By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) — An unusual collection of stars may represent the remnants of a dwarf galaxy that the Milky Way devoured about 10 billion years ago. Astronomers have dubbed the ancient galaxy Loki, after the Norse god of mischief. The finding could change the current understanding of how the Milky Way evolved in the distant past.

The vast Milky Way spans about 100,000 light-years and contains anywhere between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, according to NASA. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).

Our home galaxy wasn’t always such a cosmic giant. It grew over time starting about 12 billion years ago by merging with a multitude of dwarf galaxies. But the original size and mass of the Milky Way remain an open question — driving scientists to search for evidence of the galaxies it consumed to determine its history and evolution.

To identify those missing puzzle pieces, astronomers have now zeroed in on a cluster of metal-lacking stars detected oddly close to the galactic disk, according to a study published in May in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The astronomers are interested in these stars near the disk — a massive rotating pancake-like region containing much of the Milky Way’s stars — because the first stars in the universe were comprised of hydrogen and helium, which fused heavier elements together in their cores before exploding and unleashing the heavy elements that enriched future generations of stars.

Metal-poor stars are often associated with ancient dwarf galaxies, which the Milky Way might have consumed over time to grow to its current massive state — and remnants of these cosmic meals might be hiding deep within the galaxy.

The metal-poor composition of such ancient stars close to the galactic disk suggests that the Milky Way once made a rather large meal of another galaxy early in its history — and it could represent a critical, previously overlooked building block of our galaxy.

The search for metal-poor stars

Astronomers are like the detectives of the universe, searching the cosmos for clues of its origins, and very-metal-poor, or VMP, stars are a powerful tool in that quest, said Dr. Cara Battersby, associate professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, who did not participate in the study.

“VMP stars have been around for billions of years, holding within them clues to the formation of the Universe’s earliest generations of stars,” Battersby wrote in an email. Studying the metal-poor stars’ composition and motion can unlock details about the conditions and dynamics of the early universe, she added.

The search for metal-poor stars in the Milky Way has largely centered on the plentiful range of old stars in the galaxy’s stellar halo, so named because it’s a large, round diffuse cloud that surrounds the galactic disk.

Some astronomers believe evidence of more ancient mergers could be found deeper inside the Milky Way, such as in its disk.

An abundance of young, metal-rich stars, as well as a plethora of dust, crowded within the galactic disk has made it hard to spot metal-poor stars there, said lead study author Dr. Federico Sestito, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hertfordshire’s Centre for Astrophysics Research in England.

Sestito and his colleagues identified 20 metal-poor stars in surprising proximity to the disk using observations from the Euro

By Tim Lister and Svitlana Vlasova, CNN

(CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered retaliation to a deadly Ukrainian attack on what he said was a college dormitory in an occupied town.

Putin accused Ukraine of a “terrorist” act after Ukrainian drones struck the dormitory in Starobilsk, an occupied town in eastern Luhansk on Friday.

The Russian president added that he had ordered the defense ministry to come up with proposals for a response to the Ukrainian strike.

The Russian state news agency Tass said Saturday that the death toll has risen to 10, with 38 people injured, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Ukraine’s military rejected Putin’s claim and accused Russian media of circulating “manipulative information” on the attack. It reiterated that it strikes “military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes.”

The Ukrainian military said that among targets struck early Friday was “one of the headquarters of the ‘Rubicon’ unit in the Starobilsk area.”

The elite Rubicon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies has pioneered Russian drone technology and targeting since it was formed in 2024.

Ukraine has stepped up longer-range drone attacks in recent weeks. It claimed two attacks earlier this week on Russian military facilities in occupied territory earlier this week.

One wave of strikes hit a Russian drone pilot training camp in the occupied town of Snizhne, killing at least 65 cadets and an instructor on Wednesday night, according to the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, claimed the strike targeted a 2,484-square-meter complex, which housed drones and explosives as well as a command post.

Footage posted on social media Wednesday night also showed a building ablaze in Snizhne, which CNN has geolocated to the same area as the drone training camp.

Another set of strikes hit a Russian security service headquarters and an air defense system in the Kherson region in occupied Ukraine, killing and wounding almost 100 Russians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Thursday.

