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A US commercial mission carrying astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, marking the first time in decades that these nations have sent crew to space.Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, lifted off early Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding a Falcon 9 rocket.Onboard were pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India; mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary; and Commander Peggy Whitson of the United States, a former NASA astronaut now with Axiom Space, which organizes private spaceflights.The capsule, the fifth and final Dragon in the SpaceX fleet, was christened “Grace” after reaching orbit.It achieved “soft capture,” or the first stage of docking, with the orbital lab Thursday at 6:31 am Eastern Time (1031 GMT).They later entered the station through the hatch and were greeted by the current ISS crew during a brief welcome ceremony.”It’s so great to be here at last,” said Whitson. “That was a long quarantine.”The crew will now spend about 14 days aboard the station, conducting some 60 experiments — including studies on microalgae, sprouting salad seeds, and the hardiness of microscopic tardigrades in space.- Key step for India -The last time India, Poland or Hungary sent people to space, their current crop of astronauts had not yet been born — and back then they were called cosmonauts, as they all flew on Soviet missions before the fall of the Iron Curtain.Shukla is the first Indian to reach space since Rakesh Sharma, who flew to the Salyut 7 station in 1984 as part of an Indo-Soviet mission.India’s space agency, ISRO, sees this flight as a key step toward its first independent crewed mission, slated for 2027 under the Gaganyaan (“sky craft”) program.”What a fantastic ride,” Shukla said in Hindi after liftoff. “This isn’t just the start of my journey to the International Space Station — it’s the beginning of India’s human space program.”Each country is funding its astronaut’s seat.Poland has spent 65 million euros for its astronaut’s flight, according to the Polish Space Agency. Hungary announced a $100 million deal with Axiom in 2022, according to spacenews.com, while India has not officially commented.The Ax-4 launch comes after technical issues delayed the mission, originally slated for early June.It also follows an online spat between US President Donald Trump and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and, until recently, Trump’s ally and advisor.Trump threatened to yank SpaceX’s federal contracts — worth tens of billions of dollars — prompting Musk to threaten an early retirement of Dragon, the only US spacecraft currently certified to carry astronauts to the ISS.Musk walked back the threat a few hours later and in the days that followed continued to deescalate, stating on X that he had gone “too far.”Any falling out between SpaceX and the US government would be massively disruptive, given NASA and the Pentagon’s reliance on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to send up crew, cargo, satellites and probes.But for now, analysts believe both sides are too entangled to risk a serious break.

Photographs of a leopard snapped by camera traps in forests in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts have raised hopes among conservationists working to save the critically endangered species.Bangladesh’s Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA) issued pictures of the leopard emerging from lush green bush, celebrating the “evidence that these elusive big cats still persist” in the forested hills where Bangladesh borders India and Myanmar.”We have to ensure the protection of the species so that it doesn’t become extinct,” CCA research officer Sourav Chakma told AFP on Thursday.Leopards are listed as vulnerable as a species globally, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but critically endangered in the South Asian country of more than 170 million people, warning its population may no longer be viable.Zoologist Monirul Khan, of Jahangirnagar University, said previous reports of the elusive cats had been based on paw prints and fleeting sightings in the forest.”As an extremely rare and secretive species, the latest sighting is very significant”, Khan said.”It highlights the importance of the remaining natural forest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a reserve of wildlife habitat.”The predator was once widely seen in forested areas. Habitat loss, lack of prey and poaching are key contributors to the loss of leopards, experts say.Bangladesh is also home to tigers, now found only in the vast Sundarbans mangrove forests that straddle the border with India.On the Bangladesh side, the latest survey released in October 2024 recorded 125 tigers, up from 114 in 2019.

