BENGALURU: India launched its first space docking mission on Monday, on an Indian-made rocket, in an attempt to become the fourth country to achieve the advanced technological feat.
The mission, called Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh state at 1630 GMT aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) “workhorse” PSLV rocket. After around 15 minutes, the mission director called the launch successful after the spacecraft reached an altitude of around 470 km.
The mission is seen as pivotal for future space endeavours, including satellite servicing and the operation of the country’s planned space station.
In-space docking technology is crucial when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve shared mission objectives.
The Indian mission involves deploying two small spacecraft, each weighing about 220 kilograms, into a 470-km circular orbit. It will also demonstrate the transfer of electric power between the docked spacecraft, a capability vital for applications such as in-space robotics, composite spacecraft control and payload operations following undocking.
Each satellite carries advanced payloads, including an imaging system and a radiation-monitoring device designed to measure electron and proton radiation levels in space, providing critical data for future human spaceflight missions.
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath said the actual testing of the docking technology could take place in about a week’s time and indicated a nominal date of around Jan. 7.
“The rocket has placed the satellites in the right orbit,” he said. A successful demonstration would place India alongside the United States, Russia and China as the only countries to have developed and tested this capability. In a first for India, the rocket and the satellites were integrated and tested at a private company called Ananth Technologies, rather than at a government body.
“Display of this technology is not just about being able to join a rare group of countries who own it, it also opens up the market for ISRO to be the launch partner for various global missions that need docking facilities or assembly in space,” said astrophysicist Somak Raychaudhary of Ashoka University.
The fourth stage of the PSLV, which usually turns into space debris, has been converted into an active un-crewed space laboratory. The last stage of the rocket has been repurposed to become an orbital laboratory and will be used for various experiments.
“The PSLV Orbital Experiment Module (POEM) is a practical solution deployed by ISRO that allows Indian start-ups, academic institutions, and research organizations to test their space technologies without the need to launch entire satellites. By making this platform accessible, we are reducing entry barriers and enabling a wider range of entities to contribute to the space sector,” said Pawan Goenka, chairman of India’s space regulatory body.
India launches its first space docking mission
https://arab.news/cgptc
India launches its first space docking mission
- The mission lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s PSLV rocket
- The mission is seen as pivotal for future space endeavours, including satellite servicing and India’s planned space station
Pakistan vows retaliation, saying three bases targeted by Indian missiles
- Army says Nur Khan base, Murid base in Chakwal district and one Shorkot targeted by Indian missiles
- Reports came after Chaudhry said in sudden statement India fired ballistic missiles that fell in Indian territory
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Military Spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Saturday India had attacked multiple bases in Pakistan, vowing retaliation.
In the latest confrontation between the two longstanding enemies that began on Wednesday, India said it hit nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan in retaliation for what it says was a deadly Islamabad-backed attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22. Pakistan says it was not involved and denied that any of the sites hit by India were militant bases. It said it shot down five Indian aircraft on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s military said on Friday it shot down 77 drones from India at multiple locations, including the two largest cities of Karachi and Lahore, and the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home to the army’s headquarters.
On Saturday early morning, panic rang out in Pakistan as reports emerged that Pakistan Air Force’s Nur Khan base had been hit.
The Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, where the military has its headquarters, is around 10 kilometers from the capital, Islamabad.
In televised remarks, the military spokesman said three bases, Nur Khan, PAF Base Murid, an operational flying base of the Pakistan Air Force located near the village of Murid in the Chakwal District of Punjab, and one in Shorkot, had been targeted by Indian missiles.
“Now you just wait for our response,” Chaudhry said.
The reports came after Chaudhry said India fired ballistic missiles that fell in Indian territory, announcing it in a sudden statement on national broadcaster at 1:50 a.m. local time on Saturday (2050 GMT), with no details provided to support the claim.
“I want to give you the shocking news that India fired six ballistic missiles from Adampur. One of the ballistic missiles hit in Adampur, the rest of the five missiles hit in the Indian Punjab area of Amritsar,” the army’s spokesman said in his short video statement.
Amritsar’s district commissioner in a text message between Friday and Saturday said:
“Don’t panic. Siren is sounding as we are under red alert. Do not panic, as before, keep lights off, move away from windows. We will inform you when ready to resume power supply.”
Around 48 people have been killed since Wednesday’s conflagration, according to casualty estimates on both sides of the border that have not been independently verified.
Conflict, extreme weather worsening hunger in West and Central Africa, WFP warns
- Report flaggs food inflation, made worse by rising fuel costs and recurrent extreme weather in the central Sahel
- Conflicts have displaced 10 million people in the region, including 8 million internally displaced inside Nigeria and Cameroon
DAKAR, Senegal: Some 52 million people in West and Central Africa will struggle to meet their basic food and nutrition needs in the upcoming lean season, driven by conflict, extreme weather and economic deterioration, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
In the lean season — a period between harvests when food supplies are very low and which runs from June to August — nearly three million of those people throughout the region will face emergency levels of hunger, while 2,600 people in Mali could face catastrophic hunger, the United Nations body said, citing a new food security analysis.
