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There is something about Chris Pratt that makes him the perfect actor to play law enforcement officers, especially those in the military. From Zero Dark Thirty to The Terminal List , his TV and film career has featured these roles that have made him one of the most recognizable actors of the last two decades. Just this year, he played a police officer in Mercy , a timely film about AI that, while it underperformed in theaters, became a hit on streaming. This November, Pratt is once again taking on another military character, but there is something different about this one.

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Russia fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight into Sunday in one of the heaviest attacks since the start of its full-scale invasion more than four years ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack involved more than 40 missiles of various types and 120 attack drones. Ballistic missiles are especially hard to shoot down because of their speed, and Ukraine has run low on the U.S.-made Patriot interceptors that are its best defense against them.

After the attack, Ukrainian officials repeated their pleas for more interceptors and tougher sanctions on Moscow. “Protection against ballistic missiles is our constant and top priority right now,” Zelenskyy said. “Interceptors are needed every day.”

Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it the largest ballistic attack of the war . Ukraine’s air force put it lower , saying it was one of the largest and the fourth strike of comparable size on Kyiv in the past five weeks. It said it shot down 18 of the 41 missiles and downed nearly all of those on a ballistic trajectory.

The strikes damaged residential buildings, a supermarket and a dormitory in the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said . At least one person in Kyiv was killed in the attack and 15 wounded, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia’s defense ministry said it had hit what it called defense industry facilities and logistics centers in Kyiv.

The interceptor shortage has worsened since the war with Iran, which drained U.S. and allied Patriot stocks. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine needs 300 Patriots for the coming winter. U.S. President Donald Trump said this month he would let Ukraine produce the missiles under license , but the arrangement has not been finalized.

Nine European countries agreed on July 13 to back a Ukrainian effort to build a homegrown anti-ballistic system, and France is licensing Ukraine to produce its Aster interceptors.

Ukrainian officials also pressed the EU to break its deadlock over a new sanctions package.

“There can be no pauses in increasing sanctions and isolation of Russia,” Sybiha said. “The coward in Moscow, who is afraid to meet with President Zelenskyy to end the war, continues to wage a war against civilians. The 21st EU package must be unblocked now.”

EU countries failed for a third consecutive day on Wednesday to sign off on the package, the bloc’s 21st against Russia since the full-scale invasion, after Austria and Greece held out over unrelated demands. Ambassadors are due to try again Tuesday. The package would blacklist 250 more people tied to the war and hit additional banks and ships used to smuggle Russian oil.

Ukraine has kept up its own strikes on Russia’s energy sector. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces hit three oil depots in Russia’s Stavropol region on Sunday and struck three tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet in the Black Sea.

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Researchers have discovered that children's brains can contain cells with their mother's DNA and that these cells can persist for decades.

The findings, which were posted to the preprint database bioRxiv June 10 but have not been peer-reviewed yet, are part of a growing body of work showing that a mother and fetus exchange cells during pregnancy ‪—‬ a phenomenon known as "microchimerism." Previously, scientists had found that a mother's brain harbors cells with her children's DNA.

The findings are important for several reasons, said Amy Boddy , co-director of the Microchimerism, Human Health and Evolution Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the study. Past work mostly found evidence of maternal microchimerism in infancy, and in blood samples, she told Live Science in an email. "What's exciting here is that it's tissue, not blood; it's real human data, not an animal model; and the methods are cutting-edge."

More broadly, the work reinforces the idea that microchimerism is "a normal process of mammalian biology," Boddy said.

Hunting down maternal cells in the brain

Before this study, there was sparse evidence for maternal microchimeric cells in brains, mostly because it is hard for researchers to get samples of human brain tissue and DNA from both parents and their children.

To overcome this challenge, a team led by Sami Kanaan , a staff scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, analyzed brain tissue that had been surgically removed from dozens of children with severe epilepsy as part of their treatment. The patients ranged in age from 28 days to 19 years at the time of their surgery, and their mothers provided DNA samples through cheek swabs.

Kanaan's team used a tool called quantitative PCR to identify and count maternal cells hiding among millions of cells in the children's brains.

Out of 37 mother-child pairs, 26 children ‪—‬ 70% ‪—‬ had their mother's cells in their brains. These maternal cells were distributed across multiple regions of the brain, including the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes, which sit on the brain's outer surface, and the hippocampus, which is buried deep inside. Each sample had, on average, about 2.2 maternal cells per 100,000, though one sample from the hippocampus had 459 maternal cells per 100,000 and 11 children had no evidence of maternal DNA in their brains.

That prevalence is probably underestimated, Boddy said, "due to the limits of detecting rare cells at low frequency with this method."

Being a firstborn child seemed to increase the odds of having maternal cells in the brain. Of the children who carried their mother's cells, 14 were firstborns and 12 were later-born. In contrast, among the children who didn't have these cells, only one was a firstborn and 10 were later-born.

Using a technique called single nucleus RNA sequencing, which reveals what a cell is doing by showing which genes within the cells are switched on, the researchers found that the maternal cells had transformed into several types of brain cells. Likely, these cells were originally leukocytes and stem cells and had been transferred to the fetus via the placenta or during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The transformed cells included neurons; oligodendrocytes, which produce the protective sheath around neurons; astrocytes, which support many brain functions and help fuel neurons; microglia, the brain's immune cells; and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels.

