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New “unprecedented” animations of the Earth show how the planet’s surface has shifted and changed over the past 100 million years. 

These animations are the most detailed view of the history of Earth’s topography ever, depicting the rise of mountains, the development of basins, and the transport of large masses of sediments around the globe through erosion.  

The animations show the movements of tectonic plates, the large rafts of crust that bump up against each other to form mountain ranges and pull apart to form ocean basins. When these plates dive into the mantle, or Earth’s middle layer, at subduction zones they give rise to planet-shaping volcanoes and earthquakes. But there are other forces shaping the surface, too: Precipitation erodes away the surface, while the rate of weathering alters levels of carbon dioxide in the air, creating a feedback loop that links the land to the atmosphere. 

“While the dance of the continents has been studied extensively, we are still limited in our understanding and representation of how the Earth’s surface has evolved,” said Tristan Salles (opens in new tab) , a senior lecturer in geosciences at the University of Sydney and the lead author of a new paper describing the model, which was published March 2 in the journal Science (opens in new tab) .

“What we bring with this new model,” Salles wrote in an email to Live Science, “is a way to evaluate how this surface has changed (globally and over geological time scales) shaped by its interactions with the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the tectonic and mantle dynamics.”

Related: A tiny magma blob may rewrite Earth’s history of plate tectonics

The model begins 100 million years ago in the midst of the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea, which started to occur around 200 million years ago. In the beginning of the animation, the continents that will become Africa and South America are already recognizable, with the Northern Hemisphere continents coming together tens of millions of years later. Blue shows the flow of water, while red shows the intensity of the deposition of new sediments by erosion. 

“This unprecedented high-resolution model of Earth’s recent past will equip geoscientists with a more complete and dynamic understanding of the Earth’s surface,” study co-author Laurent Husson (opens in new tab) , a geologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences (ISTerre) in Grenoble, France, said in a statement (opens in new tab) .

Putting together all of these different pressures on the evolution of Earth, from the movements of the plates to the flow of water to the slow changes in the mantle, provides a new way to ask questions about everything from the regulation of the climate to the ways the circulation of the atmosphere affect erosion on land. Related Stories —Oldest evidence of tectonic plates unearthed, sealed in ancient crystals

—Plate tectonics are 3.6 billion years old, oldest mineral on Earth reveals

—Evidence of ‘modern’ plate tectonics dating to 2.5 billion years ago found in China 

The researchers found that the rate of sediment movement across the globe was likely much larger than what scientists believe based on observation, probably because the sedimentary record is fragmented. Overall erosion rates have been fairly steady for the past 100 million years, Salles said, but there have been changes in whether the sediment ends up trapped in low-elevation basins on land or ultimately flows out to sea. For example, there was a doubling of sediment flow to the oceans between about 60 million and 30 million years ago, which was likely associated with the rise of the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau, the researchers wrote. 

Such nuances could be important, Salles said. For example, some of the earliest life formed in shallow marine environments, where microorganisms harnessed photosynthesis for the first time and left behind mineralized formations known as stromatolites. 

“It is thought that sedimentation flux may have provided a source of nutrients to these early organisms, allowing them to thrive and evolve over time,” Salles said. “We envision that our model could be used to test such long-standing hypotheses regarding the origin of life on Earth.”

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Donald Trump’s 104% tariffs on China – and other levies on ‘worst offenders’ – in effect this morning

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Donald Trump's 104% tariffs on China - and other levies on 'worst offenders' - in effect this morning

Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on what he calls “the worst offenders” come into effect at 5am UK time, with China facing by far the biggest levy.

The US will hit Chinese imports with 104% tariffs, marking a significant trade escalation between the world’s two largest superpowers.

At a briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump “believes that China wants to make a deal with the US,” before saying: “It was a mistake for China to retaliate.

“When America is punched, he punches back harder.”

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White House announces 104% tariff on China

After Mr Trump announced sweeping levies last week – hitting some imported goods from China with 34% tariffs – Beijing officials responded with like-for-like measures.

The US president then piled on an extra 50% levy on China, taking the total to 104% unless it withdrew its retaliatory 34% tariff.

China’s commerce ministry said in turn that it would “fight to the end”, and its foreign ministry accused the US of “economic bullying” and “destabilising” the world’s economies.

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‘Worst offender’ tariffs also in effect

Alongside China’s 104% tariff, roughly 60 countries – dubbed by the US president as the “worst offenders” – will also see levies come into effect today.

The EU will be hit with 20% tariffs, while countries like Vietnam and Cambodia see a 46% levy and 49% rate respectively.

The UK was not included on this list, and instead saw a “baseline”, worldwide 10% tariff on imported goods in effect from last Saturday.

At the weekend, Sir Keir Starmer promised the government was ready to “shelter British businesses from the storm”.

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What’s going on with the US and China?

Since the tariffs were announced last Wednesday, global stock markets have plummeted, with four days of steep losses for all three of the US’ major indexes.

As trading closed on Tuesday evening, the S&P 500 lost 1.49%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.15%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.84%.

According to LSEG data, S&P 500 companies have lost $5.8tn (£4.5tn) in stock market value since last Wednesday, the deepest four-day loss since the benchmark was created in the 1950s.

New York Stock Exchange on 8 April 2025. Pic: AP
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Global stock markets have been reeling since Trump’s tariff announcement last week. Pic: AP

Read more:
What China could do next as Trump’s tariff war ramps up
Chancellor to hold tariff crisis talks with top City executives

Trump signs coal orders

Meanwhile, the US president signed four executive orders to boost American coal mining and production.

The directives order:
• keeping some coal plants that were set for retirement open;
• directing the interior secretary to “acknowledge the end” of an Obama-era moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands;
• requiring federal agencies to rescind policies transitioning the US away from coal production, and;
• directing the Department of Energy and other federal agencies to assess how coal energy can meet rising demand from artificial intelligence.

Read more:
The good, the bad and the ugly in Trump’s coal plans

At a White House ceremony, Mr Trump said the orders end his predecessor Joe Biden’s “war on beautiful clean coal,” and miners “will be put back to work”.

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World

In the idyllic Cognac region of southern France, Trump’s tariffs threaten a centuries-old way of life

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In the idyllic Cognac region of southern France, Trump's tariffs threaten a centuries-old way of life

The impact of Trump’s tariffs is reaching deep into every economy.

We travelled into the French rural heartland, heading for Cognac – the home of French brandy.

It is only half the size of Surrey but its exports to America are worth €1bn a year and that trade is now severely threatened.

The first buds are out on the vines of Amy Pasquet’s vineyard.

An American, she has married into the industry and with her French husband owns JLP Cognac.

She knows more than most the bond brandy has formed between their two countries that goes back to the war.

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Ms Pasquet said: “A lot of the African-American soldiers had really loved their experience here and had brought back the cognac. And I think that stayed because this African-American community truly is a community. and they want to drink like their grandfather did.”

The ties remain with rappers like Jay Z’s love for cognac.

However, Ms Pasquet adds: “There’s also this other community of people who have been drinking bourbon for a long time, love bourbon, but find the prices just outrageous today. So they want to try something different.”

Amy Pasquet owns JLP Cognac with her husband
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Amy Pasquet owns JLP Cognac with her husband

JLP’s products were served at New York’s prestigious Met Gala.

They were preparing to launch new product lines in the US. But now that’s in doubt.

It is hard being an American in France now, Ms Pasquet says.

Her French neighbours are appalled by what US President Donald Trump is doing.

She continues: “They’re like, okay, America’s forgotten how close France and America are as far as (their) relationship is concerned. And I think that’s hurtful on both sides. I think it’s important to remember that the US is many things, and not just this one person, and there are millions of inhabitants that didn’t vote for him.”

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A fresh challenge for a centuries-old tradition

Making cognac takes years, using techniques that go back centuries. In another vineyard we met Pierre Louis Giboin whose family have been doing it for more than 200 years.

In a cellar dating back to the French Revolution, barrels of oak sit under thick cobwebs, ageing the brandy.

The walls are lined with a unique black mould that thrives off the vapours of cognac.

They have seen threats come and go over those centuries, wars, weather, pestilence. But never from a country they regard as one of their oldest allies and best of customers.

Read more:
What China could do next as Trump’s tariff war
How tariffs will affect your money

Could Trump’s tariffs tip the world into recession?

Pierre Louis Giboin's family has been making cognac for centuries
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Pierre Louis Giboin’s cellar dates back to the French revolution

Mr Trump’s tariffs, says Mr Giboin, now threaten a way of life.

“It’s at the end of like very good times in the Cognac region. It’s been like 10 years when everything’s been perfect, we have good harvest, we sell really easily all the stock, but now I mean it’s the end.”

Ms Pasquet and Mr Giboin are unusual.

Most cognac makers sell their produce through the drink’s four big houses, Hennessy, Remy Martin, Martell and Courvoisier.

Some have been told the amounts they can sell have been drastically reduced.

Independents though like them must find new markets if the tariff threat persists.

Confusion away from the chaos

Outside in the dappled light of a Cognac evening Mr Giboin and I toast glasses of pineau – the diluted form of cognac drunk as an aperitif.

In this idyllic corner of France, a world away from Washington, Mr Trump’s trade war on Europe simply makes no sense.

“He’s like angry against the whole world and the way he talks like that Europe the EU was made against the US to cheat on the US. It’s just crazy to think like this,” Mr Giboin says.

It’s not just what Mr Trump’s done. It’s how Europe now strikes back that concerns the French. And it’s not just in Cognac where they’re concerned

France exports more than €2bn worth of wine to America.

In the heart of the Bordeaux wine region, Sylvie Courselle’s family have been making wine since the 1940s at their Chateau Thieuley vineyard.

It’s bottling season but they can’t prepare the wine headed for America while everything is up in the air.

Showing me the unused reels of US labels for her wine she told me she was losing sleep over the uncertainty.

