SpaceX catches giant Starship booster in its fifth flight test

SpaceX, in its fifth Starship test flight yesterday, returned the rocket’s towering first stage booster back to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant mechanical arms, achieving another novel engineering feat in the company’s push to build a reusable moon and Mars vehicle.The rocket’s first stage “Super Heavy” booster lifted off at 7.25am CT (1225 GMT) from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas launch facilities, sending the Starship second stage rocket toward space before separating at an altitude of roughly 70km (40 miles) to begin its return to land – the most daring part of the test flight.The Super Heavy booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent back to SpaceX’s launch site, as it targeted the launch pad and tower it had blasted off from.The tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, is fitted with two large metal arms at the top.With its engines roaring, the 233-foot (71m) Super Heavy booster fell into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air.“The tower has caught the rocket!!” chief executive Elon Musk wrote on X after the catch attempt.SpaceX engineers watching the company’s live stream roared in applause.“Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” a SpaceX spokesperson said on the livestream.The novel catch-landing method marked the latest advance in SpaceX’s test-to-failure development campaign for a fully reusable rocket designed to loft more cargo into orbit, ferry humans to the moon for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and eventually reach Mars – the ultimate destination envisioned by Musk.Nasa, which congratulated SpaceX on its successful test, is also keenly awaiting a modified version of Starship to act as a lander vehicle for crewed flights to the Moon under the Artemis programme later this decade.Meanwhile Starship, the rocket system’s second stage or top half, cruised at roughly 17,000mph 89 miles up in space, heading for the Indian Ocean near western Australia to demonstrate about 90 minutes into flight a controlled splashdown.As Starship re-entered Earth’s atmosphere horizontally, onboard cameras showed a smooth, pinkish-purple hue of superhot plasma blanketing the ship’s Earth-facing side and its two steering flaps, intense hypersonic friction displayed in a glowing aura.The ship’s hot side is coated with 18,000 heat-shielding tiles that were improved since SpaceX’s last test in June, when Starship completed its first full test flight to the Indian Ocean but suffered tile damage that made its reentry difficult.Starship this time appeared more intact upon re-igniting one of its six Raptor engines to position itself upright for the simulated ocean landing.The SpaceX live stream showed the rocket touching down in the nighttime waters far off Australia’s coast, then toppling on its side, concluding its test mission.A separate camera view from a vessel near the touchdown site then showed the ship exploding into a vast fireball, as SpaceX engineers could be heard on the live stream screaming in celebration.It was unclear whether the explosion was a controlled detonation or the result of a fuel leak.Musk said the ship landed “precisely on target!”Starship, first unveiled by Musk in 2017, has exploded several times in various stages of testing on past flights, but successfully completed a full flight in June for the first time.On Saturday the US Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceX’s launch licence for the fifth test, following weeks of tension between the company and its regulator over the pace of launch approvals and fines related to SpaceX’s workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9.Musk has accused the agency of overreach and calling for its chief, Michael Whitaker, to resign.“He’s trying to position himself for minimal regulatory interference with SpaceX once Donald Trump becomes president,” said Mark Hass, a marketing expert and professor at Arizona State University. “But it’s a calculated gamble if things go the other way.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692489/international/spacex-catches-giant-starship-booster-in-its-fifth-flight-test

Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say

Just like the dwindling group of survivors now recognised with a Nobel prize, the residents of Hiroshima hope that the world never forgets the atomic bombing of 1945 - now more than ever. Susumu Ogawa, 84, was five when the bomb dropped by the United States all but obliterated the Japanese city 79 years ago, and many of his family were among the 140,000 people killed.“My mother, my aunt, my grandfather, and my grandfather all died in the atomic bombing,” Ogawa told AFP a day after the survivors’ group Nihon Hidankyo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Ogawa himself recalls very little but the snippets he garnered later from his surviving relatives and others painted a hellish picture. “All they could do was to evacuate and save their own lives, while they saw other people (perish) inside the inferno,” he said.“All nuclear weapons in the world have to be abandoned,” he said. “We know the horror of nuclear weapons, because we know what happened in Hiroshima.” What is happening now in the Middle East saddens him greatly. “Why do people fight each other?...hurting each other won’t bring anything good,” he said.On a sunny Saturday, many tourists and some residents were strolling around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to the bomb’s 140,000 victims. A preserved skeleton of a building close to ground zero of the “Little Boy” bomb and a statue of a girl with outstretched arms are poignant reminders of the devastation.Jung Jaesuk, 43, a South Korean primary school teacher visiting the site, said the Nobel was a “a victory for (grassroots) people”. “Tension in East Asia is intensifying so we have to boost anti-nuclear movement,” he told AFP. Kiyoharu Bajo, 69, a retired business consultant, decided to take in the atmosphere of the site after the “great thing” that was the Nobel award.With Ukraine and the Middle East, the world “faces crises that we’ve not experienced since the Second World War in terms of nuclear weapons,” he told AFP. The stories told by the Nihon Hidankyo group of “hibakusha”, as the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known, “have to be known to the world”, he said.He said he hopes that the Nobel prize will help “the experiences of atomic bomb survivors spread further spread around the world” including by persuading people to visit Hiroshima. Kiwako Miyamoto, 65, said the Nobel prize was a “great thing, because even some locals here are indifferent” to what happened.“In Hiroshima, you pray on August 6, and children go to school”, even though the date is during summer vacation, she told AFP.“But I was surprised to see that outside Hiroshima, some people don’t know (so much about it),” she said.She said that like many people in Hiroshima, she personally knows people whose relatives died in the bombing or who witnessed it. With the average age among members of the Nihon Hidankyo over 85, it is vital that young people continue to be taught about what happened, added Bajo. “I was born 10 years after the atom bomb was dropped, so there were many atom bomb survivors around me. I felt the incident as something familiar to me,” he said. “But for the future, it will be an issue.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692419/international/nobel-prize-a-timely-reminder-hiroshima-locals-say

European Commission condemns attack on UNIFIL forces in Lebanon

Spokesperson for external affairs at the Peter Stano said that the Israeli occupation's attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were unacceptable. He added during a press conference in Brussels that any deliberate attack on peacekeeping forces constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law and relevant Security Council resolutions. Stano said that the issue was very high on the European Commission's agenda, and that it will definitely be discussed by the EU Foreign Ministers at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting next Monday. UNIFIL had reported that its soldiers were injured due to repeated Israeli bombardments on its headquarters and nearby sites in southern Lebanon amid escalating tensions along the Blue Line recently.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692369/international/european-commission-condemns-attack-on-unifil-forces-in-lebanon

Canada's Prime Minister renews call for ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renewed his call for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza.Radio Canada International that Trudeau made the statement in response to the killing of a third Canadian in Lebanon due to an Israeli airstrike. He emphasized the need to put an end to this violence, advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, increase humanitarian aid, release the hostages, and a reliable pathway towards a two-state solution.Lebanon has been under Israeli attack since October 2023, which has intensified recently with increased air and artillery strikes extending to the capital, Beirut. This escalation has resulted in thousands of Lebanese casualties and forced over a million people to flee their homes, coinciding with the ongoing devastating conflict in Gaza that has persisted for over a year.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692368/international/canadas-prime-minister-renews-call-for-ceasefire-in-lebanon-and-gaza

France's Macron calls for an end to arms exports used in Gaza and Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday reiterated his call for an end to arms exports to the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, adding it was the sole means at hand to end the two conflicts pitting Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah.'This is in no way a call to disarm Israel (...) but a call to stop any destabilisation in this part of the world', said Macron at a press conference in Cyprus at the end of a meeting of Med9, which brings together the EU's Mediterranean countries.The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war, which followed a bloody rampage by Hamas through communities in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people in a matter of hours.The conflict has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops into areas of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.'We have reiterated the need for a ceasefire, and this ceasefire is essential both in Gaza and in Lebanon. It is necessary now both for our hostages and the civilian population who are victims of the violence, and to avoid regional contamination', he said.'This is why France has called for an end to the export of weapons used in these theatres of war (...). We all know that this is the only way to put an end to it', Macron added.Last Saturday, the French president had already said shipments of arms used in the conflict in Gaza should be stopped as part of a broader effort to find a political solution, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say the next day that placing restrictions on Israel will just serve Iran and its proxies.France is not a major weapons provider for Israel, shipping military equipment worth 30 million euros ($33 million) last year, according to the defence ministry's annual arms exports report.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692348/region/frances-macron-calls-for-an-end-to-arms-exports-used-in-gaza-and-lebanon

UN accuses Israel of committing crimes against humanity by destroying health system in Gaza