Indian investigators have successfully retrieved data from the black boxes of a Boeing plane, after it crashed in one of the deadliest air disasters in decades, the government said Thursday.All but one of the 242 people on board the Air India flight were killed on June 12 when the jet crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 19 others were left dead.Two weeks after the disaster, the civil aviation ministry said investigators have started “the data extraction process” from the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders.”The analysis… is underway. These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences,” a ministry statement said.The two black boxes were found within days of the crash, but were only flown to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau in New Delhi on Tuesday.One of the victims’ relatives said they were waiting for answers.”For now, all we know is the plane took off and then fell. How? Why? Nobody knows. And we want to know. We deserve to know,” said Imtiyaz Ali, whose brother was on the plane with his wife and two children.”I refuse to believe that our aviation sector is this bad that we still don’t have even a slight indication about what went wrong,” he told AFP on Wednesday.Air India said last week that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was “well-maintained” and that the pilots were accomplished flyers. Investigators have recovered more than 100 mobile phones with the aim of retrieving any recordings that “may provide clues about the final moments of the flight”, Ahmedabad police commissioner GS Malik said last week.The plane was being reconstructed at an undisclosed location “to detect any signs of mechanical failure, structural faults, or explosions”, he told journalists.- ‘We are moving forward’ -Forensic scientists have meanwhile been analysing hundreds of DNA samples in order to identify the victims.Despite the jet bursting into a fireball when it smashed down moments after takeoff, a forensic dentist told AFP the team has been able to find matches through teeth.”A protected molar tooth can withstand a temperature of over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit,” or 980 degrees Celsius, Jayasankar P Pillai said.The painstaking forensic process has enabled the majority of victims to be identified.”So far 260 deaths have been confirmed through DNA and police identification,” Gujarat health minister Rushikesh Patel said.One victim remains unidentified, a member of the forensic team told AFP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.A police source told AFP two days after the disaster that 279 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.The plane slammed into accommodation for medics, killing four doctors and injuring at least 24 as it hit the canteen. Smit Patel, a medical intern, joined a gathering this week to open a makeshift kitchen.”For us, reopening the mess is symbolic… despite everything, we are moving forward,” he said.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.”The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a Russian defence ministry statement.His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world “marked by intertwined turmoil and changes”.”It is all the more important for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to play its role as an anchor of stability,” he said, according to state news agency Xinhua.- Backing for Iran? -Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States was also likely discussed in Qingdao.Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States. “Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.”Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.Iran’s defence minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree”, said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.”It would be seen as provocative by both Israel… and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilise relations,” Ghiselli said.India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges”.”The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalisation, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.”The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a statement by the Russian defence ministry.His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in “chaos and instability”.”As momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,” Dong said as he welcomed defence chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.”Hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,” he warned.He urged his counterparts to “take more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development”.- Backing for Iran? -Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States will likely also be discussed in Qingdao.Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States. “Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.”Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.Iran’s defence minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree”, said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.”It would be seen as provocative by both Israel… and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilise relations,” Ghiselli said.India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges”.”The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalisation, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media platform X.