The report flagged food inflation, made worse by rising fuel costs in countries including Ghana, Guinea and Ivory Coast, and recurrent extreme weather in the central Sahel, around the Lake Chad Basin and in the Central African Republic.
Conflicts have displaced 10 million people in the region, the WFP said, including eight million internally displaced inside Nigeria and Cameroon.
The report did not include the Democratic Republic of Congo, where fighting has surged in the east this year as Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have staged a major advance.
Some 28 million people face acute hunger there, a record for the central African country, according to a report released in late March by the WFP and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
It said 2.5 million more people had become acutely hungry in Congo since the surge of violence in December.
According to the five-phase classification system used by the WFP, crisis-level hunger (Phase 3) is one step below emergency levels of hunger (Phase 4). Phase 5, the most serious, is classified as catastrophic hunger — or, in some cases, famine.
US to accept white South African refugees while other programs remain paused
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration will welcome more than two dozen white South Africans to the United States as refugees next week, an unusual move because it has suspended most refugee resettlement operations, officials and documents said Friday.
The first Afrikaner refugees are arriving Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. They are expected to be greeted by a government delegation, including the deputy secretary of state and officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, whose refugee office has organized their resettlement.
The flight will be the first of several in a “much larger-scale relocation effort,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
The Trump administration has taken a number of steps against South Africa, accusing the Black-led government of pursuing anti-white policies at home and an anti-American foreign policy. The South African government denies the allegations and says the US criticism is full of misinformation.
While State Department refugee programs have been suspended — halting arrivals from Afghanistan, Iraq, most of sub-Saharan Africa and other countries in a move being challenged in court — President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February prioritizing the processing of white South Africans claiming racial discrimination.
“What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created,” Miller said. “This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race. This is race-based persecution.”
Efforts to get white South Africans to the US
Since Trump’s executive order, the US Embassy in Pretoria has been conducting interviews, “prioritizing consideration for US refugee resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” the State Department said.
The department said nothing about the imminent arrival of what officials said are believed to be more than two dozen white South Africans from roughly four families who applied for resettlement in the US Their arrival had originally been scheduled for early last week but was delayed for reasons that were not immediately clear.
The HHS Office for Refugee Resettlement was ready to offer them support, including with housing, furniture and other household items, and expenses like groceries, clothing, diapers and more, the document says. “This effort is a stated priority of the Administration.”
HHS didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Supporters of the refugee program questioned why the Trump administration was moving so quickly to resettle white South Africans while halting the wider refugee program, which brings people to the US who are displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution and involves significant vetting in a process that often takes years.
“We are concerned that the US Government has chosen to fast-track the admission of Afrikaners, while actively fighting court orders to provide life-saving resettlement to other refugee populations who are in desperate need,” Church World Services president Rick Santos said in a statement. His group has been assisting refugees for more than 70 years.
Letting in white South Africans while keeping out Afghans is “hypocrisy,” said Shawn VanDiver, who heads #AfghanEvac, which helps resettle Afghans who assisted the US during the two-decade war.
“Afghans who served alongside US forces, who taught girls, who fought for democracy, and who now face Taliban reprisals, meet every definition of a refugee,” he said. “Afghans risked their lives for us. That should matter,” he said.
Trump administration has accused South Africa of anti-white policies
The Trump administration alleges the South African government has allowed minority white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked, while introducing an expropriation law designed to take away their land.
The South African government has said it was surprised by claims of discrimination against Afrikaners because white people still generally have a much higher standard of living than Black people more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule.
South Africa is the homeland of close Trump adviser Elon Musk, who has been outspoken in his criticism, and it also holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio notably boycotted a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg in March because its agenda centered on diversity, inclusion and climate change. He also expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the US in March for comments that the Trump administration interpreted as accusing the president of promoting white supremacy.
Shortly thereafter, the State Department ended all engagement with the G20 during South Africa’s presidency. The US is due to host G20 meetings in 2026.
What South Africa says about the refugees
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement Friday that he had spoken with Trump late last month on issues including US criticism of the country and allegations that Afrikaners are being persecuted. Ramaphosa told Trump that the information the US president had received “was completely false.”
“Therefore, our position is that there are no South African citizens that can be classified as refugees to any part of the world, including the US,” the statement said.
The South African foreign ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Alvin Botes spoke with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on Friday about the refugees. Landau is expected to lead the delegation to welcome the group Monday.
South Africa “expressed concerns” and denied allegations of discrimination against Afrikaners, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy,” the statement said. It noted that the country has worked to prevent any repeat of the type of persecution and discrimination that happened under apartheid rule.
The foreign ministry said it would not block anyone who wanted to leave as it respected their freedom of movement and choice.
