

The atlas will make it easier to study the conditions of the threatened environments from afar.

The flowers have bloomed and the pollen is out