CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A daredevil billionaire rocketed back to space Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture farther than anyone since NASA’s Apollo moonshots.
Unlike his previous chartered flight, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman shared the cost with SpaceX this time around, which included developing and testing brand new spacesuits to see how they’ll hold up in the harsh vacuum.
If all goes as planned, it will be the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk, but they won’t venture away from the capsule. Considered one of the most riskiest parts of spaceflight, spacewalks have been the sole realm of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union popped open the hatch in 1965, closely followed by the US Today, they are routinely done at the International Space Station.
Isaacman, along with a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot, launched before dawn aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. The spacewalk is scheduled for late Wednesday or Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.
But first the passengers are shooting for way beyond the International Space Station — an altitude of 1,400 kilometers, which would surpass the Earth-lapping record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the moon have ventured farther.
The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height — filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris — before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half. Even at this lower 435 miles (700 kilometers), the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle astronauts flew.
All four wore SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurized for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment.
Isaacman and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly popping out of the hatch. They’ll test their white and black-trimmed custom suits by twisting their bodies. Both will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule or attached support structure that resembles the top of a pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 3.6-meter tethers and no jetpack showboating. Only NASA’s suits at the space station come equipped with jetpacks, for emergency use only.
Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut flights, this one will end with a splashdown off the Florida coast.
At a preflight news conference, Isaacman — CEO and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4 — refused to say how much he invested in the flight. “Not a chance,” he said.
SpaceX teamed up with Isaacman to pay for spacesuit development and associated costs, said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for NASA.
“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” Gerstenmaier said.
It’s the first of three trips that Isaacman bought from Elon Musk 2-1/2 years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Spacesuit development took longer than anticipated, delaying this first so-called Polaris Dawn flight until now. Training was extensive; Poteet said it rivaled anything he experienced during his Air Force flying career.
As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Gillis and Menon helped Isaacman and his previous team — as well as NASA’s professional crews — prepare for their rides.
“I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our solar system,” the 41-year-old Isaacman said before liftoff.
Poor weather caused a two-week delay. The crew needed favorable forecasts not only for launch, but for splashdown days later. With limited supplies and no ability to reach the space station, they had no choice but to wait for conditions to improve.
SpaceX launches billionaire to conduct the first private spacewalk
https://arab.news/8qsbk
SpaceX launches billionaire to conduct the first private spacewalk
- Unlike his previous chartered flight, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman shared the cost with SpaceX this time around
- If all goes as planned, it will be the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk
Prophet’s Mosque imam meets Indonesia top leaders on Jakarta visit
- Sheikh Ahmed Al-Huthaifi will lead Friday prayers at Istiqlal Mosque
- Indonesian Ulama Council hopes visit will strengthen Saudi-Indonesia ties
JAKARTA: Prophet’s Mosque Imam Sheikh Ahmed Al-Huthaifi is on a five-day visit to Indonesia to meet the top political and religious leadership in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
The Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah is one of the three holiest sites in Islam, along with the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Its imam arrived in Jakarta on Monday evening and met with Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin and officials from the Indonesian Ulama Council on Tuesday.
“The vice president hopes that his visit as the Prophet’s Mosque imam will strengthen friendly relations between our countries beyond bilateral relations between two states, but also people-to-people relations,” Masduki Baidlowi, the vice president’s spokesperson, told Arab News.
“This is so that Indonesians and Saudis can further connect, exchange ideas and cultures.”
Al-Huthaifi will lead Friday prayers and deliver a sermon at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta — the largest mosque in Southeast Asia.
He is also scheduled to visit Islamic boarding schools in the Indonesian capital and meet with the leadership of the country’s largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah.
“This is a very important visit, especially because he is the imam of the Prophet’s Mosque, which is widely respected by Muslims around the world, including in Indonesia,” Dr. Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, the Indonesian Ulama Council’s chair of foreign relations, told Arab News.
He was hopeful that the visit would enhance relations between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and contribute to strengthening the global Muslim community.
“Relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia must be strengthened for the future, especially because the world is facing turmoil right now with the impact of what’s happening in Palestine, which continues to be subjected to genocide by Israel, with destructions expanding into southern Lebanon,” Hakim said.
“Unity among Muslims will have a constructive effect in … building peace and security at the global level.”
Request made to Dutch authorities to prosecute senior Israeli intelligence officers
- Case brought after Guardian report suggested Israel had run a 9-year covert campaign against the International Criminal Court in the Hague
- Activities began after investigation opened in 2015 into Israeli activity in the occupied Palestinian territories
LONDON: A request has been filed in the Netherlands asking for authorities to prosecute senior Israeli intelligence officials over claims they interfered with an International Criminal Court investigation into crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
A group of 20 complainants have brought the claim following a Guardian report that uncovered a nine-year campaign by Israeli intelligence to “undermine, influence and allegedly intimidate the ICC chief prosecutor’s office.”
The report, conducted with Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine and Hebrew language Open Call outlet, led the Dutch government, which hosts the ICC in the Hague, to raise its concerns with the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands.
The complainants’ legal team claims: “Israel’s many attempts to influence, sabotage and stop the investigation constitute a direct violation of (their clients’) right to justice.”
They added that the Israeli activity may have broken Dutch law as well as contravened the Rome Statute and that a case against senior intelligence officers should be brought. A number of Dutch MPs have also called for an inquiry into the allegations.
A spokesperson for the Dutch prosecution service said: “The complaint has been received … and will be studied.”
A spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government of the Netherlands has “continuous and good contact with the ICC.”
They added: “Let one thing be clear: The Netherlands is doing its utmost to allow the ICC to do its work safely, undisturbed and independently.”
