Ray Hanania show discusses role Arabs are playing in deep space exploration

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Updated 05 April 2022
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Ray Hanania show discusses role Arabs are playing in deep space exploration

  • Almekdash tells Arab News that Arab American participation in NASA projects is an ‘opportunity for our community to give back’ to the US
  • The UAE’s Al-Matrooshi aims to become just the second Arab woman to fly on a NASA mission

CHICAGO: Last week, the UAE introduced Nora Al-Matrooshi as the first Arab woman to start training to be an astronaut as she could play a pivotal role in the country’s upcoming space missions.

The UAE, considered a newcomer to the world of space exploration, sent the first Emirati into space as part of a three-member crew that blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in September 2019. 

One year later, Abu Dhabi said it planned to launch an unmanned rover to the moon by 2024 which would be the first trip to Earth’s satellite by an Arab country.

Then in February, the UAE’s “Hope” probe successfully entered Mars’ orbit making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.

If Al-Matrooshi does find herself involved in a future space mission, she would be just the second Arab woman to actually fly on a NASA mission. The first woman was Christa McAuliffe, a US teacher and astronaut of Lebanese American heritage, who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. 

This past year, McAuliffe was honored as her image appeared on the face of an American silver dollar coin to continue her educational mission 35 years after she and her six astronaut crewmates were tragically lost in flight.

But whether they are from the Arab world or from the diaspora in Western countries, Arabs clearly have a role to play in space exploration, said Hasan Almekdash, who works as a bio-statistician contractor through Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a US-based company operating in fields of science, technology, and engineering.

“I know about 24 other Arab Americans who work or worked at NASA,” said Almekdash, who is focused on the biomedical research and environmental sciences division at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC).

“Most of the people are engineers and scientists supporting some NASA divisions as contractors.”

Two of the Arab Americans working on NASA’s Mars Exploration program are Palestinians and originally from the Gaza Strip. Loay Elbasyouni grew up in Beit Hanoun and was a part of the engineering team that launched a helicopter from the surface of Mars in February 2021.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1851761/amp

The other Arab American is Soha Al-Qeshawi, a senior software engineer, who is helping NASA build the Orion spacecraft, which will serve as the exploratory spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the Red Planet.

Almekdash told Arab News that Arab American participation in NASA projects “is an opportunity for our community to give back to this country.” Along with other Arabs from America and the Arab World, he is playing “a significant role” in the exploration of Mars.

 

“We are studying long space travel and its implications on health because when you go to space, you have a lot of fluid changes,” Almekdash said.

“You have a lot of things that happen to the muscles and bones. You have a radiation effect. Life happens, even in space, so you run into medical situations and you need to figure out a way to deal with these. Basically, we conduct research at NASA and KBR. We support the NASA scientists in our expertise to find optimal solutions for long space travel.”

 

“I am focused on medical research,” Almekdash said. “So hopefully, we will try to solve all the data problems like human health in space and how to make long space travel possible.”

Almekdash made his comments during an appearance Wednesday on “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” broadcast live on WNZK AM 690 Radio in Detroit, and WDMV AM 700 Radio in Washington D.C. on the US Arab Radio Network. The radio show was streamed live on the Arab News Facebook page and is on a podcast at ArabNews.com/RayRadioshow.


‘Miracle’ survivor found 5 days after building collapse

Updated 12 May 2024
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‘Miracle’ survivor found 5 days after building collapse

  • When we went down to the side of the slab we had uncovered, we heard somebody inside, and we stopped all the heavy operations

JOHANNESBURG: Rescuers and onlookers cheered and applauded on Saturday as a survivor was rescued after 116 hours from underneath the rubble of a collapsed building in South Africa, with the tragedy having killed at least 13.
Provincial premier Alan Winde said on X: “It is a miracle that we have all been hoping for.”
An apartment block under construction in the southern city of George crumbled on Monday afternoon while an 81-person crew was on site.
“When we went down to the side of the slab we had uncovered, we heard somebody inside, and we stopped all the heavy operations,” Colin Deiner, head of rescue operations, told reporters.
Rescuers then called out to the survivor, and he spoke back, Deiner said.
“He indicated to us that he’s got weight on his legs, and we’re very concerned about that after such a long period.” After several hours, the survivor was extricated and rushed to a hospital.
Rescue teams have been working against time since the structure came crashing down.
Twenty-nine people were rescued alive, while thirty-nine remained unaccounted for.
Winde said a “difficult” identification process was underway, and police were using fingerprints, DNA testing, and photographs.
The city had approved construction plans for a 42-unit apartment block in July.
The reasons for the collapse are still unknown.

 


Biden jokes Trump should have injected himself with bleach

Updated 11 May 2024
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Biden jokes Trump should have injected himself with bleach

  • Biden also made light of Trump’s “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
  • In a senior moment, Biden mistakenly referred to Kim as the president of South Korea

PORTOLA VALLEY, California: US President Joe Biden joked on Friday that he wished former President Donald Trump had injected himself with a little bleach, resurrecting one of Trump’s more head-scratching moments from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, at a fundraising event south of San Francisco for his re-election campaign, said the presidency of his Republican opponent was chaotic and that voters should keep that in mind. Biden and Trump are locked in a close contest ahead of the November election.
“Remember him saying the best thing to do is just inject a little bleach in your arm? That’s what he said. And he meant it. I wish he had done a little bit himself,” Biden said.
During the early months of the pandemic in 2020, Trump said that an “injection inside” the human body with a disinfectant like bleach or isopropyl alcohol could help protect against the virus.

