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Science

NASA Mars Perseverance rover: What to expect on landing day

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NASA will use a “sky crane” to gently lower Perseverance to the surface of Mars.


NASA

When it comes to space events, few things are as thrilling as landing a vehicle on another planet. It’s tense. It’s exciting. It’s high-stakes. On Feb. 18, NASA’s Perseverance rover will aim to stick the landing on Mars, kicking off a new era in red planet exploration. 

While NASA has a lot of experience with delivering machines to Mars (here’s looking at you, Curiosity and InSight), that doesn’t make it any easier this time. “Landing on Mars is hard,” said NASA. “Only about 40 percent of the missions ever sent to Mars – by any space agency – have been successful.”

It’s going to be a wild ride. Here’s what to expect on Perseverance’s landing day.

How to watch

NASA will provide live coverage of the landing. The NASA TV broadcast from mission control kicks off on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 11:15 a.m. PT. Touch down in the Jezero Crater on Mars is scheduled for around 12:30 p.m. PT. 

This won’t be like a rocket launch where we get to see every detail as it’s happening. We will get NASA commentary and updates, views from mission control, and hopefully some images not too long after landing. It will be a must-watch event for space fans.    

Perseverance resonates

We’ve been to Mars before. So why all the hype? The red planet is our solar system neighbor. It’s rocky like Earth. It has a long history of water. We can imagine ourselves perhaps living there some day. 

“The level of interest that people have in this planet is just extraordinary,” Alice Gorman — space archaeologist and associate professor at Flinders University in Australia — told CNET. Gorman highlighted humanity’s search for life beyond Earth and how Mars is a candidate for having hosting microbial life in its ancient past.

NASA Perseverance rover ready to explore the wilds of Mars


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There’s also something special about a rover, a wheeled mechanical creature with a “head” and “eyes.” “People feel towards the rovers because they’re active and they move,” said Gorman, likening it an almost parental sense of attachment. The outpouring of emotion over the demise of NASA’s Opportunity rover proves how connected humans can get to a Mars explorer. Perseverance is set to become our new Martian sweetheart.

Seven minutes of terror

Mars arrivals are always harrowing. NASA calls the process EDL for “entry, descent and landing.”

“During landing, the rover plunges through the thin Martian atmosphere, with the heat shield first, at a speed of over 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph),” said NASA in a landing explainer. There’s a reason NASA describes the landing process as “seven minutes of terror.”

This NASA graphic shows the entire entry, descent and landing (EDL) sequence.


NASA/JPL-Caltech

Small thrusters will fire to keep the rover on track on the potentially bumpy ride through the atmosphere. The rover’s protective heat shield helps to slow it down. At an altitude of around 7 miles (11 kilometers), a supersonic parachute will deploy and Perseverance will soon separate from its heat shield.

NASA gave a briefing on Jan. 27 with a detailed rundown on the entire EDL sequence, including the “sky crane” maneuver, which lowers the rover the final distance to the surface using a set of cables.

If all goes well, Perseverance will end up standing on the surface of Mars. “The really hard part is to soft land and not crash land, and then to deploy the moving parts,” said Gorman. Perseverance is not alone on the trip. It also carries a helicopter named Ingenuity in its belly. Ingenuity will be unleashed later in the mission.


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Experiencing the landing

The mission is equipped with cameras and microphones designed to capture the EDL process, so we can expect to both see and hear the excitement of the landing at some point. “It will be the raw sounds of the descent and coming onto the surface,” said Gorman. “So that’s a whole other level of sensory engagement.”

It takes time to send data between Mars and Earth. For us back home, we can expect a first photo not too long after landing, but the full visual and audio experience may take a few days for NASA to share with the world. 

The agency released an arrival trailer in December that shows an animated, sped-up version of the process. You’ll get the idea of just how wild it is to land a rover on another planet.

Gorman is excited about getting visuals of the rover’s landing spot in Jezero Crater. It will be our first close-up look at the landscape in an area that had a history of water. Perseverance hopes to explore that history and look for evidence of life.

While the photos, sounds, helicopter and all-around science will be reasons to celebrate, there’s the big lingering question the mission might answer: Was Mars home to microbial life? Said Gorman, “It would just be really great if we’ve got a bit of a closer handle on whether anything once lived on Mars.” 

Perseverance is our next great hope in the search for signs of life beyond Earth. It all starts with sticking the landing.

Follow CNET’s 2021 Space Calendar to stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.    