"Being able to use single-nucleus RNA sequencing to identify what type of cells the maternal microchimeric cells actually are is amazing," Boddy said. "We've been so limited in understanding the function of these cells, and papers like this, with these methods, are getting us closer."

During pregnancy, the mother and fetus exchange cells — a phenomenon called "microchimerism." (Image credit: Rhenizara S via Getty Images) Checking healthy brains

To see whether these findings also applied to people without epilepsy, the researchers examined brain autopsy data from 29 individuals with no known neurodevelopmental conditions, ranging in age from 22 weeks of gestation to 40 years. They also analyzed brain tissue from three men in their late 80s and early 90s without any known brain conditions originally collected as part of an Alzheimer's disease study.

In total, the researchers found foreign cells in 25 of 32 people — about 78% — including in the brain of a man in his 90s.

The researchers suspect these foreign cells are maternal, but they couldn't confirm it because they didn't have DNA from the mothers. It is possible that the foreign cells came from a twin; an older sibling; a past pregnancy, miscarriage or abortion (in females); or, rarely, from a maternal grandmother, the team wrote in their paper.

As in the epilepsy patients, these cells had matured into several types of working brain cells. In younger brains, they most often became a specific kind of neuron, a layer 2/3 neuron, while in older brains, maternal cells were more likely to be microglia.

Given that these microchimeric cells take on very different roles, it would be interesting to know whether that diversity reflects their origins ‪—‬ for example, whether they came from a mother, an older biological sibling or a maternal grandmother, said Dr. Sing Sing Way , a microchimerism researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who was not involved in the study.

The number of maternal cells declined with age, but they never completely disappeared.

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Why does a mother's body keep some of her baby's cells after birth?

Boddy said the findings mostly raise new questions. "Do we maybe need microchimeric cells to 'help out'?" she asked. "Is diversity of cells in the brain important, or is it just a byproduct of being a placental mammal?”

Because microchimeric cells appear to be common, Boddy suspects they "are doing an important job in the brain, so understanding their function could be very important for understanding healthy brain development."

By using new analytical tools to pinpoint microchimeric cells, the study "pushes the boundaries" of previous research, but future studies would benefit from larger and more uniform datasets, Way said. That would mean obtaining more brain biopsies, analyzing more cells from each sample, collecting specimens at different ages, and sampling similar brain regions across individuals to better compare the results.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

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Denza has begun testing the hardcore Z Special Edition at the Nürburgring.

The high-performance EV will attempt to set a new record this fall.

Upcoming model has a tri-motor powertrain with more than 1,973 hp.

At the Goodwood Festival of Speed , BYD’s Denza introduced their new Z supercar. The company confirmed there will be Coupe, Spider and Racing variants as well as a Special Edition that will attempt to set a new Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record this fall.

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It seems like the company is getting in some early practice as a prototype was recently spied on and around the famous track. As you can see, the model appears to be based on the Z Racing, but is far more extreme.

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As a refresher, that variant comes equipped with a carbon fiber front splitter, underfloor vortex generators, and an assortment of vents. The model can also be equipped with an optional carbon fiber rear wing and these features enable the coupe to generate 2,337 lbs (1,060 kg) of downforce at 217 mph (350 km/h). The special touches don’t end there as the car’s rear seats can be replaced by a roll cage.

More: BYD’s New Denza Z More Than Doubles A 911 Turbo S’ Power For Less Than GTS Money

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The prototype seen by spy photographers builds on that, but is far more aggressive as it has multiple canards and a larger splitter. They’re joined by modified bodywork, a massive wing, and a diffuser that takes up roughly a third of the rear end. We can also see new wheels and tires as well as exposed carbon fiber bodywork.

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The latter shouldn’t be surprising as Denza has previously said the Z Special Edition will feature “race-grade dual-layer composite bodywork, including panels made completely from carbon fiber.” The company has also said the car will be equipped with a “drag-reduction system that coordinates a front active diffuser and a rear wing flap to cut drag by up to 40%, while producing more than 4,409 lbs (2,000 kg) of downforce at 186 mph (300 km/h).”

The regular Z has a 76 kWh Blade Battery that feeds a tri-motor powertrain developing 1,582 hp (1,180 kW / 1,604 PS) and 914 lb-ft (1,240 Nm) of torque. This enables the coupe to accelerate from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in 2.25 seconds, before hitting a top speed of 186 mph (300 km/h). The Z Racing is even quicker as it hits 62 mph (100 km/h) in 1.96 seconds and has a top speed of 217 mph (350 km/h).

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However, the Z Special Edition is the star of the show as it will have a track-grade thermal management system and a combined output in excess of 1,973 hp (1,471 kW / 2,000 PS). Denza has claimed this will enable the model to rocket from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in less than 1.7 seconds.

Denza has said the car will “undergo additional development assessment” ahead of the record-breaking attempt, and details will be released in “due course.”

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Denza Z Racing