Biden also made light of what he called Trump’s “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, although Biden mistakenly referred to Kim as the president of South Korea.
Trump had met with Kim and exchanged a number of letters with him, copies of which he kept in a loose-leaf binder in the Oval Office.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s remarks.
Biden has made light of Trump’s bleach comment before, saying on April 24 in Washington that Trump had injected himself and “it all went to his hair.”

 

 


Meaty issue: German political party calls for €4.90 price cap on doner kebabs

Updated 07 May 2024
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Meaty issue: German political party calls for €4.90 price cap on doner kebabs

  • Die Linke appeals to government as price of national favorite hits €10 in some cities
  • Scheme would cost taxpayer about €4bn

LONDON: German political party Die Linke has urged the government to cap the price of a much loved food item — the doner kebab.

The party has proposed providing daily vouchers to households that would limit prices to €4.90 ($5.28) and €2.90 for young people under an initiative known as Donerpreisbremse.

The scheme is projected to cost the government about €4 billion.

Introduced after the Second World War by Turkish immigrants who adapted the dish to suit local tastes, the doner kebab is a national favorite in Germany, with an estimated 1.3 billion consumed annually. But their soaring price has become a hot-button political issue.

Die Linke said the cost of a doner kebab had reached €10 in some cities, from €4 just two years ago.

“For young people right now it is an issue as important as where they will move when they leave home,” said Hanna Steinmuller, a lawmaker with the Greens party.

“I know it’s not an everyday issue for many people here … but I think as voter representatives we are obliged to highlight these different perspectives.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was famously confronted by a voter last year who demanded he “speak with Putin … I’m paying €8 for a doner.”

With public pressure mounting, Scholz recently acknowledged on social media that “everywhere I go, mostly by young people, I get asked if there should be a price cap for doner kebabs.”

Despite the appeals, the chancellor rejected the proposal, citing the impracticality of price controls in a free market economy.

Despite its humble origins as a street food, the doner kebab has become an unexpected point of political focus.

Last month, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sparked controversy when on a visit to Turkiye he gifted 60 kg of kebab meat from Berlin to Istanbul in what some called a clumsy attempt to symbolize the strong cultural ties between the two nations.


A 98-year-old in Ukraine walked miles to safety from Russians, with slippers and a cane

Updated 01 May 2024
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A 98-year-old in Ukraine walked miles to safety from Russians, with slippers and a cane

  • Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey

KYIV, Ukraine: A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were separated while fleeing to safety.
Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family decided to leave the frontline town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified.
Russians have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.
“I woke up surrounded by shooting all around — so scary,” Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region.
In the chaos of the departure, Lomikovska became separated from her son and two daughters-in-law, including one, Olha Lomikovska, injured by shrapnel days earlier. The younger family members took to back routes, but Lydia wanted to stay on the main road.
With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, the pensioner walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines.
Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey.
“Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep … a little, and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself: “I need to keep walking, bit by bit,’” Lomikovska said.
Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening. They handed her over to the “White Angels,” a police group that evacuates citizens living on the front line, who then took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives.
“I survived that war,’ she said referring to World War II. “I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing.
“That war wasn’t like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now – everything is on fire,” she said to her rescuer.
In the latest twist to the story, the chief executive of one of Ukraine’s largest banks announced on his Telegram channel Tuesday that the bank would purchase a house for the pensioner.
“Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land,” Oleh Horokhovskyi said.
 

 


Amazon Purr-rime: Cat accidentally shipped to online retailer

Updated 30 April 2024
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Amazon Purr-rime: Cat accidentally shipped to online retailer

  • Galena was found safe by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center after vanishing from her home in Utah

LOS ANGELES: A curious cat that sneaked into an open box was shipped across the United States to an Amazon warehouse after its unknowing owners sealed it inside.
Carrie Clark’s pet, Galena, vanished from her Utah home on April 10, sparking a furious search that involved plastering “missing” posters around the neighborhood.
But a week later, a vet hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Los Angeles got in touch to say the cat had been discovered in a box — alongside several pairs of boots — by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center.
“I ran to tell my husband that Galena was found and we broke down upon realizing that she must have jumped into an oversized box that we shipped out the previous Wednesday,” Clark told KSL TV in Salt Lake City.
“The box was a ‘try before you buy,’ and filled with steel-toed work boots.”
Clark and her husband jetted to Los Angeles, where they discovered Amazon employee Brandy Hunter had rescued Galena — a little hungry and thirsty after six days in a cardboard box, but otherwise unharmed.
“I could tell she belonged to someone by the way she was behaving,” said Hunter, according to Amazon.
“I took her home that night and went to the vet the next day to have her checked for a microchip, and the rest is history.”