London
CNN
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The European Union will spend €500 million ($567 million) over the next three years “to make Europe a magnet for researchers,” a top official announced Monday in a veiled response to the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding and changes to science policy.

Speaking alongside Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive arm, French President Emmanuel Macron was more direct, criticizing recent actions by “one of the largest democracies in the world,” such as cancellation of hundreds of research grants, and calling them “a mistake.”

The two European leaders spoke at the “Choose Europe for science” event at the prestigious Sorbonne university in Paris.

“Unfortunately, we see today that the role of science in today’s world is questioned. The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation,” von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a speech, which didn’t mention the United States.

The comments by von der Leyen and Macron follow a string of changes to US science policy since Trump’s return to the White House.

For example, the National Science Foundation, a federal agency charged with advancing discoveries across the scientific spectrum, announced last month that it will cancel hundreds of grants for programs that include — but are not limited to — research related to diversity, equity and inclusion, “vaccine information integrity,” and misinformation and disinformation.

The NSF said on its website it will stop funding any misinformation research that goes against Trump’s January 20 executive order on “restoring freedom of speech.”

Meanwhile, a budget proposal unveiled by the White House Friday includes a large reduction in funding for the NSF, cuts to climate science research and the elimination of an institute focused on nursing research.

“No one could have imagined a few years ago that one of the largest democracies in the world would cancel research programs simply because the word ‘diversity’ was in the program,” Macron said Monday.

“No one could have thought that one of the largest democracies in the world would erase, with a stroke of the pen, the ability to grant visas to certain researchers,” he continued. “No one could have thought that this great democracy, whose economic model relies so heavily on free science, on innovation and on its ability to innovate more than Europeans and to spread that innovation more over the past three decades, would make such a mistake. But here we are.”

In contrast with that assessment, von der Leyen said “open and free” science is Europe’s “calling card.” “We must do everything we can to uphold it — now more than ever before,” she added.

Von der Leyen also said the European Commission wants “to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law” and that EU member states “have to” achieve a target of investing 3% of gross domestic product in research and development by 2030.

CNN
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All mobile phone signals will be deactivated in the Vatican on Wednesday ahead of the highly secretive conclave to elect the next pope, Italian state media reported.

The Vatican also plans to use signal jammers around the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic surveillance or communication outside the conclave that will see 133 cardinals vote on who will succeed Pope Francis and lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Phone signal will be cut off at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, an hour and a half before the cardinals are scheduled to proceed to the Sistine Chapel to begin the papal conclave, Italian state broadcaster RAI reported on Monday.

All 133 cardinals who will vote to elect Francis’ successor have already arrived in Rome, the Vatican confirmed on Monday.

For centuries, the leader of the Catholic Church has been chosen in a highly secretive gathering known as “conclave,” meaning “with key” in Latin – a nod to how cardinals used to be locked in until a new pope was selected. Cardinals tasked with picking the next pontiff follow an elaborate process with roots in the Middle Ages.

The cardinals will have to give up their phones and all electronic devices starting Tuesday and will only get their devices back once the conclave has ended, a Vatican spokesman said.

The cardinals will all be shut in the Sistine Chapel and locked away from the outside world from Wednesday. All of the cardinals taking part in the conclave will be in complete isolation and will take a vow to observe “absolute and perpetual secrecy”.

The signal deactivation will not affect St Peter’s Square, where the public often gather, according to the spokesman. But security has been ramped up throughout St Peter’s Square, with checkpoints at the entrances and the deployment of metal detectors and anti-drone systems at the public space, according to news outlet Corriere della Sera.

The Sistine Chapel is placed under total lockdown during conclave to guarantee complete secrecy. In 2013, during the conclave that elected Francis, signal blockers were also installed to prevent any calls, texts, or internet access.

Even the electricians, plumbers and elevator operators who will keep the Vatican running during the conclave will commit themselves to secrecy.

“They all take an oath and will be in full-time service, staying overnight in the Vatican, without having contact with their families,” according to a statement from the Vatican City State Governorate.

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A piece of a Soviet vehicle that malfunctioned en route to Venus more than 50 years ago is due to crash back to Earth as soon as this week.

Much about the piece of space debris, called Cosmos 482 (also spelled Kosmos 482), is unknown.

Though most projections estimate that the object will reenter the atmosphere around May 10, unknowns about its exact shape and size — as well as the unpredictability of space weather — make some degree of uncertainty inevitable.

