Elon Musk is still confident that 2026 will be the year that his space company SpaceX lands humans on Mars, where he hopes to build a human settlement. In a wide-ranging interview with the audio-only Clubhouse app on Sunday, Musk said it will take “five and a half years” before a crewed mission of SpaceX’s Starship rocket
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Star Wars tensions rise as rival Mars probes on collision course
The skies above Mars will witness some startling aeronautical displays in the next few days when three rival space robot probes reach the red planet after journeying for millions of miles across space. The United Arab Emirates’ probe Hope orbiter will arrive first, on Tuesday, (tomorrow) followed by China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft the next day. Finally,
Read moreThe world’s bad guys are winning. Is anyone going to stand up to them?
Blame Joe Biden for not stepping in more quickly, or Donald Trump for encouraging authoritarian rulers. Blame Barack Obama for lifting sanctions. Easier still, blame China for propping up a military junta and putting profit before people. The International Court of Justice warned of ongoing genocide, but nobody was saved. UN security council members
Read moreUS billionaires vie to make space the next business frontier
Later this year Jeff Bezos, the first person to have led a business from nothing to a trillion-dollar valuation, will step down from his job as head of Amazon. But as you’d expect from a tech multibillionaire, his eyes are on a potentially bigger prize: outer space. Bezos will be dedicating more time to a
Read moreMeghan Markle: Sister Samantha’s book full of wild claims
Meghan Markle’s sister Samantha has released her much-anticipated tell-all book — and it’s filled with wild assertions about her estranged half-sibling. The Duchess has not dignified the publication of The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister: Part 1 with a comment, but a friend told Vanity Fair it had has “barely registered on her radar”. “Meghan has not seen Samantha for
Read moreIndian farmers block highways nationwide
(New Delhi) Tens of thousands of protesting Indian farmers have blocked highways across the country in defiance of the government’s internet and phone blackout, facing off against a heavy security deployment stationed behind rows of razor wire and concrete blocks. They’re demanding a repeal of laws pushed through parliament last year by the government of
Read moreNuclear war with Russia and China a ‘real possibility’
(New York) A top US admiral has called on the nation’s leaders to seek new ways to face threats by Russia and China, including the “real possibility” of nuclear conflict. Admiral Charles Richard, who heads the US Strategic Command – which is responsible for nuclear deterrence – warned that Moscow and Beijing have
Read moreChina’s war on ‘feminisation’ aims to build ‘soldiers’
China has laid out a plan to stop the “feminisation” of Chinese boys following complaints the nation’s teens were too delicate, timid and effeminate. A letter from China’s state education ministry has announced the plan to prevent the “feminisation” of young Chinese males, arguing adolescents can be prevented from becoming too girly by exercising and being
Read moreMoon-Landing hoax lives on, 50 years after Apollo 11, but why?
As humanity gears up to return to the Moon, more and more people may deny that we ever went there in the first place. Just a small sliver of the American populace currently believes the Apollo moon landings were faked; polls consistently put the number at around 5%, said Roger Launius, who served as NASA’s chief
Read moreBiden commits to 2024 Moon mission
(NASA) The Biden administration’s crucial first 100 days in office now includes a big human spaceflight pledge for the 2024 Moon mission. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday (Feb. 4) that President Joe Biden will carry on the Artemis program to land humans on the Moon in the coming years. Artemis began under
Read moreUS sees new START treaty as way to engage China on arms control
By Aljazeera THE Biden administration views the New START Treaty clinched with Russia this week as the beginning of engagement on strategic issues and urges China to join the effort to reduce nuclear arms stockpiles, a US envoy has said. The United States and Russia announced on Wednesday they had extended the New START (Strategic
Read moreTokyo Olympics 2021: Singing banned at ‘COVID Games’
Singing and chanting will be banned at this year’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as part of a series of drastic rule changes to try and ensure the Games can go ahead safely during the global pandemic. Instead of yelling, anyone who attends the Games — including athletes — will be under strict orders to limit any
Read moreChina’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission on track
(Beijing) – China’s first fully homegrown Mars mission is on its way to the Red Planet. The Tianwen-1 mission launched atop a Long March 5 rocket from Hainan Island’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre will reach Mars later this month. Tianwen-1 consists of an orbiter and a lander/rover duo, a combination of craft that had never before
Read moreKremlin stands by police crackdown
MOSCOW: The Kremlin has defended its crackdown on protesters demanding the release of opposition figure Alexei Navalny as his allies vowed to continue putting pressure on the authorities. Protest monitors said that more than 10,000 people have been detained at recent nationwide rallies in support of President Vladimir Putin’s loudest critic, who was handed
Read moreMyanmar army chief says coup was “inevitable”
(Yangon) – Army chief Min Aung Hlaing appointed himself head of a new cabinet stacked with former and current generals, justifying his coup as the “inevitable” result of civilian leaders’ failure to heed the army’s fraud warnings. The military declared a one-year state of emergency and said it would hold new elections once their allegations
Read moreThe Story Behind the Myanmar Coup
Myanmar’s decade-long experiment in conditional democracy just ended in a textbook example of a coup — a coup that was a pre-emptive strike. David Scott Mathieson reports In the early hours of Monday, as the new national Parliament was scheduled to convene for its first session, the military, known as the Tatmadaw, announced that it
Read moreUN calls for ban on virginity tests
The World Health Organisation and the United Nations have called for a ban on virginity tests following a civil rights campaign and media investigation. Controversial “virginity tests”, which involve intrusive and unscientific examinations, are being offered by medical clinics around Britain, according to an investigation. The test claims to determine if a woman’s hymen
Read moreMyanmar military coup caught on camera
(Yangon) – A woman filming a fitness video unknowingly captured the insane moment an army convoy stormed towards a parliament to stage a coup in Myanmar. Click here to see the video https://youtu.be/BGroxCBcuvA Tensions in Myanmar are at an all-time high, after the country’s military seized power in an early morning coup on Monday, detaining
Read moreSpacewalk Coverage Live on NASA TV
NASA Television coverage of today’s spacewalk with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover is now underway and available on the agency’s website. The crew members of Expedition 64 are preparing to venture outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk expected to last about six and a half hours. The crew is in the airlock and have donned their suits in preparation
Read moreChina’s army 30 years behind Western military
China’s vision of having a world-class army by 2049 has been widely discussed and publicized. However, military experts have questioned this vision owing to several distinct weaknesses plaguing the Chinese PLA (People’s Liberation Army). Chinese PLA is currently the world’s largest active military force. It traces its roots to the 1927 Nanchang Uprising of the
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