International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary

International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary
This screen grab from a NASA+ broadcast on June 26, 2025, shows the Axiom Mission 4 crew inside the International Space Station's Harmony module shortly after docking aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The Axiom crew, L/R in dark suits, are Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu, and Mission Specialist Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski. (NASA+ / AFP)
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Updated 27 June 2025
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International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary

International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary
  • The crew of four will spend two weeks at the orbiting lab, performing dozens of experiments.
  • ISS currently has 11 astronaut on board, with Japan’s Takuya Onishi as commander

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: The first astronauts in more than 40 years from India, Poland and Hungary arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, ferried there by SpaceX on a private flight.

The crew of four will spend two weeks at the orbiting lab, performing dozens of experiments. They launched Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson, is the commander of the visiting crew. She works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the chartered flight.

Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts on temporary flight duty.

No one has ever visited the International Space Station from those countries before. The time anyone rocketed into orbit from those countries was in the late 1970s and 1980s, traveling with the Soviets.

Speaking in both English and their native languages, the new arrivals shared hugs and handshakes with the space station’s seven full-time residents, celebrating with drink pouches sipped through straws. Six nations were represented: four from the US, three from Russia and one each from Japan, India, Poland and Hungary.

“We have so many countries at the same time on the space station,” Kapu said, adding that seven of the 11 astronauts are first-time space fliers “which also tells me how much space is expanding.”

Added Uznanski-Wisniewski: “We will all try to do the best representing our countries.” Shukla rated the experience so far as “fantastic ... wonderful.”

The space station’s commander, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, said he was happy to finally see their smiling faces after “waiting for you guys so long.” Whitson also made note of the lengthy delay and preflight quarantine.

To stay healthy, the four newcomers went into quarantine on May 25, stuck in it as their launch kept getting delayed. The latest postponement was for space station leak monitoring, NASA wanted to make sure everything was safe following repairs to a longtime leak on the Russian side of the outpost.

It’s the fourth Axiom-sponsored flight to the space station since 2022. The company is one of several that are developing their own space stations due to launch in the coming years. NASA plans to abandon the International Space Station in 2030 after more than three decades of operation, and is encouraging private ventures to replace it.

 


Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists faces federal trial

Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists faces federal trial
Updated 30 sec ago
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Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists faces federal trial

Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists faces federal trial
  • Plaintiffs want US District Judge William Young to rule the arrest and deportation policy violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act
  • Plaintiffs single out several activists by name, including Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil
BOSTON: A federal bench trial begins Monday over a lawsuit that challenges a Trump administration campaign of arresting and deporting faculty and students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.
The lawsuit, filed by several university associations against President Donald Trump and members of his administration, would be one of the first to go to trial. Plaintiffs want US District Judge William Young to rule the policy violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, a law governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
“The policy’s effects have been swift. Noncitizen students and faculty across the United States have been terrified into silence,” the plaintiffs wrote in their pretrial brief.
“Students and faculty are avoiding political protests, purging their social media, and withdrawing from public engagement with groups associated with pro-Palestinian viewpoints,” they wrote. “They’re abstaining from certain public writing and scholarship they would otherwise have pursued. They’re even self-censoring in the classroom.”
Several scholars are expected to testify how the policy and subsequent arrests have prompted them to abandon their activism for Palestinian human rights and criticizing Israeli government’s policies.
Since Trump took office, the US government has used its immigration enforcement powers to crack down on international students and scholars at several American universities.
Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel’s actions in the war.
Plaintiffs single out several activists by name, including Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was released last month after spending 104 days in federal immigration detention. Khalil has become a symbol of Trump ‘s clampdown on campus protests.
The lawsuit also references Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was released in May from a Louisiana immigration detention. She spent six weeks in detention after she was arrested walking on the street of a Boston suburb. She claims she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The plaintiffs also accuse the Trump administration of supplying names to universities who they wanted to target, launching a social media surveillance program and used Trump’s own words in which he said after Khalil’s arrest that his was the “first arrest of many to come.”
The government argued in court documents that the plaintiffs are bringing a First Amendment challenge to a policy “of their own creation.”
“They do not try to locate this program in any statute, regulation, rule, or directive. They do not allege that it is written down anywhere. And they do not even try to identify its specific terms and substance,” the government argues. “That is all unsurprising, because no such policy exists.”
They argue the plaintiffs case also rest on a “misunderstanding of the First Amendment, ”which under binding Supreme Court precedent applies differently in the immigration context than it otherwise does domestically.”
But plaintiffs counter that evidence at the trial will show the Trump administration has implemented the policy a variety of ways, including issuing formal guidance on revoking visas and green cards and establishing a process for identifying those involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
“Defendants have described their policy, defended it, and taken political credit for it,” plaintiffs wrote. “It is only now that the policy has been challenged that they say, incredibly, that the policy does not actually exist. But the evidence at trial will show that the policy’s existence is beyond cavil.”

South Korea court to hold July 9 hearing on former leader Yoon’s detention warrant

South Korea court to hold July 9 hearing on former leader Yoon’s detention warrant
Updated 10 min 5 sec ago
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South Korea court to hold July 9 hearing on former leader Yoon’s detention warrant

South Korea court to hold July 9 hearing on former leader Yoon’s detention warrant
  • Former president Yoon Suk Yeol on trial for insurrection related to his short-lived martial law
  • He is also under investigation for allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice

SEOUL: A Seoul court plans to hold a hearing on Wednesday to review a request by special prosecutors to detain former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a court official said on Monday.

The special counsel team investigating Yoon’s martial law declaration in December has filed a request to the Seoul Central District Court to detain Yoon on allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

Yoon has been accused of mobilizing presidential guards to stop authorities from arresting him in January. He eventually was taken into custody but released from jail after 52 days on technical grounds.

The special prosecution that kicked off its investigation after new leader Lee Jae Myung was elected in June has been looking into additional charges against Yoon, who is already on trial for insurrection related to his short-lived martial law.

The detention warrant request was made on the grounds of the risk of him being a flight risk and concerns that he might interfere with witnesses linked to his case, local media reported, citing a special prosecutors’ request.

Yoon’s lawyers have rejected the allegations against him.


Australia mushroom murder jury to deliver verdict today

Australia mushroom murder jury to deliver verdict today
Updated 20 min 32 sec ago
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Australia mushroom murder jury to deliver verdict today

Australia mushroom murder jury to deliver verdict today
  • Erin Patterson allegedly murdered three elderly relatives of her estranged husband using poisonous mushrooms

SYDNEY: The jury in the trial of an Australian woman who allegedly murdered three elderly relatives of her estranged husband using poisonous mushrooms will deliver its verdict on Monday, the court said in a statement.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the murders of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, in July 2023.


Pakistan, China agree to enhance tourism collaboration, promote cultural diplomacy

Pakistan, China agree to enhance tourism collaboration, promote cultural diplomacy
Updated 22 min 52 sec ago
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Pakistan, China agree to enhance tourism collaboration, promote cultural diplomacy

Pakistan, China agree to enhance tourism collaboration, promote cultural diplomacy
  • Islamabad, Beijing agree to launch joint projects to restore, preserve and digitally document their historical landmarks
  • Both sides to strengthen museum development partnerships, organize series of cultural delegations and film festivals

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Culture Minister Huzaifa Rehman agreed to enhance tourism collaboration and advance cultural diplomacy in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Gao Zheng, in Beijing recently, Pakistani state media reported. 

Pakistan, home to several snow-capped peaks in the Himalayan and Karakorum mountain ranges and ancient archaeological sites such as Mohenjo-Daro and Taxila, has immense potential for tourism.