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Sports

Patrick Reed wins Farmers Insurance Open by 5 shots a day after rules controversy

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SAN DIEGO — Showing no effects from a rules controversy a day earlier, Patrick Reed pulled away for a 5-shot victory Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Reed closed with a 4-under 68 at Torrey Pines, making an eagle on the par-5 sixth and finishing off his ninth PGA Tour title with a birdie on the 18th.

The former Masters champions finished at 14 under after a consistent four days at the blufftop municipal courses overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He shared the first-round lead with Alex Noren, was in a group a shot off the lead in the second round and then shared the third-round lead with Carlos Ortiz.

The controversy arose Saturday on the par-4 10th when Reed hit a 190-yard shot out of a bunker. A TV replay showed the ball bounced once before settling into the rough. Without waiting for an official, Reed picked up the ball to see if it was embedded. Reed told the official that no one in his group, as well as a nearby volunteer, saw it bounce. He was awarded a free drop and saved par in a round of 70.

On Sunday, Reed jump-started his round with a 45-foot eagle putt on No. 6 to get to 12 under and followed with a birdie on the par-4 seventh. His only bogey was on the par-3 eighth, and he rebounded with a birdie on the par-5 ninth. He played par the rest of the way until sinking an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 18.

Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Ryan Palmer, Henrik Norlander and Viktor Hovland tied for second.

Hovland had been the closest in pursuit with four birdies on the front nine, including on the ninth to get to 12 under. But the birdies dried up and he bogeyed Nos. 14, 15 and 17 — missing a 2-footer on 17 — in a round of 1-under 71.

Ortiz stumbled badly with a round of 6-over 78. He hurt himself with three bogeys on the front nine that left him even at the turn. He had even more trouble on the back nine, where he bogeyed No. 11 and then had trouble getting out of a greenside bunker on No. 12, taking a double-bogey 6. He bogeyed 15, 16 and 18.

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US

Donald Trump: Former president names two new lawyers for impeachment trial a day after his defense team collapsed

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One point of friction with his previous team was Trump wanted the attorneys to focus on his election fraud claims rather than the constitutionality of convicting a former president.

Trump has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case as he refuses to budge from his false claims. Trump’s advisers have been talking to him about his legal strategy and he keeps bringing up election fraud for his defense, while they have repeatedly tried to steer him away from that, according to a source familiar with those discussions.

It’s unclear if Schoen and Castor will go along with what Trump wants.

“Schoen has already been working with the 45th President and other advisors to prepare for the upcoming trial, and both Schoen and Castor agree that this impeachment is unconstitutional – a fact 45 Senators voted in agreement with last week,” the release said.

“It is an honor to represent the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, and the United States Constitution,” Schoen said in a statement.

Castor added, “I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th President. The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always.”

Schoen “focuses primarily on the litigation of complex civil and criminal cases before trial and appellate courts,” according to his website. He serves as chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Civil Rights Litigation Committee.

Castor, meanwhile, is a well-known attorney in Pennsylvania who previously served as Montgomery County district attorney.

In order to convict Trump, at least 17 Republicans will need to vote with all Democrats when the trial begins.

CNN previously reported that Senate Republicans who criticized Trump without doing anything about his actions are hoping to put distance between themselves and the former President without casting any votes that could cause a backlash from Trump and his fervent supporters.

Many say something should be done about what Trump did — but just not by them.

The rhetoric showcases the split between House and Senate Republicans as the party struggles to find its voice after the tumultuous Trump era. Many House Republicans remain staunch Trump defenders, saying he did nothing wrong and shouldn’t be blamed for the violence that occurred at the Capitol on January 6.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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Technology

PS5 restock: Sony Direct back in stock for second day in a row, get it fast

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Update: the PS5 restock queue is now open at Sony Direct, and the we’re waiting for the console along with a lot of other desperate PlayStation fans. We’ll let you know if we find it in stock, or if it sells out before we get to the front of the line. Keep trying.

If you’re hunting for where to buy PS5, Sony Direct has PS5 consoles in stock and the queue will open momentarily, but get in line quickly when it goes live – they usually sell out in under thirty minutes. 

Just make sure you’re queueing for the correct edition:

Sony Direct PS5 restocks are only live for a short period but there’s good news: after going quiet for most of January, they appear to be opening up the purchase queues during the week like they had in prior months, so check back in routinely to see if they’re back in stock.

That said, other retailers have gotten PS5 restock much more frequently in January, so we’d advise prospective buyers to check the links below for Amazon, GameStop, Target, and Walmart – they’ve been more reliable. Amazon and GameStop in particular could both get PS5 restock overnight, which is why we’d advise potential buyers to check our links to those retailers below. 

If you didn’t make it through today at Sony Direct, check Target tomorrow morning – they had restock earlier today, and could again.

How to prepare for a Sony Direct PS5 stock drop

If, at a later date, you are make it into the queue, make sure that you keep your browser sound on to hear the chime if you get to the front of the queue – it appears places are randomly assigned and sadly there’s no way to know if you’re going to be able to grab stock – as Sony says, just getting in the queue is no guarantee of snagging a console.

Also remember to make sure you’ve got a PSN account with Sony, and fill it with payment and shipping details to make your life a little bit easier and make it through. You’ll only have 10 minutes when the chime goes, so act quickly.

If you miss out on Sony’s PS5 stock or simply want to know where to buy PS5 quickly, you’ll find all the links to buy PS5 at various retailers at the top of this page, including the PS5 Digital Edition. Keep checking these links as you never know when more consoles will hit the shelves… although we’re keeping our ear to the ground to find out when the next drops are coming.



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World

Indian Farmers March Set for Republic Day

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NEW DELHI — As pomp and color of military parades go, India’s Republic Day celebrations rank among the most eye-catching.

But on Tuesday, just as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the inception of the country’s Constitution with another parade by the armed forces, an unlikely force was preparing to upstage the show.

India’s protesting farmers, who have been camped out at the gates of New Delhi for two months demanding that Mr. Modi repeal laws that would reshape Indian agriculture, were preparing to march into the capital with thousands of tractors.

The show of force, after the central government failed in its frantic efforts to prevent the tractor march, dramatically illustrated how deeply the deadlock with the farmers has embarrassed Mr. Modi. Though he has emerged as India’s most dominant figure after crushing his political opposition, the farmers have been persistently defiant.

Mr. Modi in September rushed through the Parliament three farming laws that he hopes will inject private investment into a sector that has been troubled with inefficiency and a lack of money for decades. But farmers quickly rose up against them, saying the government’s easing of regulations had left them at the mercy of corporate giants that would take over their businesses.

As their protests have grown in size and anger, with tens of thousands of farmers camped out in the cold for two months and dozens of deaths among them, the government has offered to amend some parts of the laws to include their demands. The country’s Supreme Court also intervened, ordering the government to suspend the laws until it reaches a resolution with the farmers.

But the farmers say they will not stop short of a repeal, and they have begun increasing pressure. In addition to their tractor march on Tuesday, they have announced plans to hold a march by foot to the Indian Parliament on Feb. 1, when the country’s new budget will be presented.

Tensions were high leading up to Tuesday, with some officials claiming the protests had been infiltrated by insurgent elements who would resort to violence if the farmers were allowed inside the city. Just days before the tractor march, the farmers’ leaders brought in front of the media a young man they claimed they had arrested on suspicion of a plot to shoot the leaders on Tuesday to disrupt the rally. Neither set of claims could be independently verified.

There was some confusion about the scope and size of the tractor march before it was to begin. Reports in the local media, citing documents from the Delhi police, said the march would begin only after the high-profile Republic Day parade in the heart of New Delhi had culminated. The reports also said the number of tractors and how long they could stay inside the city had been capped.

But farm leaders at a news conference on Monday said there were no limitations on time and number of tractors as long as they stuck to the routes set out by the Delhi police. Maps of the routes suggested a compromise between the farmers and the police that could allow the protesters to enter the city but not get close to sensitive institutions of power.

The leaders said that about 150,000 tractors had gathered at the borders of the capital for the march, that about 3,000 volunteers would try to help the police in keeping order, and that 100 ambulances were on standby.

The farm leaders, both in statements given to the marchers as well as during the news conference, repeatedly appealed for peace as they carried out the tractor march.

“Remember, our aim is not to conquer Delhi, but to win over the hearts of the people of this country,” they said in instructions posted online for marchers, who were told not to carry weapons — “not even sticks” — during the march and to avoid provocative slogans and banners.

“The trademark of this agitation has been that it’s peaceful,” Balbir Singh Rajewal, one of the main leaders of the movement, said. “My request to our farmer brothers, to our youth, is that they keep this movement peaceful. The government is spreading rumors, the agencies have started misguiding people. Beware of it.

“If we remain peaceful, we’ve won. If we turn violent, Modi will win.”

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

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Technology

Deactivation of Flash cripples Chinese railroad for a day

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Enlarge / Dalian Railway Station.

In 2017, Adobe announced it would deactivate Flash at the end of 2020. Earlier this month, on January 12, Adobe carried through on its plans, deactivating Flash installations around the world. One result, according to Apple Daily, was chaos in a Chinese railroad in Liaoning province.

Officials at China Railway Shenyang use Flash-based software to plan each day’s railroad operations. As a result of the outage, Apple Daily says, “staffers were reportedly unable to view train operation diagrams, formulate train sequencing schedules, and arrange shunting plans.”

As a result, the railroad was unable to dispatch its trains, “leading to a complete shutdown of its railroads in Dalian, Liaoning province,” according to Apple Daily.

After a day of chaos, the railroad found a solution: it obtained a pirated version of Flash without the self-deactivating code. The railroad installed it early on the morning of January 13, allowing operations to resume.

Officials gave an exciting blow-by-blow account of the incident in a post on the Chinese social media account QQ.

“After more than 20 hours of fighting, no one complained, and no one gave up,” they wrote (according to Google Translate). “Even if there is little hope, there is a motivation to move forward.”

The post attracted some mockery on the Chinese Internet, with observers pointing out railroad officials could have anticipated this problem and developed a non-Flash dispatching system months earlier. The post was taken down, but a copy is still available at archive.org.

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US

Biden raises the bar on vaccines and suggests US will get to 1.5 million a day

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“I’m quite confident that we will be in a position within the next three weeks or so to be vaccinating people at the range of 1 million a day or in excess of that,” he told reporters, clarifying that he was referring to 100 million shots, not necessarily 100 million people, since some of the vaccines require more than one shot.

Biden said the key factors in ramping up vaccinations are having enough vaccine, having enough syringes and other necessary equipment and having enough people administering them. He said his administration is working to produce additional vaccinators — people who can administer the vaccine.

“I think with the grace of God, the goodwill of the neighbor and the creek not rising, as the old saying goes, I think we may be able to get that to 1.5 million a day, rather than 1 million a day,” he said.

Biden’s announcement came the same day that officials for Pfizer and Moderna said it will take time to scale up manufacturing for their vaccines.

Moderna President Dr. Stephen Hoge relayed that vaccine makers have an obligation to maintain quality and consistency as they scale up capacity.

“That’s the frustrating thing about scaling up,” Hoge said.

The increase in vaccinations will not necessarily move the target timeline for getting vaccines to anyone in the US who wants one.

The President said that he thinks anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get it by this spring, a target date similar to one set under the Trump administration.

Biden’s commitment to ramp up coronavirus vaccinations comes among a larger list of efforts discussed the White House on Monday to address the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden signed a presidential proclamation on Monday reinstating the travel restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic for individuals traveling to the United States from the Schengen Area in Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa.

And speaking to reporters, Biden also referenced the importance of creating a forum where Americans “can show up, stand in line, and get their vaccine without having to stand in line for eight hours — being able to pick up the phone, call the pharmacy and get your name on the list(.)”

But the new efforts come amid ongoing confusion and urgent concerns across different states over the country’s coronavirus vaccine supply and distribution.

Earlier Monday, New York City Health Commissioner David Chokshi told CNN that the city “does not have enough doses” of Covid-19 vaccine to “be able to meet the demand we know exists among New Yorkers.”

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said Florida’s capacity far outweighs the amount of vaccine they have been given by the federal government. And Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker similarly said that the state is “setting up the capacity to administer far more doses, then we are currently receiving or projecting to receive from the (federal government).”

Over the last two days, both Biden’s top spokeswoman, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said they did not know the what the current coronavirus vaccine supply levels are. Both blamed the Trump administration for the problem.

But speaking to press on Monday, Biden claimed that his administration does know how many coronavirus vaccines are available in the US. However, he did not disclose any concrete numbers.

“(W)e are optimistic that we will have enough vaccine. And in very short order. As you know, we came in office without knowledge of how much vaccine was out being held in abeyance are available. Now that we’re here, we’ve been around a week or so, we now have that,” Biden said. “And we’ve gotten commitments from some of the producers that they will in fact produce more vaccine in a relatively short period of time and then continue that down the road.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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Business

GameStop short-sellers lost $1.6 billion in a single day as Reddit traders rebelled against them

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Lucas Jackson/Reuters

  • GameStop short-sellers have lost $3.3 billion betting against the stock in 2021, S3 Partners said.
  • Losses totaled roughly $1.6 billion on Friday alone as the stock rallied 51%.
  • GameStop has rocketed as Reddit traders drive bullish momentum to extraordinary levels.
  • Watch GameStop trade live here.

Investors betting against GameStop and the army of bullish retail traders have already lost billions in 2021.

Mark-to-market losses for GameStop shorts on a year-to-date basis reached $3.3 billion when trading closed on Friday, according to data from the financial-analytics firm S3 Partners. Losses totaled nearly $1.6 billion on Friday alone as shares rocketed 51% higher into the close.

GameStop stock has continued to climb as Reddit users and day traders have extended the unusual momentum trade into its third week. The company’s shares initially leaped on January 11 after it agreed with an activist investor to add three new directors to its board. The day’s gains drew in swaths of retail traders, including members of the popular WallStreetBets subreddit.

Online posts urging other investors to join the trade have since driven outsize bullish momentum for GameStop. The stock traded 115% higher as of 10:40 a.m. ET on Monday and is up more than 500% year-to-date.

Read more: BANK OF AMERICA: Buy these 31 unheralded stocks as the recovery’s hottest trades of recent months continue to gain strength in 2021

Though some think the gains have been fueled by a massive short squeeze, demand for shorting the stock remains strong. About 72 million shares – or 140% of GameStop’s float – were shorted as of Friday, according to S3. In the past seven days, the number of shares shorted climbed by 883,000, though the stock soared.

“There has been a queue of new short-sellers wanting to get short exposure in GameStop after its recent run-up,” Ihor Dusaniwsky, the managing director of predictive analytics at S3, told Insider, adding that brokers had been unable to meet the demand for shares to sell short.

Short-sellers and Wall Street have struggled to make sense of the retail-trader phenomenon. Only one firm, Telsey Advisory Group, has downgraded shares since they spiked earlier this month. The Street’s median price target is $11.96, implying a broad expectation of an 81% crash.

Read more: This actively-managed SPAC ETF amassed $60 million assets within a month of launching. Its founder breaks down how to pick blank-check firms – and shares 3 to watch in 2021.

Andrew Left of Citron Research, one of Wall Street’s most outspoken GameStop shorts, said on Friday that he would no longer comment on the stock. Left had posted a video on Thursday criticizing the bullish day traders and arguing that the stock would soon plummet to $20. WallStreetBets members chided Left with memes and derogatory comments.

The short-seller said on Friday that an “angry mob” of online traders had harassed him and tried to hack his Twitter account, leading him to end his commentary on the stock.

Left maintained his short thesis – but what began as a moderate short squeeze has evolved into a “vice-grip” on those betting against GameStop, Dusaniwsky said. He added that the stock’s extended rally would force shorts to reconsider their confidence in their position and likely kill off a great deal of GameStop bears.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

Buy these 13 stocks poised to benefit from a boom in 5G smartphone adoption, UBS says – including one expected to surge 69%

Microsoft will leap another 20% as cloud-computing strength drives strong earnings, Wedbush says

US business activity picks up as manufacturing gauge hits record high, IHS Markit says

Markets Insider

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Technology

Everything You Need to Know About Mareep Incense Day

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Pokemon Go‘s latest Incense Day is here to celebrate the arrival of Mega Ampharos into the popular mobile title. From 11 AM to 5 PM local time today, either Dragon-type or Electric-type Pokemon will spawn when you have Incense active. Additionally, Electric-type Pokemon will appear via Incense spawns from 11 AM to 1 PM and from 2 PM to 4 PM while Dragon-type Pokemon will appear via Incense spawns from 1 PM and 2 PM and from 4 PM to 5 PM. Additionally, Mareep will appear more often overall from Incense during the entire event. To help players participate in the Incense Day event, Pokemon Go is selling 3 Incense for 1 Poke Coin.

In addition to Mareep appearing more often during the event, any Ampharos evolved during the event will know the move Dragon Pulse, a move that it previously could only learn during a 2018 Community Day. Dragon Pulse is particularly handy when Ampharos Mega Evolves, as Mega Ampharos is an Electric/Dragon-type Pokemon and would gain a same type attack bonus when using the attack.

Pokemon confirmed to appear during the Incense Event includes: Pikachu, Magnemite, Voltorb, Chinchou, Mareep, Plusle, Minun, Stunfisk, Horsea, Dratini, Trapinch, Vibrava, Swablu, and Bagon. Note that Plusle, Minun, and Bagon are all needed to complete the Hoenn Celebration Event’s Collection Challenge.

In addition to today’s Incense Day, Pokemon Go is also hosting the aforementioned Hoenn Celebration Event, which features increased spawns of various Pokemon from the Hoenn region. This includes the addition of Groudon and Kyogre in 5-Star Raids through tomorrow, Monday January 25th. The game will then jump into a Johto Celebration event that will give players the opportunity to have certain Pokemon evolve to learn moves that were previously exclusive to older Community Days. All of these Celebration Events are leading towards the ticketed Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event, which gives players a chance to capture Shiny versions of every Pokemon from the Kanto region.

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