News Headlines - 26 July 2020

▽China launches rocket with probe to Mars | DW 

China launched a Long March 5 Y-4 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan on Thursday. In February, the probe is expected to reach Mars where it will deploy a rover to explore the planet for 90 days.
The Chinese rover is named Tianwen-1, which means "quest for heavenly truth," in Mandarin. It weighs 240 kilograms (530 pounds) and is equipped with six wheels and four solar panels, Chinese state media reported.
The spacecraft is set to complete its 55-million-kilometer (34-million-mile) journey to Mars in about seven months. It will then orbit the red planet for two to three months before attempting a landing.

▽Nantes cathedral fire: Volunteer rearrested and charged with arson - The Local

A volunteer assistant suspected of setting a French cathedral on fire was rearrested, then indicted and detained in pre-trial custody by prosecutors overnight Saturday to Sunday.
The man, already held and released by police last week, was indicted "on charges of destruction and damage by fire" of the gothic cathedral of Nantes, the public prosecutor for the western city said.
The fire broke out on July 18, hours after the volunteer altar server had closed up the building for the night.

▽Dark history of transatlantic slavery traced through DNA study

A new DNA study published Thursday sheds fresh light on the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, from the legacy of rape that can be seen in today's genetics to how disease likely decimated some groups forced to work in deadly conditions... The grim results from a paper, which appeared in the American Journal of Human Genetics, compiled genetic data from 50,000 consenting research participants from both sides of the Atlantic.
It cross-referenced these with detailed records from slave ships that transported 12.5 million men, women and children between 1515 and 1865. Some two million died on the journey.

▽St Bernard dog rescued after collapsing on England's highest peak | The Guardian

A mountain rescue team has said its members “didn’t need to think twice” when they were called to help a 121lb (55kg) St Bernard dog that had collapsed while descending England’s highest peak.
Sixteen volunteers from Wasdale mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing Daisy from Scafell Pike after receiving a call from Cumbria police.
The team said the dog was displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move as she came down from the summit of the mountain with her owners on Friday evening.

▽West Ham 1-1 Aston Villa: Villa survive relegation with final-day draw - BBC Sport

Aston Villa will play Premier League football next season after a draw at West Ham was enough to ensure they escaped relegation on the final day of the campaign.
Hometown hero and captain Jack Grealish looked to have sealed a win for Villa with a powerful strike in the 84th minute, but Andriy Yarmolenko's deflected leveller soon after made it a nervy finale for the visitors.
They hung on though and the point, coupled with a defeat for Watford at Arsenal, ensured Villa's survival and consigned the Hornets to the Championship next season along with Bournemouth, whose win at Everton was not enough.