A US commercial mission carrying astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary blasted off to the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking the first time in decades that these nations have sent crew members to space.Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:31 am (0631 GMT), with a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket.The vehicle is scheduled to dock with the orbital lab on Thursday at approximately 1100 GMT and remain there for up to 14 days.Aboard the spacecraft were pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India; mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary; and commander Peggy Whitson of the United States, a former NASA astronaut who now works for the company Axiom Space, which organizes private spaceflights, among other things.The last time India, Poland or Hungary sent people to space, their current crop of astronauts had not yet been born — and back then they were called cosmonauts, as they all flew on Soviet missions before the fall of the Iron Curtain.Shukla became the first Indian in space since Rakesh Sharma, an air force pilot who traveled to the Salyut 7 space station in 1984 as part of a Soviet-led initiative to help allied countries access space.India’s space agency, ISRO, sees this flight as a key stepping stone toward its own maiden crewed mission, planned for 2027 under the Gaganyaan program, meaning “sky craft.””What a fantastic ride,” Shukla said in Hindi after liftoff. “This isn’t just the start of my journey to the International Space Station — it’s the beginning of India’s human space program.”Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the successful launch.”He carries with him the wishes, hopes and aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians. Wish him and other astronauts all the success!” he wrote on X.All three countries are footing the bill for their astronauts. Hungary announced in 2022 it was paying $100 million for its seat, according to spacenews.com. India and Poland have not disclosed how much they are spending.”We’ve got this! Poland has reached for the stars,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X, alongside a video himself watching the launch on a screen at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw.”Who knows how many future Polish astronauts watched Slawosz’s launch with me? Everyone was very excited and very proud,” Tusk said in another post, which included a photo of him seated next to several children at the science center.- Space spat -The Ax-4 launch comes after technical issues delayed the mission, originally slated for early June.It also follows an online spat between US President Donald Trump and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and, until recently, Trump’s ally and advisor.Trump threatened to yank SpaceX’s federal contracts — worth tens of billions of dollars — prompting Musk to threaten an early retirement of Dragon, the only US spacecraft currently certified to carry astronauts to the ISS.Musk walked back the threat a few hours later and in the days that followed continued to deescalate, stating on X that he had gone “too far.”Any rupture between SpaceX and the US government would be massively disruptive, given NASA and the Pentagon’s reliance on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to send up crew, cargo, satellites and probes.But for now, analysts believe both sides are too entangled to risk a serious break.The Ax-4 flight marks the debut of the fifth and final Crew Dragon vehicle, which was named “Grace” after it reached orbit joining Endeavour, Resilience, Endurance and Freedom in the active fleet.”It reflects the elegance with which we move through space against the backdrop of Earth,” said Commander Whitson. “It speaks to the refinement of our mission, the harmony of science and spirit and the unmerited favor we carry with humility.”SpaceX ultimately plans to phase out its current vehicles in the 2030s in favor of Starship, its giant next-generation rocket currently in development.

At the usually bustling border crossing of Poipet between Thailand and Cambodia, tuk-tuk driver San Noeun now has to work overnight to make ends meet.Thailand has all but closed the land crossings in seven border provinces as a territorial dispute with Cambodia that erupted into deadly military clashes last month festers.Cambodians living near the checkpoint in Poipet — the main land crossing between the two neighbours — say they are worried about the conflict escalating.San Noeun, 64, said the dispute had badly impacted small businesses and people like himself who earn hand-to-mouth from daily commuters around the border.”Since the border dispute, we cannot make much money,” he told AFP, adding he could previously make around $18 a day. “It causes trouble to our livelihood.” He wrung his hands in an appeal to both the Cambodian and Thai authorities to end the dispute and re-open the border.”Please don’t use weapons. I don’t want to see a war anymore. I am so tired of it,” he said. – Quiet casinos -Poipet — a busy casino city popular with Thai gamblers and known for underground cyberscam operations — is dotted with new construction projects.But since the gates on the Cambodian and Thai sides were both locked, the border crossing has fallen unusually quiet.Local residents told AFP there are fewer people around in the evenings, and those that do come are spending less.San Noeun said he usually drives many foreign casino workers around “but they don’t come out to hang around now”.Chhan Siyoeung, 54, a shoe vendor with a store about a kilometre (0.6 miles) from the Thai border, also bemoaned a drop in sales due to fewer commuters.”When there is a problem like this, people don’t want to spend money,” she said.”I am so scared, but I cannot go anywhere else. If I stay here, I could make some money.”She said military violence would see local Thais and Cambodians suffer the most, and urged authorities not to take up arms.In the flimsy hut where he stays with his son, San Noeun is also afraid. “I am a bit scared. We do not have a bunker.”He had just returned with 200 baht ($6) after offering an overnight ride-hailing service.”It is very hard now. We do not make enough money for day-to-day expenses,” he said, fretting over his $2,000 debt to a bank.Despite the hardship, some told AFP they were confident they could ride out the hardships of the border dispute.”It is quiet, So it is a bit difficult to do business,” fruit vendor Pov Bal, 34, said. “But it should be okay.”

