Gala

• NASA announced in December 2025 that construction of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is complete, with a scheduled launch by May 2027 or potentially as early as fall 2026. • During its five-year primary mission, the observatory aims to discover approximately 100,000 new transiting planets and create the largest catalog of rogue worlds in history. • This mission is significant because it will drastically expand the known exoplanet population and provide unprecedented data on planets drifting without host stars.

• The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered an ancient black hole that appears to have formed before its host galaxy, challenging existing astronomical models. • These findings stem from observations of "Little Red Dot" galaxies, which are extremely distant and ancient objects in the early universe. • The discovery represents a "paradigm shift" for scientists, as it forces a total revisiting of classical scenarios regarding how black holes and galaxies co-evolve.

The satellite visuals reveal vast burn scars after blaze tore through rare ecosystems on Santa Rosa IslandImages from a Nasa satellite showcased the devastating scars left behind by a wildfire that consumed roughly a third of Santa Rosa Island, one of the five that make up Channel Islands national park off the southern California coast.Taken on 20 May, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) took the false-color image of the burn area, showing swaths of blackened land. Continue reading...

• TIN Media hosted the second edition of the Asian Tourism & Hospitality Awards (ATH Awards) 2025-26 during a gala night in Kuala Lumpur. • Key winners included FELDA Residence Hot Springs for Most Unique Nature Wellness Experience (Malaysia), Jatiluwih Village for Leading UNESCO Cultural Landscape Tourism Destination (Indonesia), and Wings of Time Fireworks Symphony for Leading Tourist Attraction of the Year (Singapore). • The event serves as Asia's benchmark for excellence in the sector, receiving strategic support from organizations such as the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Malaysia Chapter.

Whitaker Malem worked with pop art sculptor Allen Jones, visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen and a car bodyshop in KentAt Monday’s Met Gala, it inevitably fell to Kim Kardashian to deliver the evening’s biggest jolt. One of the few celebrities to straightforwardly interpret the “fashion is art” dress code – which focused on how the dressed and undressed human body is the through-line in most works of art – she decided to forgo her usual role as a walking billboard for a major fashion house and instead arrived in an orange fibreglass breastplate created by a small east London art duo and a car bodyshop in Kent.“Good art should start conversation, and Kim did exactly that,” says 61-year-old Patrick Whitaker, half of the design practice Whitaker Malem, who made the breastplate just weeks before the gala. “She was very clear on wanting a breastplate, very clear on the car body finish. And I think she was nervous really. She understands the competition.” Continue reading...

• French singer Yseult attended the 2026 Met Gala, marking her rise from contestant on 'Nouvelle Star' to international fashion icon. • Her journey includes key music breakthroughs, launching an independent label, and a high-profile performance at the Olympics. • The appearance underscores her growing influence in global entertainment and fashion circles, blending music with high culture.

• Stylist Law Roach confirmed he will attend the 2026 Met Gala alone, despite his longtime client Zendaya choosing not to participate this year. • Roach's solo appearance highlights his independent presence in fashion circles amid Zendaya's scheduling conflicts. • The announcement underscores shifting dynamics in celebrity stylist-client relationships for high-profile events like the Met Gala.

Billionaire’s role as honorary chair and main source of funding has led to boycotts and criticism event has lost its cacheThe Met Gala in New York is the grandest and ritziest event in the fashion calendar, and an indicator of the growing ties between designers, celebrity and power. But with tech billionaires now joining the cohort, this year’s party may be its most controversial yet.All eyes are on the guest list – and their outfits – to launch the fashion exhibition Costume Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman are chairing the event with Vogue’s Anna Wintour, and tickets cost about $100,000 (£73,500). But in a plot twist worthy of the new Devil Wears Prada film, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the Met Gala’s new honorary chairs, will be joining the 450 guests on the museum steps on Monday. Continue reading...

Trump officials use incident at correspondents’ dinner to pitch case for $400m project, arguing it will be ‘safe space’US politics live – latest updatesThe US Department of J (DoJ) has used the weekend shooting in Washington DC to pressure a preservation group to drop a lawsuit seeking to halt the construction of Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.Several Trump administration officials, including the president, seized on the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to advance their case for the completion of the controversial $400m project, for which the White House’s East Wing was suddenly demolished, arguing the new ballroom was needed as a “safe space”. Continue reading...

Pesident presses case for controversial $400m project following White House correspondents’ dinner shootingThe shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel gives new urgency to the project to construct a 1,000-seat ballroom at the White House, Donald Trump claimed after the incident on Saturday night.The US president pressed the case for his controversial ballroom initiative at the press conference he held at the White House on Saturday and a social media post on Sunday, after an armed attacker was arrested as he rushed towards the Hilton’s ballroom, where Trump was attending the White House Correspondents Association’s annual dinner. Continue reading...

Shooting reveals how political violence has become feature of American life on a night dedicated to press freedomAhead of this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner, conversations centered on the role of the media and freedom of the press as journalists prepared to dine with the president.Instead of a speech stacked with heated barbs against the media, the event ended like many in the US do: with gun violence. Continue reading...

• Samsung launched its Galaxy Watch blood pressure feature for U.S. consumers, enabling wrist-based hypertension tracking without cuffs. • FDA-cleared technology uses optical sensors calibrated via user input, integrated into latest watch models. • Matters for 116 million U.S. adults with high blood pressure, improving remote monitoring and chronic disease management.

• Samsung began rolling out Quick Share with AirDrop interoperability on Galaxy S26 devices and additional models on March 24, 2026, enhancing cross-platform sharing for U.S. users. • The update improves file transfer compatibility between Android and iOS ecosystems. • This move strengthens Samsung's position in the competitive U.S. smartphone market.

• NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day highlights NGC 1566, a grand design spiral galaxy located approximately 40 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado, known for its two prominent and graceful spiral arms traced by bright blue star clusters and red emission nebulas. • The galaxy's flaring center makes it one of the closest and brightest Seyfert galaxies, likely housing a central supermassive black hole affecting surrounding stars and gas, making it a prime target for Hubble Space Telescope observations studying star formation and supernovas. • NGC 1566 is among the most photogenic spiral galaxies in the universe, featuring a gorgeous face-on view and dark cosmic dust lanes that make it an ideal object for astronomical research and observation.

Figuring out what really counts as a galaxy could give us insights into dark matter and potentially shake up astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics, says columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein