CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature.
Scientists in Germany spent two years trying to get their heat probe, dubbed the mole, to drill into the Martian crust. But the 16-inch-long (40-centimeter) device that is part of NASA’s InSight lander couldn’t gain enough friction in the red dirt. It was supposed to bury 16 feet (5 meters) into Mars, but only drilled down a couple of feet (about a half meter).
Following one last unsuccessful attempt to hammer itself down over the weekend with 500 strokes, the team called it quits.
“We’ve given it everything we’ve got, but Mars and our heroic mole remain incompatible,” said the German Space Agency’s Tilman Spohn, the lead scientist for the experiment.
The effort will benefit future excavation efforts at Mars, he added in a statement. Astronauts one day may need to dig into Mars, according to NASA, in search of frozen water for drinking or making fuel, or signs of past microscopic life.
The mole’s design was based on Martian soil examined by previous spacecraft. That turned out nothing like the clumpy dirt encountered this time.
InSight’s French seismometer, meanwhile, has recorded nearly 500 Marsquakes, while the lander’s weather station is providing daily reports. On Tuesday, the high was 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 degrees Celsius) and the low was minus 56 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 49 degrees Celsius) at Mars’ Elysium Planitia, an equatorial plain.
The lander recently was granted a two-year extension for scientific work, now lasting until the end of 2022.
InSight landed on Mars in November 2018. It will be joined by NASA’s newest rover, Perseverance, which will attempt a touchdown on Feb. 18. The Curiosity rover has been roaming Mars since 2012.
RIP: Mars digger bites the dust after 2 years on red planet
https://arab.news/5htbd
RIP: Mars digger bites the dust after 2 years on red planet
- It was supposed to bury 16 feet (5 meters) into Mars, but only drilled down a couple of feet (about a half meter).
Nine Hindu pilgrims dead in militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say
- The development came as Narendra Modi took oath as Indian PM for record-equalling third term
- The Himalayan region has been roiled by militant violence since the start of an insurgency in 1989
SRINAGAR: At least nine people were killed and 33 injured when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims plunged into a deep gorge after a suspected militant attack in the Indian federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, police said.
News of the attack came as Narendra Modi took oath as prime minister for a record-equalling third term and drew criticism from the main opposition Congress party.
“This shameful incident is the true picture of the worrying security situation in Jammu and Kashmir,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on X.
The Himalayan region, which is also claimed by Pakistan, has been roiled by militant violence since the start of an anti-Indian insurgency in 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.
“Militants ambushed the bus and fired at it indiscriminately. The bus fell into a gorge, leading to the death of 9 pilgrims, and 33 are injured,” said Mohita Sharma, district police chief of Reasi.
The last major attack on Hindu pilgrims in the region happened in 2017 when a bus was targeted, killing eight people.
Sunday’s attack comes a day after police chief RR Swain said the number of local militants in the territory was dropping but 70-80 foreign militants remained active.
The injured have been moved to nearby hospitals and a search for the attackers has been launched, police said in a statement.
A state official earlier said at least 10 pilgrims were feared dead.
Gunmen attack Hindu pilgrim bus in India’s Kashmir, nine killed: police
- The attack came around an hour before Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in
SRINAGAR: Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in Indian-administered Kashmir, which then tumbled into a ravine killing at least nine people, police said Sunday.
The attack came around an hour before Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term on Sunday evening in the capital New Delhi.
“Initial reports suggest that militants were waiting there in an ambush and they fired on the bus,” police officer Mohita Sharma told AFP.
“The driver lost control and fell into the deep gorge. Nine people died and 23 were injured.”
The crash happened near Reasi town, in the south of the disputed territory, as the bus was returning from a popular Hindu shrine in the area.
Opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the “gruesome terror attack” in a post on social media platform X.
Modi’s “chest-thumping propaganda of bringing peace and normalcy... rings hollow,” he said.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, and both claim the high-altitude territory in full.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
The conflict has left tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and rebels dead.
Violence and anti-India protests have drastically fallen since 2019, when Modi’s government canceled the region’s limited autonomy.
Five rebels and an Indian air force corporal were killed in clashes since election campaigning began in the territory in April until voting ended this month Two suspected rebels were also killed in a firefight with soldiers on June 3.
But the vote saw a 58.6 percent turnout, according to the election commission, a 30-percentage-point jump from the last vote in 2019 and the highest in 35 years.
No separatist group called for a boycott of the election — a first since the armed revolt against Indian rule erupted in the territory in 1989.
India regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
India’s PM Modi sworn in for historic third term
- Modi is first Indian leader to win 3rd straight term since founding PM Jawaharlal Nehru
- Modi was formally elected leader of India’s winning coalition on Friday
NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi was sworn in for a historic third term as India’s prime minister on Sunday.
Modi is the first Indian leader to win a third straight term since founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Over the past decade, his Hindu-nationalist BJP has governed India as part of the National Democratic Alliance.
Though the coalition won the election last week, the BJP lost its absolute majority for the first time since 2014, making it dependent on allies to form a government.
After several days of uncertainty over whether the coalition partners would back the BJP, the alliance leaders unanimously backed Modi on Friday as the leader of the NDA and their prime ministerial candidate.
His swearing-in ceremony was held at the presidential palace in New Delhi on Sunday evening, in the presence of the presidents of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the vice president of Seychelles, and the prime ministers of Bangladesh, Mauritius, Nepal, and Bhutan.
In a meeting with prospective members of his new cabinet prior to the ceremony, the Viksit Bharat, or Developed India, appears to remain a priority for Modi, according to reports from local media, as he highlighted his goal of making India a developed nation by 2047 that he often invoked during his reelection campaign.
“We need to continue with the Viksit Bharat agenda. Development work will go on without any halt,” Modi said.
While the BJP won 240 seats in India’s marathon, six-week election that began on April 19, it fell 32 short of the simple majority required in the 543-member lower house of parliament.
The NDA coalition bagged 293 seats after the BJP secured the backing of key allies Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state and the Janata Dal (United) in eastern Bihar state, which won 16 and 12 seats each in their respective states, pushing the alliance comfortably over the halfway mark.
But Modi’s rare third straight term is the first time in his political career that the 73-year-old must accommodate the pulls and pressures of a coalition government and work with fickle allies.
The Telugu Desam Party is led by Chandrababu Naidu, who helped build the coalition that tried to unseat Modi in the 2019 election. While the Janata Dal (United) was with the opposition as recently as January.
Prof. Gopa Kumar, from Kerala-based think tank Center for Public Policy Research, said Modi’s third time as premier is “an extraordinary development,” though he expects some changes in the leadership.
“I feel that the government will be more careful this time than the past … Strong opposition is good for democracy. Modi will face sharp questions in the parliament and Modi will be cautious in taking up controversial and divisive agenda,” Kumar told Arab News.
Though many are doubting the stability of the new coalition government, Kumar said he was “optimistic” that Modi’s new administration would be able to serve its full term.
“The mandate given to the NDA government is a restricted mandate which is healthy because most of the parliamentary democracies show that they work better in a coalition system than a single-party absolute majority.”
With the BJP’s reliance on allies, Modi is also expected to be more accommodating in his politics.
“The mandate showed that Modi as prime minister will have to be more accommodative and open to pursuing a consensual politics, which has completely disappeared from India in the last ten years. So it is a very mature decision of the Indian electorate,” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based political analyst and writer, told Arab News.
“If he wants his government to survive he has to be much more humbler and less authoritarian, less centralizing, more decentralizing and respecting the federal power of the state not centralize everything and overrule the state,” he added. “To run his third government Modi has to be an individual which he was not so far. He will have to work against his instinct.”
Two killed by Ukrainian attacks in Donetsk and Kherson, Russia says
- Russia’s own attacks in Ukraine have killed many thousands of Ukrainian civilians
MOSCOW: Two civilians were killed in Ukrainian attacks on Russian-controlled areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, Moscow-installed officials there said on Sunday.
One man was killed and a woman wounded by artillery fire that hit the town of Nova Maiachka in the southern Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, its pro-Russian governor, wrote on Telegram.
Another man was killed in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine by an explosive dropped from a drone, according to Alexei Kulemzin, the city’s Russian-installed mayor.
Reuters could not independently verify the incidents.
At least 25 civilians were killed on Friday in two separate attacks in the Russian-held part of the Kherson region and city of Luhansk — which Russian-installed officials blamed on Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s own attacks in Ukraine have killed many thousands of Ukrainian civilians since tens of thousands of Russian troops invaded the neighboring country in 2022. The war is now well into its third year.
Millions join EU vote finale as far right eyes gains
- Twenty-one of the bloc’s 27 countries, including heavy hitters France and Germany, were voting
BRUSSELS: Tens of millions of voters from Vilnius to Madrid were casting ballots Sunday on the final day of elections for the EU’s parliament, with far-right parties eyeing gains at a pivotal time for the bloc.
Twenty-one of the bloc’s 27 countries, including heavy hitters France and Germany, were voting on the election’s biggest day to help shape the European Union’s direction over the next five years.
“In the current world situation, where everyone is trying to isolate each other, it’s important to keep standing up for peace and democracy,” said one voter in Berlin, Tanja Reith, 52.
The election comes as the continent is confronted with Russia’s war in Ukraine, global trade tensions marked by US-China rivalry, a climate emergency and a West that may soon have to adapt to a new Donald Trump presidency.
“Right now we are living in a scenario of uncertainty,” Jaime Bajo, a sports center operator, said as he cast his vote in Madrid.
“I can understand that people feel fear and vote with a hard mindset,” said the 40-year-old, who predicted a “rise of extremist forces” in Europe.
More than 360 million people were eligible to vote in the four-day election, although turnout in EU polls is historically low.
The bloc’s next parliament will help decide who runs the powerful European Commission, with German conservative Ursula von der Leyen — who cast her vote in her home country — vying for a second term.
While centrist parties are predicted to keep most of the legislature’s 720 seats, polls suggest they will be weakened by a stronger far right pushing the bloc toward ultraconservatism.
Preliminary results are expected late Sunday.
European voters, hammered by a high cost of living and some fearing immigrants to be the source of social ills, are increasingly persuaded by populist messaging.
France will be the EU’s high-profile battleground for competing ideologies.
With voting intentions above 30 percent, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) is predicted to handily beat President Emmanuel Macron’s liberal Renaissance party, polling around half that.
A smiling Le Pen voted in her northern French town of Henin-Beaumont, pausing to wave and accept flowers from supporters but making no comment to media.
In the French city of Lyon, 83-year-old voter Albert Coulaudon said Macron was getting “mixed up” in too many international issues such as the war in Ukraine.
“That scares me,” he told AFP.
But in southern Toulouse, Martine Dorian, 76, said: “If tomorrow Europe disappears, there will be no France left either.”
In Germany, the election could also deal a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who voted accompanied by his wife and stopped to pose for a picture with a young couple and a baby.
Leading the polls in Europe’s biggest economy are the opposition center-right Christian Democrats, with a projected 30 percent of votes.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), on 14 percent, was seen either neck-and-neck or ahead of all three parties in Scholz’s ruling coalition: the SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP.
In Italy, holding its second day of voting, the far-right ruling Brothers of Italy party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was expected to come out on top.
Meloni is being courted both by von der Leyen — who needs her backing for a second mandate — as well as Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who are eyeing the formation of a far-right parliament supergroup.
Unlike Le Pen, however, Meloni aligns with the EU consensus on maintaining military and financial assistance to Ukraine.
In EU countries closest to Russia, the spectre of Russia’s threat loomed large.
“I want security, especially for the Baltic states. And greater support for Ukraine to end the war,” said Ieva Sterlinge, a 34-year-old doctor.
Likewise in Romania’s capital Bucharest, psychologist Teodora Maia said she cast her vote “on “the theme of war, which worries us all, and ecology.”
In Paty, a village outside Budapest, Hungarian voter Ferenc Hamori struck a different tone.
The 54-year-old said he wanted more EU leaders like Orban, who maintains close relations with President Vladimir Putin — even though he expected Orban to remain “outnumbered in Brussels.”
Outside his polling station, Orban framed the vote as a “pro-peace or pro-war election.”
The Hungarian leader — whose government takes on the rotating EU presidency from July — has stoked fears of the Ukraine war expanding to one between the West and Russia, blaming Brussels and NATO.
But there has been some backlash at home, where Orban faces a challenge from former government insider Peter Magyar, who staged mass rallies in the vote run-up.
Polling data compiled by Politico suggest the center-right EPP will win 173 seats in the legislature, with the center-left Socialists and Democrats on 143 and the centrist Renew Europe on 75.
The main far-right grouping, the European Conservatives and Reformists, in which Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party sits, was projected to win 76 seats.
The smaller Identity and Democracy grouping that includes Le Pen’s RN was predicted to get 67.
