Multiple international airlines from countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Portugal had suspended their flights to and from Venezuela as of Saturday.
The suspension came after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Friday warned major airlines of a "potentially hazardous situation" when flying over Venezuela and urged them to exercise caution.
According to media reports on Saturday that several U.S. officials have said the United States is prepared to launch a new round of actions related to Venezuela in the coming days.
In response, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Saturday that the increasing pressure on Venezuela exerted by the United States poses an enormous challenge of "unforeseen dimensions" to the peace and security of the Caribbean region.
Multiple int'l airlines suspend Venezuela flights after US warning
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China have achieved a major breakthrough in optical clock technology, developing a strontium optical lattice clock with stability and uncertainty both surpassing the 10⁻¹⁹ level, currently the most precise in the world.
The clock would lose or gain less than one second over roughly 30 billion years, according to the research team.
The findings were published in the international metrology journal Metrologia on Thursday.
Optical clocks are considered the most precise timekeeping devices currently available. They measure time by using the frequency of light emitted when electrons transition between energy levels in atoms. They can directly support the redefinition of the second in the International System of Units.
"This breakthrough enables China to rank among the top in the world in the development of optical clocks. It also provides a feasible technical path for the development of transportable optical clocks and satellite-borne optical clocks, and lays a solid and reliable foundation for using optical clock technology in areas such as testing fundamental laws of physics, supporting next-generation satellite navigation systems, and establishing a globally unified ultra-high-precision time reference," said Dai Hanning, professor of the university.
Beyond time-keeping, optical clocks can provide highly accurate time references for modern technologies such as satellite navigation, telecommunications and precision measurements. They also offer new experimental platforms for testing fundamental physics, including general relativity, as well as for the detection of gravitational waves and dark matter.
Achieving both stability and uncertainty at the 10⁻¹⁹ level opens the door to a range of frontier applications. These include millimeter-level measurements of gravitational potential and altitude, which could help monitor crustal deformation, groundwater changes and volcanic activity, as well as improve geoid mapping for disaster prevention and resource exploration.
Chinese researchers develop world's most precise optical clock