The ICC has been investigating allegations of Israeli crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2015. In May this year, its Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for warrants to arrest senior Hamas figures Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The warrants have yet to be approved. Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July.
A spokesperson for the ICC prosecutor’s office said: “The office remains deeply concerned by the ongoing attempts to improperly influence its activities through threats and intimidation of its officials.”
The Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands did not respond to a request for comment.
Biggest Kashmir party opposed to India’s stripping of region’s autonomy wins most seats in election
- National Conference won 41 seats and was leading in one constituency, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of anti-India rebellion
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu, the data showed
SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s biggest political party on Tuesday won most seats in the local election for a largely powerless local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir, official data showed, in a vote seen as a referendum against the 2019 move by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that stripped the disputed region of its special status.
National Conference, or NC, won 41 seats and was leading in one constituency, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, the data showed. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu.
India’s main opposition Congress party, which fought the election in alliance with the NC, succeeded in six constituencies.
“People have supported us more than our expectations. Now our efforts will be to prove that we are worth these votes,” Omar Abdullah, the NC leader and the region’s former chief minister, told reporters in the main city of Srinagar.
His father and president of the party, Farooq Abdullah, said that the mandate was to run the region without “police raj (rule)” and try freeing people from jails. “Media will be free,” he said.
Hundreds of the NC workers gathered outside counting centers and at the homes of the winning candidates to celebrate the party’s victory.
It was the first such vote in a decade and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019.
The unprecedented move downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi through its appointed administrators along with unelected bureaucrats and security setup. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave the way for demographic changes in the region.
The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media gagged.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Authorities tallied votes as thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled roads and guarded 28 counting centers. Nearly 8.9 million people were eligible to vote in the election, which began on Sept. 18 and concluded on Oct. 1. The overall turnout was 64 percent across the three phases, according to official data.
In the region’s legislature, five seats are appointed and 90 elected, so a party or coalition would need at least 48 of the 95 total seats to form a government. The alliance of the National Conference and the Congress have 48 seats combined.
Authorities have said the election will bring democracy to the region after decades of strife, but many locals viewed the vote as an opportunity not only to elect their own representatives but also to register their protest against the 2019 changes.
Except for the BJP, most parties who contested the election campaigned on promises to reverse the 2019 changes and address key issues like rising unemployment and inflation. The Congress party favored restoring the region’s statehood. The BJP has also stated that it will restore statehood, but has not told when it would do.
The BJP has vowed to block any move aimed at undoing most of the 2019 changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.
Meanwhile, Modi’s BJP appears to be heading for a victory in the northern state of Haryana, bordering New Delhi, which it has ruled for 10 years, leading in 50 constituencies and the Congress in 35 out of 90.
The BJP has so far won 18 seats and is leading in 32 constituencies while the Congress has won 15 seats and is leading in 20, according to the Election Commission of India.
A victory would give the BJP a record third five-year term in the state.
The voting trend in Haryana state is a surprise since most exit polls had predicted an easy victory for the Congress party.
The vote will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a regional legislature, called an assembly, rather than being directly under New Delhi’s rule.
However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the assembly as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.
The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which the BJP for the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. But the government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition.
Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
UAE’s largest sovereign wealth fund starts operations in India
- Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds
- Indian government expects its Gujarat International Finance Tec-City operations to drive more UAE investment
NEW DELHI: The UAE’s largest sovereign wealth fund has started its operations in India, in a move expected to increase investment activity in the region.
Established in 1976, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world that invests funds on behalf of the government of Abu Dhabi.
The start of its operations at the GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) was announced at a meeting of the India-UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments in Mumbai on Monday, which was co-chaired by Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, managing director of ADIA.
“The office is expected to drive further intensification of ADIA’s investment activities in India,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.
“ADIA’s presence in the GIFT City underlines the strong interest from UAE’s institutional investors in India’s growing and dynamic economy. It also buttresses GIFT City’s reputation as a world-class financial services center, operating under a robust regulatory and legal framework.”
A flagship project in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, the GIFT City has been promoted by the Indian government as a “robust gateway for global capital and financial services” for the Indian economy.
Companies operating in GIFT City enjoy a complete tax exemption on business profits for any 10 consecutive years within a 15-year period, and no taxes on the transfer of funds from overseas jurisdictions.
“India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and has been a key focus for ADIA’s investment activities for a number of years. We have built an extensive portfolio that spans asset classes, and we remain confident in India’s long-term growth prospects,” Sheikh Hamed said, as quoted by the Emirati state news agency WAM.
“Establishing ADIA’s subsidiary at GIFT City underlines our belief in the opportunities presented by India’s continued growth. GIFT City is creating a dynamic, world-class financial services ecosystem, operating under a strong regulator and a robust legal framework.”
The establishment of ADIA’s presence in the Gujarat hub was announced during Modi’s state visit to Abu Dhabi in July 2023.
The UAE is the largest Middle Eastern investor in India, with investments amounting to around $3 billion in the financial year 2023-24, according to Indian government data.
Record $73m bribe lands former investigator in Russian jail
- Marat Tambiyev was found guilty of accepting the bribes, mainly in bitcoin, from members of an organized crime group
MOSCOW: A former Russian state investigator was jailed for 16 years on Tuesday for taking bribes equivalent to around $73 million, the largest in the history of modern Russia, state news agency TASS said.
Marat Tambiyev was found guilty of accepting the bribes, mainly in bitcoin, from members of an organized crime group. He had protested his innocence.
Kristina Lyakhovenko, a lower-ranked colleague of Tambiyev, was jailed for nine years. Lawyers for both of them said they would appeal.
Russia is currently pursuing a spate of high-profile bribery investigations, many involving senior figures in the military.