Later she was meeting with her American distributors.

Gerry Keogh sells Ms Courselle’s wine across the US.

He says the entire industry is reeling

Sylvie Courselle with distributers
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Sylvie Courselle with distributers

The Chateau Thieuley vineyard in the Bordeaux wine region
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The Chateau Thieuley vineyard in the Bordeaux wine region

“I think it’s like anything. You don’t really believe it’s happening. And even when you’re in the midst of it, it was kind of like 9/11.

“You’re like… This is actually happening. It’s unbelievable. And when you start seeing the repercussions from the stock market, et cetera, and how it’s impacting every level, it’s quite shocking.”

They know the crisis is far from over and could now escalate.

“We feel stuck in the middle of this commercial war and we don’t have the weapons to fight, I think,” Ms Courselle said.

It is, she says, very stressful.

Jerry Keogh
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Gerry Keogh

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The histories of America and France have been intertwined for centuries through revolutions against tyranny and two wars fighting for liberty.

America used to call France its oldest ally, but under Mr Trump it is now being as turned on, as France, along with the rest of Europe, finds itself in what many would argue is a reckless and unjustified trade war.

It is all doing enormous harm to relations between the US and its European allies.

How Europe now decides to retaliate will help determine the extent of that damage.

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Pupils and teachers voice fears over ‘staggering’ decision to remove specialist police officers from London schools

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Pupils and teachers voice fears over 'staggering' decision to remove specialist police officers from London schools

London schools are at risk of “increased violence” and “gang exploitation” following the decision to remove specialist police officers, headteachers have told Sky News.

Education leaders are “urging” the Metropolitan Police to reconsider a decision to transfer 371 safer schools officers into neighbourhood policing teams next month.

Teachers warn pupils will be at “greater risk” of violence as a result – and some students told Sky News they were worried “more knives” and “more drugs” would be brought into schools.

Safer schools officers were introduced into London schools in 2009, where they help de-escalate peer-on-peer conflict and prevent youth involvement in crime.

In a letter obtained by Sky News, a group of 15 headteachers from secondary schools in northeast London have written to the Met Police warning that “without the support of safer school officers, vulnerable students may become prey to exploitation and, in turn, perpetrators of crime”.

Sam Jones, chair of The Waltham Forest Secondary Heads group, which wrote the letter, said teachers were “extremely concerned” about the withdrawal of safer school officers and they had not been consulted about the decision.

Sam Jones, chair of The Waltham Forest Secondary Heads group
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Sam Jones is the chair of The Waltham Forest Secondary Heads group

Mr Jones told Sky News that the decision was “very misguided”.

“We think that it will increase in violence, potentially increase bullying and weapons-related incidents,” he said.

Safer schools officers are a “key deterrent when it comes to gang recruitment and county lines issues,” he added.

“I think this is a huge backward step.”

Knife crime hit a record high of 16,521 offences in London in the year ending September 2024 – an 18% increase from the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

A Sky News survey of secondary school teachers in England revealed almost one in five had seen pupils with knives in schools.

Students from Footsteps Trust in London said the removal of officers could make schools more violent.

“There will be more knives,” Tyrelle, 14, told Sky News. “There will be fighting, there will be drugs coming into school and no one will be there to actually stop it.”

“If anything happens outside of school you can tell them [the safer school officer] and let them know,” he added.

Tyrelle, 14, believes the Met's decision means there will be more knives in schools
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Tyrelle believes the Met’s decision means there will be more knives in schools

Another pupil, Mikolej, 15, said having an officer in their school had been a “good thing” that had helped young people “speak more to police officers outside of school”.

Mikolej, 15, said having an officer in school had helped young people 'speak more to police officers outside of school'
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Mikolej said having an officer in school had helped young people

Chris Hall, headteacher of Footsteps Trust, told Sky News it was “quite staggering” that no one in education was consulted about the decision.

He said the school-based officers had been “very, very, valuable assets” who had helped familiarise “young people with the police in the most positive way”.

Chris Hall, the headteacher at Footsteps Trust
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Chris Hall, the headteacher at Footsteps Trust, said the lack of consultation was ‘staggering’

“I would 100% ask them [the Met] to re-consider,” Mr Hall said.

Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy echoed calls for the police force to think again, telling Sky News she hoped the force would “sit down with all of us so that we can work together on this”.

In a letter to headteachers, the Met said the changes will come into effect from 2 May and that the decision was “not made lightly”.

The force said the changes aimed to improve their presence in the community.

Read more:
More children than ever are not in school
Headteacher
‘received murder threat’
Police called to primary school after pupil caught with knife

Glen Pavelin, frontline policing commander for neighbourhoods, said: “Although officers will no longer be based in schools, they will join local policing teams where they will retain strong relationships with schools to ensure that any incidents of reports of knife crime can be dealt with quickly.

“Officers will also work with local organisations and other youth-based establishments to safeguard young people, prevent victimisation and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour beyond schools.”

The Met Police announced last week it will cut 1,700 officers and staff to plug a £260m budget shortfall.

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