Tag Archives: oceania

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'We think there's probably over 150 planets in our solar system'

Astronomers are calling for Pluto to be re-classified as a planet, and for more celestial bodies to be recognised as so, following the conclusion of a five-year study.

The push comes more than 10 years after Pluto was controversially demoted to a "dwarf planet" in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

But now in a paper to be published in the journal Icarus, a team of astronomers from around the world argue the IAU conflated science with the pseudoscience of astrology.

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Instead they said a planet should be classified according to scientists' 16th century definition; a planet is any geologically active body in space.

By doing so it would expand the number of planets in the solar system

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Milky Way.

"We think there's probably over 150 planets in our solar system," said lead-author, and planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida, Philip Metzger.

"We are continuing to call Pluto a planet in our papers, we are continuing to call Titan and Triton and some other moons by the term 'planet'.

"Basically, we are ignoring the IAU."

Pluto — the solar's system's ninth planet since 1930 — was re-classifed as the IAU changed the definition of what makes a planet.

The organisation deemed a planet needs to be spherical, orbit the sun and needs to have cleared its orbit of other objects.

This last point is what nixed Pluto from the list.

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Settlement between Prince Andrew accuser and Epstein made public

A woman who says she was sex trafficked to UK royal Prince Andrew by Jeffrey Epstein accepted $694,637 in 2009 to settle her lawsuit against the American millionaire and anyone else "who could have been included as a potential defendant".

The US$500,000 deal between Epstein and Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, was unsealed today.

The prince's lawyers say that language should bar Ms Giuffre from suing the prince now, even though he wasn't a party to the original settlement.

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The private 2009 legal deal resolved Giuffre's allegations that Epstein had hired her as a teenager to be a sexual servant at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Andrew was not named in that lawsuit, but Ms Giuffre had alleged in it that Epstein had flown her around the world for sexual encounters with numerous men "including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and/or professional and personal acquaintances".

The settlement also doesn't mention Andrew, but contains a single paragraph saying it protects anyone "who could have been included as a potential defendant" from being sued by Giuffre.

Attorney Andrew Brettler, representing the prince, has told a Manhattan federal court judge that the agreement "releases Prince Andrew and others from any purported liability arising from the claims Ms Giuffre asserted against Prince Andrew here".

In August, Ms Giuffre sued the prince, alleging he had sexually assaulted her multiple times in 2001 when she was 17.

The prince's lawyers have challenged the lawsuit on multiple grounds, saying: "Andrew never sexually abused or assaulted Giuffre. He unequivocally denies Giuffre's false allegations against him."

They also wrote that Ms Giuffre sued Andrew "to achieve another payday at his expense and at the expense of those closest to him".

"Epstein's abuse of Giuffre does not justify her public campaign against Prince Andrew."

Oral arguments over the request to dismiss the lawsuit without a trial are scheduled for this week.

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Recently, the lawyers have said Ms Giuffre should be disallowed from suing because she has lived most of the past two decades in Australia and can't accurately claim to be a resident of Colorado, where her mother lives.

Judge Lewis Kaplan has rejected an attempt by the lawyers to halt progression of the lawsuit and to subject Ms Giuffre to a deposition over the issue of where she is a resident.

In late 2019, Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight that he never had sex with Ms Giuffre, saying: "It didn't happen."

He said he has "no recollection" of ever meeting her.

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The interview was widely panned by critics who said Andrew seemed insensitive to Epstein's victims. Afterward, the prince was made to step back from royal duties.

A message was left with a spokesperson for Ms Giuffre's lawyers and with Mr Brettler.

Epstein, 66, killed himself in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial in a federal Manhattan lockup.

His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was convicted last week in Manhattan on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges after a month-long trial.

Judge Alison Nathan, who presided over the trial, asked lawyers on both sides to suggest when a sentencing date should be set and when a trial should be scheduled on perjury charges that were severed from the other charges Maxwell faced.

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