Tsubaki Factory Member Introduction — Vol.10 💚 Fuka Doi — loves tomatoes so much ♥ and has a fluffy angel smile! ▶️ Watch the full video on our Facebook! @tsubakifac_uf #TsubakiFactory# #FukaDoi# #HelloProject# #Jpop#

Following an investigation by FBI New York, @NYC_DOI, and @EDNYnews, Lori Zeno, the former executive director of Queens Defenders, a nonprofit legal services organization, and Rashad Ruhani, a former employee of the Organization, were sentenced for their roles in a scheme to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars from Queens Defenders. Read more at:

On August 7, 1985, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (now JAXA) announced that Mamoru Mohri, Chiaki Mukai (then Chiaki Naito), and Takao Doi would be Japan’s first-ever astronauts to fly aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle. Selected from a competitive pool of 533 applicants, these three pioneers would go on to lay the foundation for Japan’s future manned space activities. The landmark announcement marked a monumental first step for Japan as it stepped boldly into the era of space exploration.

Thank you for supporting Hello! Project. We are pleased to announce that: Mihane Ishii(15) Yu Murata(13) Fuka Doi(13) Will be joining Tsubaki Factory.(@tsubakifac_uf) more info #TsubakiFactory# #newmembers# #japaneseidol# #Helloproject#

🚨JUST IN🚨 Federal prosecutors are looking to DISMISS a felony vandalism charge against former U.S. Olympian David Hearn after he was accused of damaging the reflecting pools in Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stated that the Department of the Interior had provided only “barebones” reports at the outset and withheld records detailing significant problems with the coating’s installation.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ "Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment," according to the DOJ. After the indictment, the DOI provided new documents that the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of flawed installation by the contractor. This would have created reasonable doubt. According to U.S. Park Police, on June 19 he grabbed and pulled at a loose section of the pool’s coating and continued even after a National Park Service employee instructed him to stop. They claimed the damages he allegedly caused exceeded $1,000.

For the first time in history, Earth may require a negative leap second. Scientists report that our planet’s recent acceleration in rotation speed could soon compel global timekeepers to subtract a second from official time, an unprecedented step never taken before. Since atomic clocks were developed in the 1950s, researchers have measured Earth’s rotation with extreme precision. They found that a day is not always exactly 24 hours. Its length fluctuates by tiny amounts, usually milliseconds, as the planet’s spin speeds up or slows down. These variations are imperceptible to humans but critical for modern technology. GPS satellites, telecommunications, financial markets, and computer networks all depend on ultra-precise timing. For decades, Earth’s long-term trend was a gradual slowing, largely due to tidal friction caused by the Moon’s gravity. To keep atomic time (UTC) aligned with solar time, officials have added 27 positive leap seconds since 1972. Recently, however, Earth has been spinning noticeably faster. July 5, 2024, marked the shortest day ever recorded, completing its rotation 1.66 milliseconds early. Several other days in recent years have come close to this record. Much of this acceleration is attributed to dynamic processes in Earth’s liquid outer core, where shifts in mass distribution can alter rotation speed, analogous to a figure skater spinning faster by drawing in their arms. If the current trend persists, the world could face its first negative leap second, in which one second is removed rather than added to official time. We are not on the verge of losing a second immediately. Many experts anticipate that leap seconds will be phased out entirely by international agreement before a negative one becomes necessary. [Agnew, D. C. A global timekeeping problem postponed by global warming. Nature 628, 333–336 (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07170-0]

Scientists have engineered tobacco plants to function as living factories for multiple psychedelic compounds. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel successfully modified Nicotiana benthamiana, a close relative of tobacco widely used in plant biotechnology, to produce five powerful tryptamine psychedelics. These compounds are naturally found in “magic mushrooms,” certain plants, and the secretions of a toad species. The breakthrough could pave the way for more sustainable and scalable production of psychedelic medicines, which are currently under intense investigation for treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction. To achieve this, the team introduced nine genes from different organisms (fungi, plants, and animals) into the tobacco plants using a transient expression technique called agroinfiltration. This method temporarily delivers the genes without permanently altering the plant’s genome, allowing the plants to produce the compounds for a limited time. The modified plants synthesized psilocybin and its active form psilocin (from mushrooms), as well as DMT, bufotenin, and 5-MeO-DMT (the potent psychedelic from the Colorado River toad). Some plants were even engineered to produce all five compounds simultaneously. This plant-based approach offers a promising alternative to harvesting psychedelics from wild or cultivated natural sources, many of which face increasing pressure from habitat loss, overharvesting, and rising research demand. Using common agricultural plants as biological production systems could reduce costs and environmental impact. While the yields in this proof-of-concept study were relatively modest, the work demonstrates the feasibility of producing complex psychoactive molecules in greenhouse-grown crops. It builds on decades of research using plants to manufacture pharmaceuticals and opens new possibilities for future psychedelic therapies. [Berman P, et al. Complete biosynthesis of psychedelic tryptamines from three kingdoms in plants. Science Advances. 2026;12(14):eaeb3034. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aeb3034]

The next major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault could be significantly larger than long-held expectations for “the Big One.” This warning comes from scientists who studied the devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on 28 March 2025, killing more than 5,000 people. Researchers found that the Sagaing Fault behaved in ways many geologists had not anticipated. Instead of rupturing only within the section where stress had accumulated for decades, the earthquake propagated across more than 310 miles (approximately 500 km) of the fault — extending well beyond the zones previously considered most likely to break. This discovery challenges a core assumption in earthquake science: that faults tend to repeat similar rupture patterns over time, with earthquakes largely confined to segments where stress has built up since the previous event. The Myanmar quake demonstrated that ruptures can cascade across much larger sections of a fault than expected, releasing more slip and involving longer distances than earlier models predicted. These insights are especially relevant for California because the Sagaing Fault shares important similarities with the San Andreas Fault. Both are long, relatively straight strike-slip faults where the two sides slide horizontally past one another. The San Andreas stretches about 746 miles (1,200 km) through California and has produced some of the largest earthquakes in U.S. history, including the catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The 2025 Myanmar event serves as a powerful reminder that faults do not always follow historical patterns. In some cases, future earthquakes may rupture longer distances, involve larger fault sections, and generate more energy than previously anticipated. Scientists stress that this does not mean a giant earthquake is imminent. Precise prediction of earthquakes remains impossible. Nevertheless, the study shows that relying solely on past earthquake behavior may underestimate the true potential size and impact of major events on long strike-slip faults. [Li, B., et al. Seismic gap breached by the 2025 Mw 7.7 Mandalay (Myanmar) earthquake. Nature Geoscience. 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01861-7]