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India sends its first astronaut into space in 41 years

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India celebrated on Wednesday the launch of the Axiom-4 mission, which has taken off to the International Space Station with a crew including the first Indian astronaut in 41 years.

Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday morning, the 14-day mission is a collaboration between American startup Axiom Space, NASA, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule carried the four-member team into orbit.

A private spaceflight, it is led by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, with Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot responsible for flying the spacecraft through launch, orbital insertion, docking with the ISS, undocking, re-entry, and landing.

Another two members of the crew are Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski — a European Space Agency astronaut and the second Polish national in orbit, who will conduct science experiments in microgravity — and Tibor Kapu, a Hungarian mechanical engineer who will perform experiments in space health.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to wish “all the success” to Shukla and the other astronauts on the Axiom-4 mission.

“The Indian Astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is on the way to become the first Indian to go to (the) International Space Station,” Modi said. “He carries with him the wishes, hopes and aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians.”

Shukla is the second Indian national in space, after Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 in 1984 and spent seven days and 21 hours aboard the Salyut 7 space station.

“We are proud and happy to see Shubhanshu Shukla become the second Indian to travel to space, this time as part of the Axiom-4 Mission. This journey is a testament to the growing global footprint of India in space exploration and is a stepping stone to what we want to achieve with Gaganyaan, our own indigenous human spaceflight program,” Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt (retd.), director general of the Indian Space Association, told reporters.

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India’s own first human spaceflight aboard the Gaganyaan spacecraft is planned for 2027. So far, only three countries — Russia, the US and China — have sent humans into space on their own spacecraft.

“India is now in the final stages of preparation for the Gaganyaan mission, with firms like Larsen and Toubro, Tata and Ananth Technologies playing a critical role alongside our vibrant startups,” Bhatt said.

“If all goes as planned, we are just one or two years away from realizing the dream of sending Indian astronauts to space on an entirely indigenous platform. The success of missions like Axiom-4 inspires our ecosystem and strengthens our resolve to make India a leading force in the new era of space exploration.”

Shukla, 39, was chosen to take part in the Axiom-4 mission by the Indian Space Research Organization, which is responsible for the country’s space research and exploration activities and is the agency preparing the Gaganyaan mission.

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Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh told Indian news agency ANI that the offer for an Indian astronaut to take part in Axiom-4 was presented during Modi’s visit to the US in 2023.

“We had four Air Force officers who were already undergoing training for Gaganyaan — Shubhanshu being the youngest of the four. So, the choice had to zero down on one of them. Finally, Shubhanshu’s name was picked up and (the) standby was Nair (Gp. Capt. Prasanth Nair),” Singh said.

“The Americans were equally keen to have an Indian onboard. In other words, it means that they, today more than ever before, realize the importance of India’s potential, India’s talent and India’s capacity to contribute.”

For the past few years, India has been establishing its position in the global space industry.

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In January 2025, it became the fourth country to perform space docking, connecting two spacecraft in orbit. Codenamed Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, the mission involved deploying two small spacecraft, each weighing about 220 kg, into an orbit approximately 470 km above Earth.

In August 2023, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover made history by landing on the lunar surface, making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth to land on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union, and China.

A month later, it launched Aditya-L1 in 2023 — the country’s first solar observation mission, and the world’s second after the US Parker Solar Probe in 2021.

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Foreign

Trump says Iran has 22% of missiles left

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Iran still has “21, 22 per cent” of its missiles left, US President Donald Trump said Friday, in a week in which Tehran fired dozens of them toward regional neighbours, despite a sputtering ceasefire.

“They still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say, percentage wise, maybe 21, 22 percent of their missiles,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.

That figure for Iran’s missile stockpile is higher than one of 18 per cent Trump gave in May. He has often claimed to have completely destroyed Iran’s war-fighting capacity.

Iran’s military said Friday it had fired “warning missiles” at two US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman — a claim promptly denied by the US military. Two days earlier, Kuwait said it had intercepted 30 ballistic missiles fired as part of “heinous Iranian aggression.”

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US, allies oppose Bolivia President Paz’s ouster as unrest grow

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The United States and allies on Friday condemned the ongoing efforts to overthrow the elected government of President Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia.

The Shield of the Americas member states said “mob rule” cannot replace the decision that most Bolivians made at the ballot box to remove “two decades of corrupt governments.”

The U.S., Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago signed the joint statement.

They affirm support for the Paz administration as it resists “attempts to drag Bolivia backwards through cynical efforts to prevent the delivery of food, medicine and other vital supplies.”

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“Those who are funding these protests with dirty money from drug trafficking and transnational crime should be held accountable,” the allies urged.

The governments encouraged people who have grievances to dialogue with the government, warning against abusing their causes to “regain power.”

President Paz admitted Bolivia has been pushed to a “breaking point” amid weeks of widespread protests and a blockade that has paralyzed major cities.

Farmers, miners, transport workers and teachers are demanding immediate measures to ease the country’s worst economic crisis in four decades.

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Defence Minister Marcelo Salinas and Education Minister Beatriz Garcia resigned this week as demonstrators continue to demand Paz’s resignation, a call he rejects.

The government accuses ex-President Evo Morales of fuelling unrest, which opposition figures believe could end with a referendum to decide whether Paz should remain in office.

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Russia claims deadly drone strike varsity hostel killed 21 students

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Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of carrying out a deadly drone attack on a university complex in Starobelsk, in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region, claiming that 21 students were killed in the strike.

According to a statement circulated by Russian officials, the attack occurred on the night of May 22 and targeted the academic building and dormitory of Lugansk State Pedagogical University.

Russian authorities alleged that 16 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including four heavy drones, were deployed in three waves during the operation.

Officials described the incident as one of the deadliest attacks on a civilian educational facility in the region since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, claiming that the victims were students residing in the university dormitory.

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“Just a week ago, they were students with dreams, plans and a future. Today, all that remains are photographs, memories and unbearable grief,” the statement said.

The authorities further alleged that the strike was deliberate and targeted civilians rather than military infrastructure.

The claims could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian authorities had not publicly responded to the allegations at the time of filing this report.

Since the start of the conflict, both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure, allegations that are often difficult to verify independently due to ongoing hostilities and restricted access to affected areas.

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The reported incident has renewed concerns among humanitarian organizations about the impact of the war on educational institutions and young people caught in the conflict.

The Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fifth year, has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, widespread displacement and extensive damage to homes, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure across both countries.

International observers have consistently called for independent investigations into attacks involving civilian casualties, regardless of the parties involved, to establish the facts and ensure accountability under international humanitarian law.

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