Islamabad has recently pushed to promote its tourist spots to visitors worldwide by establishing air and land links with Central Asian republics and signing agreements to boost tourism with regional allies. Pakistan hopes tourism will help the country earn valuable foreign exchange whilst it grapples with a prolonged macroeconomic crisis. 

Rehman met his Chinese counterpart Zheng in Beijing on Sunday, during which the two sides discussed advancing collaboration in tourism and other areas, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said. 

“The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advancing cultural diplomacy, enhancing tourism collaboration, and restoring shared heritage sites between Pakistan and China,” APP said in a report on Sunday. 

Rehman expressed gratitude for China’s friendship and support to Pakistan, the report added.

The two sides discussed and agreed on launching joint projects to restore, preserve and digitally document historical landmarks in both countries. They also agreed to strengthen museum development partnerships and organize a series of cultural delegations, art exhibitions and film festivals.

They agreed on implementing training programs in museology and professional development for museum staff, while rolling out collaborative tourism campaigns and policy initiatives to boost visitor flows and cultural exploration, the APP report said. 

The Chinese minister formally invited Rehman to attend the upcoming International Museum Conference scheduled to be held in China in September, which the Pakistani official accepted. 

“This landmark meeting paves the way for actionable steps in the near future, setting a strategic roadmap for Pakistan–China cultural partnership and mutual heritage conservation,” the report said. 

Apart from being a regional ally, China is also a major investor in Pakistan. Beijing has invested in a multi-billion-dollar project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), that connects the two countries through a network of highways, railways and pipelines.

Since its initiation in 2013, CPEC has seen tens of billions of dollars funneled into massive transport, energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan. 


North Korea bars Western influencers from trade fair tour

North Korea bars Western influencers from trade fair tour
Updated 27 min 1 sec ago
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North Korea bars Western influencers from trade fair tour

North Korea bars Western influencers from trade fair tour
  • Diplomatically isolated North Korea has welcomed sporadic groups of international visitors in recent months
  • Foreign tourists to be taken on a trip to the authoritarian state from October 24 to November 1 via Beijing

BEIJING: North Korea has barred Western influencers from joining a delegation of tourists to an international trade fair in October, a China-based tour operator said on Monday.

Diplomatically isolated North Korea has welcomed sporadic groups of international visitors in recent months, including hundreds of foreign athletes in April for the first Pyongyang International Marathon in six years.

Travel agency Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) announced Saturday that it would take a group of foreign tourists on a trip to the authoritarian state from October 24 to November 1.

But the tour would not be open to journalists, travel content creators or influencers, the company said on its website.

YPT co-founder Rowan Beard said the curbs on creators were “a specific request from the North Korean side.”

“We anticipate that once the country officially reopens, there may be stricter scrutiny or limitations on influencers and YouTubers joining tours,” Beard said.

The company had “no visibility” on when Pyongyang would restart official media delegations, he added.

Several online influencers have shared slickly produced videos from inside North Korea in recent months.

Priced at €3,995 ($4,704), the YPT tour will depart from the Chinese capital Beijing and take in the Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair, North Korea’s biggest international business exhibition.

Participants will have a “unique chance” to stroll through over 450 trade booths exhibiting machinery, IT, energy, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and household items, YPT said.

The company added that the Pyongyang Chamber of Commerce would “hold a VIP presentation for us for an in-depth overview and insights into the (North Korean) economy.”

The itinerary also includes major sights in Pyongyang as well as the first Western visit in over five years to Mount Myohyang – a mystical peak boasting a museum of lavish gifts presented to former North Korean leaders.

China has historically been the biggest diplomatic, economic and political backer of North Korea, which remains under crippling international sanctions.

Chinese people used to make up the bulk of foreign tourists and business visitors to the isolated nuclear nation before it sealed its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But numbers have not rebounded despite Pyongyang’s post-pandemic reopening, a trend that some analysts have attributed to Beijing’s anger at North Korea’s explicit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.