It’s also unclear which portion of the vehicle is set to reenter, though researchers believe it to be the probe, or “entry capsule,” which was designed to survive the extreme temperature and pressure of landing on Venus — which has an atmosphere 90 times more dense than Earth’s. That means it could survive its unexpected trip back home, posing a small but non-zero risk to people on the ground.

While space junk and meteors routinely veer toward a crash-landing on Earth, most of the objects disintegrate as they’re torn apart due to friction and pressure as they hit Earth’s thick atmosphere while traveling thousands of miles per hour.

But if the Cosmos 482 object is indeed a Soviet reentry capsule, it would be equipped with a substantial heat shield, meaning it “might well survive Earth atmosphere entry and hit the ground,” according to Dr. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who shared his predictions about Cosmos 482 on his website.

The risk of the object hitting people on the ground is likely minimal, and there’s “no need for major concern,” McDowell wrote, “but you wouldn’t want it bashing you on the head.”

The Soviet Space Research Institute, or IKI, was formed in the mid-1960s amid the 20th-century space race, which pitted the Soviet Union against its chief space-exploring competitor, the United States.

The IKI’s Venera program sent a series of probes toward Venus in the 1970s and ‘80s, with several surviving the trip and beaming data and images back to Earth before ceasing operations.

Two spacecraft under that program, V-71 No. 670 and V-71 No. 671, launched in 1972, according to McDowell. But only one made a successful voyage to Venus: V-71 No. 670 operated for about 50 minutes on the planet’s surface.

V-71 No. 671 did not. A rocket carried the Venera spacecraft into a “parking orbit” around Earth. However, the vehicle then failed to put itself on a Venus transfer trajectory, leaving it stranded closer to home, according to NASA.

Beginning in the 1960s, Soviet vehicles left in Earth’s orbit were each given the Cosmos name and a numerical designation for tracking purposes, according to NASA.

Several pieces of debris were created from V-71 No. 671’s failure. At least two have already fallen out of orbit. But researchers believe the one set to plummet back to our planet this week is the cylindrical entry capsule — or Cosmos 482 — because of the way the vehicle has behaved in orbit.

“It is quite dense, whatever it is, because it had a very low point in its orbit, yet it didn’t decay for decades,” said Marlon Sorge, a space debris expert with the federally funded research group, The Aerospace Corporation. “So it’s clearly bowling ball-ish.”

And though the Venus probe was equipped with a parachute, the vehicle has been out of service in the harsh environment of space for the past few decades. That means it’s highly unlikely that a parachute could deploy at the right time or serve to slow down the vehicle’s descent, Sorge and Langbroek told CNN.

The chances of Cosmos 482 causing deadly damage is are roughly 1 in 25,000, according to The Aerospace Corporation’s calculations, Sorge said.

That’s a much lower risk than some other pieces of space debris. At least a few defunct rocket parts reenter Earth’s atmosphere each year, Sorge noted, and many have carried higher odds of catastrophe.

But if the Cosmos 482 object does hit the ground, it is likely to land between 52 degrees North and 52 South latitudes, Langbroek said via email.

“That area encompasses several prominent landmasses and countries: the whole of Africa, South America, Australia, the USA, parts of Canada, parts of Europe, and parts of Asia,” Langbroek said.

“But as 70% of our planet is water, chances are good that it will end up in an Ocean somewhere,” Langbroek said via email. “Yes, there is a risk, but it is small. You have a larger risk of being hit by lightning once in your lifetime.”

Sorge emphasized that if Cosmos 482 hits dry land, it’s crucial that bystanders do not attempt to touch the debris. The old spacecraft could leak dangerous fuels or pose other risks to people and property.

“Contact the authorities,” Sorge urged. “Please don’t mess with it.”

Parker Wishik, a spokesperson for the Aerospace Corporation, added that under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty — which remains the primary document outlining international space law — Russia would maintain ownership of any surviving debris and may seek to recover it after landing.

And while the global space community has taken steps in recent years to ensure that fewer spacecraft make uncontrolled crash-landings back on Earth, the Cosmos 482 vehicle highlights the importance of continuing those efforts, Wishik added.

“What goes up must come down,” he said. “We’re here talking about it more than 50 years later, which is another proof point for the importance of debris mitigation and making sure we’re having that that dialogue (as a space community) because what you put up in space today might affect us for decades to come.”