Ukrainian claims of such high casualty figures are unusual, and CNN cannot independently verify them. CNN approached Russian authorities for comment.

Ukraine has developed an arsenal of mid- and long-range drones capable of deep strikes on Russian military and energy infrastructure.

Zelensky said Saturday that the security services had struck “one of Russia’s important military-industrial enterprises” 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) inside Russia.

The target was a chemical plant in Perm Krai, Zelensky said, that provides a range of products to Russia’s military. He posted video purporting to show smoke rising from the facility.

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Por Adam Cancryn, CNN

La relación del presidente Donald Trump con los republicanos del Senado ha tocado fondo tras una revuelta en torno a su fondo de US$ 1.800 millones para la “antiinstrumentalización”, que puso de manifiesto profundas divisiones sobre la dirección del partido y sus prioridades.

Trump y sus aliados cercanos estaban furiosos por la reprimenda del viernes, mientras que en el Capitolio, los senadores y asesores republicanos criticaron duramente el fondo, calificándolo como el último de una serie de errores perjudiciales de la Casa Blanca que, según cinco personas familiarizadas con las conversaciones, temen cada vez más que les cuesten el control de la cámara.

“El presidente lo está haciendo tan difícil como humanamente posible”, comentó un alto asesor republicano del Senado. “Esto es un verdadero frente unido. Los 53 senadores republicanos no están contentos en este momento”.

Y a seis meses de las elecciones de mitad de mandato, los republicanos, exasperados por las luchas internas, advierten que la situación podría empeorar aún más.

El enfrentamiento en torno al fondo “contra la instrumentalización” puso fin a un período desastroso que frustró el intento de los republicanos de aprobar un importante paquete de inmigración antes del 1 de junio, como había exigido Trump, dejando su agenda en un punto muerto.

Esto también puso de relieve los temores que los legisladores venían sintiendo desde hacía tiempo: que, en lugar de ayudar a reforzar su posición política centrándose en cuestiones económicas y destacando logros políticos clave, Trump estaba debilitando sus posibilidades en noviembre debido a su preocupación por proyectos personales y una amplia campaña de represalias.

“Esto es como decir ‘Nerón tocaba la lira mientras Roma ardía’”, declaró el estratega republicano Barrett Marson. “Los temas en los que Trump, y en cierta medida el Congreso, se están centrando ahora mismo no benefician a los estadounidenses, y el tiempo se acaba para cambiar la situación”.

La semana pasada, Trump celebró la derrota del senador republicano Bill Cassidy, a quien sus aliados habían apoyado económicamente en las primarias como venganza por haber votado a favor de su destitución en el juicio político de hace cinco años.

Posteriormente, el presidente rechazó al popular senador texano John Cornyn en la segunda vuelta de las primarias republicanas de la próxima semana, optando en cambio por respaldar a Ken Paxton, un aspirante al que los senadores habían advertido abiertamente que podría costarles la victoria a los republicanos.

Mientras tanto, la Casa Blanca presionaba a los senadores republicanos para que autorizaran US$ 1.000 millones para el nuevo salón de baile de Trump y el Servicio Secreto, dando mayor importancia a un proyecto personal que muchos legisladores temen que solo esté reforzando la percepción de los votantes de que el Partido Republicano está desconectado de la realidad, comentaron asesores del Senado y otras personas familiarizadas con el asunto.

Cuando la parlamentaria del Senado dictaminó que el dinero no podía incluirse en el paquete legislativo más amplio de los republicanos, Trump pidió públicamente su despido, una medida que muchos senadores consideraron inapropiada e imprudente, según fuentes cercanas al caso.

“Incluso los temas de aprobación obligatoria están empezando a verse eclipsados ​​

By Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen, Kristen Holmes, Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump selected Tulsi Gabbard as his top intelligence official thanks to her non-interventionist, “America First” ideology that had pushed her away from the Democratic Party and into the MAGA fold.

But as Trump’s director of national intelligence, Gabbard’s isolationist tendencies quickly put her at odds with his military actions in Iran and Venezuela. Months before announcing her resignation Friday, citing her husband’s diagnosis of a rare form of bone cancer, Gabbard was routinely sidelined from some of the administration’s biggest foreign policy decisions of Trump’s second term.