Former players, including Sunil Gavaskar, tore into India Wednesday, blaming lower-order batting failures, poor bowling and sloppy fielding for the chastening first Test defeat at Headingley.A young India team, under new captain Shubman Gill and without the retired Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, went down by five wickets as England comfortably chased what should have been a daunting 371 to win on Tuesday’s final day.Five India batsmen, including Gill, scored hundreds, but two collapses — from 430-3 to 471 all out in the first innings and 333-4 to 364 in the second — kept England in the game.India put down several catches, with Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping Ben Duckett on 97 on the final day — and the opener went on to score 149 to set up victory.”Full credit to England. Despite India having five centurions, they seemed to have that confidence,” Gavaskar said on Sony Sports.”That is what made them take the final wickets. So that is where India also missed out because those extra runs could have made the difference,” added the former captain.”As far as the fielding was concerned, it’s just not the catches, but the outfielding was pretty ordinary. Not Test class.”Hopefully, lessons have been learned.”Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah took 5-83 in the first innings, but was blunted by England during the winning chase and went wicketless.Veteran left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja was expected to be a force on a wearing fifth-day wicket, but he took just 1-104 as Duckett mercilessly reverse swept him for a series of boundaries, including one majestic six over deep cover.”I’m going to be critical of Jadeja because this is a final-day pitch,” former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said.”There was rough for him to play with, and in the end, I know there were a couple of chances there, but we have to expect more from Jadeja.”India head coach Gautam Gambhir defended his lower-order batsmen.”I think they were more disappointed than anyone, because they knew we had the opportunity,” said Gambhir.”Hopefully they’ll learn, and hopefully we’ll get better performances from our tail.”

Efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases are faltering across the world due to economic inequality, Covid-era disruptions and misinformation, putting millions of lives at risk, research warned Wednesday.These trends all increase the threat of future outbreaks of preventable diseases, the researchers said, while sweeping foreign aid cuts threaten previous progress in vaccinating the world’s children.A new study published in The Lancet journal looked at childhood vaccination rates across 204 countries and territories.It was not all bad news. An immunisation programme by the World Health Organization was estimated to have saved an estimated 154 million lives over the last 50 years.And vaccination coverage against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio and tuberculosis doubled between 1980 and 2023, the international team of researchers found.However the gains slowed in the 2010s, when measles vaccinations decreased in around half of the countries, with the largest drop in Latin America. Meanwhile in more than half of all high-income countries there were declines in coverage for at least one vaccine dose.Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Routine vaccination services were hugely disrupted during lockdowns and other measures, resulting in nearly 13 million extra children who never received any vaccine dose between 2020 to 2023, the study said.This disparity endured, particularly in poorer countries. In 2023, more than half of the world’s 15.7 million completely unvaccinated children lived in just eight countries, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the study.In the European Union, 10 times more measles cases were recorded last year compared to 2023.In the United States, a measles outbreak surged past 1,000 cases across 30 states last month, which is already more than were recorded in all of 2024.Cases of polio, long eradicated in many areas thanks to vaccination, have been rising in Pakistan and Afghanistan, while Papua New Guinea is currently enduring a polio outbreak.- ‘Tragedy’ -“Routine childhood vaccinations are among the most powerful and cost-effective public health interventions available,” said senior study author Jonathan Mosser of the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).”But persistent global inequalities, challenges from the Covid pandemic, and the growth of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have all contributed to faltering immunisation progress,” he said in a statement. In addition, there are “rising numbers of displaced people and growing disparities due to armed conflict, political volatility, economic uncertainty, climate crises,” added lead study author Emily Haeuser, also from the IHME.The researchers warned the setbacks could threaten the WHO’s goal of having 90 percent of the world’s children and adolescents receive essential vaccines by 2030.The WHO also aims to halve the number of children who have received no vaccine doses by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.Just 18 countries have achieved this so far, according to the study, which was funded by the Gates Foundation and the Gavi vaccine alliance.The global health community has also been reeling since President Donald Trump’s administration drastically slashed US international aid earlier this year.”For the first time in decades, the number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year instead of down because of massive cuts to foreign aid,” Bill Gates said in a separate statement on Tuesday.”That is a tragedy,” the Microsoft co-founder said, committing $1.6 billion to Gavi, which is holding a fund-raising summit in Brussels on Wednesday.