Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.

Credit: Chester Zoo/Cover Images

It might look like something out of the new Godzilla movie — but 60 million years ago, the 13-metre-long snake pictured above really did live on our planet. Chester Zoo, UK, is displaying animatronic models of Titanoboa cerrejonensis and a dozen other massive extinct predators as part of the ‘Predators’ exhibition, which opened in May. The zoo wants to use the exhibition to highlight the threat of extinction faced by modern-day animals. See more of our picture editors’ picks for best science photos of the month.

Nature | Leisurely scroll

The administration of US President Donald Trump tried to stop a government analyst from mentioning climate science in his testimony about the national security implications of climate change to a congressional committee. The White House’s proposed cuts included an entire section on the scientific basis of the conclusions and rejected the value of peer-reviewed evidence. “A consensus of peer reviewed literature has nothing to do with truth,” said one amendment, which The New York Times reports were written by physicist William Happer, a climate-science denier and White House adviser. Intelligence analyst Rod Schoonover eventually gave his testimony verbally without changes, but the White House refused to approve the written testimony for entry into the permanent Congressional Record.

The New York Times | 5 min read

Rod Schoonover’s written testimony with tracked changes, acquired by The New York Times

For the first time, astronomers have spotted an energetic blast known as a coronal mass ejection from a star other than the Sun. NASA’s Chandra observatory detected a blast of X-rays and the light from an emission of a giant bubble of plasma from a star called HR 9024. Because they strip a lot of mass and energy from stars, coronal mass ejections are thought to have a big impact on stellar development — not to mention a devastating effect on any nearby exoplanets.

Space.com | 6 min read

Reference: Nature Astronomy paper

At the inception of a pandemic research programme at the University of Sussex in April, all six researchers expected from Africa were absent owing to late or denied visas. For a London School of Economics conference that same month, only one of 25 invited African scientists was given a visa — despite the fact that their flights and visa applications were paid for by Britain’s own research councils. The Guardian speaks to researchers from the United Kingdom and Africa about how travel restrictions are cooling collaboration.

The Guardian | 6 min read

FEATURES & OPINION

Last week, one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons ever found took its place as the star of the newly refurbished fossil hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The ‘Wankel T. Rex’ is named after its discoverer, amateur fossil-hunter Kathy Wankel, who found the bones on a family holiday in Montana in 1988.

The Washington Post | 10 min read

The one million Rohingya people inhabiting the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh survived horrific violence in Myanmar before finding themselves in temporary shelters with next to nothing. But the relative safety of the camp has its own dangers, including cholera. Discover how health workers managed to administer one of the largest cholera vaccination programmes in history.

Mosaic | 17 min read