When Trump’s national security team gathered at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Day to watch the US operation in Venezuela unfold, Gabbard was thousands of miles away posting pictures on social media from a beach in her home state of Hawaii.

Ahead of Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear sites last summer, Gabbard posted a video warning that the world is “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,” which angered Trump and the White House and put her on the sidelines.

And in February, when Trump launched joint strikes on Iran with Israel, Gabbard was in Washington with Vice President JD Vance and other cabinet members. Trump was in Mar-a-Lago with top national security officials, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine.

Before the strikes, Trump and Gabbard had a conversation about his potential military action in Iran, and he asked if the rumors about her resigning over it were true — whether she would leave if he decided to go forward, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. She said that the rumors were not true and she would not resign if he took military action, the source said.

While Gabbard was sidelined when it came to international deliberations, she shared Trump’s suspicions of the so-called “deep state.” Rooting out those perceived as being against Trump’s interests in the intelligence community became a main focus of her time as DNI.

“It’s scorched earth for anyone who they feel crossed Trump,” a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Friction with CIA

Gabbard quickly became isolated inside even her own office, the source said, surrounding herself with a small circle of advisers and — in a move many viewed as a symptom of paranoia — objecting to CIA officers serving as a part of her security detail because she did not trust that agency.

Another source pushed back on this notion and said Gabbard only removed one member of her detail for incompetence and lack of professionalism.

“She is extremely grateful for her protective team and trusts them with her life,” a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told CNN.

Gabbard and CIA director Ratcliffe have had a fraught relationship, according to multiple sources. Gabbard felt Ratcliffe at times was going around her directly to the president, despite the agencies traditionally working hand in hand. This prompted Gabbard to begin talking to the president directly about various issues, something one source speculated saved her job.

Gabbard met with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday to present him with her resignation letter. A source close to Gabbard told CNN on Friday that despite her turbulent tenure at DNI, a key reason she stayed in the job as long as she did was simply that the president still likes her personally.

Another source close to Gabbard said she had been wrestling with the d

By Kasha Patel, CNN

(CNN) — In southern Georgia, fast-moving flames destroyed a record number of homes; across the Plains in Nebraska, the largest fire in state history killed one person and wiped out more than 600,000 acres of cattle country; and outside Los Angeles, an unusually early blaze spurred evacuation alerts for thousands.

Wildfire season has been far from mild this spring.

Across the United States, wildfire activity has hit historic levels this spring and is likely to worsen in the coming months, experts say. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 30,000 fires have ignited across the country — the most in almost two decades. More than 2 million acres have burned, which is twice the previous 10-year average and the highest loss in 14 years.

The Southeast has tallied the highest number of fires across the country so far, with blazes closer to populated areas than usual. But the largest have occurred in the Great Plains, where strong winds pushed flames across towns. The West has already experienced uncharacteristically early and destructive events, bringing concerns for a perilous fire season.

“Here we are in May, and we’re talking about people losing their houses and lives,” said Morgan Varner, research director at Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy in Tallahassee, Florida. Several factors “all point to a really bad year” in many regions, he said.

That includes low snowpack, plenty of vegetation, drought and expected changes to weather patterns from a developing “Super” El Niño, all on top of an underlying warming climate that’s intensifying the hot, dry conditions that help fires ignite and spread.

Region by region, these are the most notable US wildfires so far and the biggest concerns heading into summer.

Dry conditions light up Southeast

Fires in Georgia are common from March to May, but this year is one for the history books.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 3,000 fires have burned 83,000 acres in the state, according to data from the Georgia Forestry Commission. That’s almost double the fires and eight times as many burned acres by this time of the year compared to the last five years.

“We’ve been in a drought, and it’s been building since late summer of 2025,” said Thomas Barrett, forest protection chief with the Georgia Forestry Commission. “It’s taken this long to finally get about as bad as it could get.”

On top of that, he said weather systems brought more dry air and strong winds to the region, creating a perfect storm of fire conditions this season. Forecasts from the National Interagency Fire Center expect high fire activity through July until summer thunderstorms bring relief.

“I keep my fingers crossed that we’re peaking about now, and that we’ll start going down in a couple of months,” said Barrett. “Everybody in the southeast part of the country has kind of been in the same shape this spring.”

Unlike previous years, the fires are also hitting closer to populated