But it said it was seeking information about the “status” of the people leaving South Africa, wanting assurances that they had been properly vetted and did not have outstanding criminal cases.
The foreign ministry added that South Africa was “dedicated to constructive dialogue” with the US.
Trump admin ‘looking at’ suspending right to court challenge for detainees
WASHINGTON: A senior White House official said Friday that President Donald Trump, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown, is looking at suspending habeas corpus, the right of a person to challenge their detention in court.
“The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
“So it’s an option we’re actively looking at,” Miller said. “A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”
Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants and has repeatedly referred to their presence in the United States as an “invasion.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has been seeking to step up deportations, but his efforts have met with pushback from multiple federal courts which have insisted that migrants targeted for removal receive due process.
Among other measures, the Republican president invoked an obscure wartime law in March to summarily deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
Several federal courts have blocked further deportations using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and the Supreme Court also weighed in, saying migrants subject to deportation under the AEA must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal in court.
The AEA was last used to round up Japanese-Americans during World War II and was previously invoked during the War of 1812 and World War I.
Suspending habeas corpus could potentially allow the administration to dispense with individual removal proceedings and speed up deportations, but the move would almost certainly be met with stiff legal challenges and end up in the Supreme Court.
It has been suspended only rarely in US history, most notably by president Abraham Lincoln during the 1861-1865 Civil War and in Hawaii after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
More warning signs emerge for US travel industry as summer nears
- Expedia Group report drop in travel demand and Bank of America said credit card transactions showed spending on flights and lodging kept falling
- The US Travel Association has said that economic uncertainty and anxiety over President Donald Trump’s tariffs may explain the pullback
Expedia Group said Friday that reduced travel demand in the United States led to its weaker-than-expected revenue in the first quarter, and Bank of America said credit card transactions showed spending on flights and lodging kept falling last month.
The two reports add to growing indications that the US travel and tourism industry may see its first slowdown since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a period of “revenge travel” that turned into sustained interest in getting away.
Expedia, which owns the lodging reservation platforms Hotels.com and VRBO as well as an eponymous online travel agency, was the latest American company to report slowing business with both international visitors and domestic travelers.
Airbnb and Hilton noted the same trends last week in their quarterly earnings reports. Most major US airlines pulled their full-year financial guidance in April and said they planned to reduce scheduled flights, citing an ebb in economy passengers booking leisure trips.
The US Travel Association has said that economic uncertainty and anxiety over President Donald Trump’s tariffs may explain the pullback. In April, Americans’ confidence in the economy slumped for a fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic.
Bank of America said Friday that its credit card holders were willing to spend on “nice to have” services like eating at restaurants in March and April, but “bigger ticket discretionary outlays on airfare and lodging continued to decline, possibly due to declining consumer confidence and worries about the economic outlook.”
Abroad, anger about the tariffs as well as concern about tourist detentions at the US border have made citizens of some other countries less interested in traveling to the US, tourism industry experts say.
The US government said last month that 7.1 million visitors entered the US from overseas this year as of the end of March, 3.3 percent fewer than during the first three months of 2024.
The numbers did not include land crossings from Mexico or travel from Canada, where citizens have expressed indignation over Trump’s remarks about making their country the 51st state. Both US and Canadian government data have shown steep declines in border crossings from Canada.
Expedia Chief Financial Officer Scott Schenkel said the net value of the travel technology company’s bookings into the US fell 7 percent in the January-March period, but bookings to the US from Canada were down nearly 30 percent.
In a conference call with investors Friday, Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin said US demand was even softer in April than March.
“We’re still continuing to see pressure on travel into the US, but we’ve also seen some rebalancing,” Gorin said. “Europeans are traveling less to the US, but more to Latin America.”
Seattle-based Expedia said its revenue rose 3 percent to $2.99 billion for the quarter. That was lower than the $3 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Expedia shares were down than 7 percent in mid-day trading Friday.
Airbnb said last week that foreign travel to the US makes up only 2 percent to 3 percent of its business. But within that category, it’s seeing declining interest in the US as a destination.
“I think Canada is the most obvious example, where we see Canadians are traveling at a much lower rate to the US but they’re traveling more domestically, they are traveling to Mexico, they are going to Brazil, they’re going to France, they’re going to Japan,” Airbnb Chief Financial Officer Ellie Mertz said in a conference call with investors.
Meanwhile, Hilton lowered its full-year forecast for revenue per available room, a key industry metric. The company said in late April that it now expects growth of 0 percent to 2 percent for the year, down from 2 percent to 3 percent.
Hilton President and CEO Christopher Nassetta told stock analysts the company saw international travel to its US hotels fall throughout the first quarter, particularly from Canada and Mexico.
But Nassetta said he remained optimistic for the second half of this year.
“My own belief is you will see some of — if not a lot of — that uncertainty wane over the next couple of quarters, and that will allow the underlying strength of the economy to shine through again,” he said.