UN investigators accused the Israeli entity Thursday of deliberately targeting health facilities in the Gaza Strip and killing and torturing medical workers, considering that this amounts to crimes against humanity.The UN International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Israeli entity, consisting of a large number of experts, said in a statement that Israel implemented a coordinated policy to destroy the health care system in Gaza as part of a broader attack on Gaza, committing war crimes.The committee confirmed the collapse of the international legal system in the face of the atrocities in the Gaza Strip. The experts said in a statement today, coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, that last year witnessed genocidal attacks, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of the Palestinians, threatening the collapse of the multilateral international system.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692318/international/un-accuses-israel-of-committing-crimes-against-humanity-by-destroying-health-system-in-gaza

Hurricane Milton leaves 10 dead, millions without power in Florida

Hurricane Milton ploughed into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday after cutting a destructive path across Florida that spawned tornados, killed at least 10 people and left millions without power, but the storm did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared.Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had avoided the “worst-case scenario”, though he cautioned the damage was still significant.The Tampa Bay area appeared to sidestep the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings.US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing that the government had reports of at least 10 deaths from Milton, adding it appeared they were caused by tornados.In St Lucie County on Florida’s east coast, a spate of tornados killed five people, including at least two in the senior-living Spanish Lakes Communities, county spokesperson Erick Gill said.There were 19 confirmed tornados in Florida as of 8pm on Wednesday, about the time Milton made landfall, DeSantis said.Some 45 tornados were reported throughout the day, mostly in the central and eastern parts of the state, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.More than 3mn homes and businesses in Florida were without power yesterday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.At least some had already been waiting days for power to be restored after Hurricane Helene hit the area two weeks ago.Milton shredded the fabric roof of Tropicana Field, the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St Petersburg, but there were no reported injuries.The ballpark was a staging area for responders, with thousands of cots set up on the field.In the Tampa area, the storm toppled trees, threw debris across roadways and downed power lines, video footage from local news showed.Some neighbourhoods were flooded, but the extent of the damage will not be known until crews can assess the destruction, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a morning news conference.Steven Cole Smith, 71, an automotive writer and editor who lives in Tampa about seven miles (11km) from the Gulf Coast, rode out the storm with his wife.He said the wind shook the windows so hard he thought they would shatter.“We really didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Smith said of their decision not to follow evacuation orders. He has a house in central Florida, but said the forecast for that area looked as bad as where he was staying.On a street near Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who opted not to evacuate, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.“This is very tragic, especially for an area that relies on a lot of tourism and real estate,” she told AFP, surveying the damage. “There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change.”Ken Wood, 58, a state ferryboat operator in Pinellas County, fled his Dunedin home on Florida’s Gulf Coast with his 16-year-old cat Andy, after making the “harrowing” mistake of riding out Hurricane Helene two weeks ago in his mobile home.They heeded evacuation orders and headed north but only made it as far as a hotel about an hour’s drive away when he decided it wasn’t safe to stay on the roads.“It was pretty loud, but Andy slept through it all,” he told Reuters by telephone.Emergency crews responded overnight to dozens of calls for help, including one in which 15 people were rescued after a tree fell on top of a house, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said.The winds toppled a large construction crane in St Petersburg, sending it crashing onto a deserted street.The state was still in danger of river flooding after up to 18” (457mm) of rain fell.Authorities were waiting for rivers to crest, but so far levels were at or below those after Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, Tampa Mayor Castor said yesterday.Most of the severe damage reported so far stemmed from the tornados, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) head Deanne Criswell, who was in Tallahassee yesterday.“The evacuation orders saved lives,” she said, noting that more than 90,000 residents went to shelters.President Joe Biden, who postponed an overseas trip to monitor Milton, spoke to local leaders in Florida yesterday and pledged the federal government’s full support.The storm hit Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 120mph (205kph).While still a dangerous storm, Milton had weakened from the rare Category 5 status as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.Milton tailed off further over land, dropping to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 85mph (145kph) as it reached the peninsula’s east coast, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.By morning yesterday, the storm was moving away from the Florida Atlantic coast after lashing communities on the eastern shoreline.The eye of the storm made landfall in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 people off Sarasota about 60 miles (100km) south of Tampa Bay.Meanwhile, in a video posted on social media, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.“Hopefully, on January 20th you’re going to have somebody that’s really going to help you and help you like never before,” the former president said, referring to the date when US presidents are inaugurated.Hurricane Helene had just struck the US southeast late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming that Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.That prompted a furious response from Biden, who on Wednesday called Trump “reckless, irresponsible”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692300/international/hurricane-milton-leaves-10-dead-millions-without-power-in-florida

Several killed in Hurricane Milton sweeping Florida

Several people were killed, homes were destroyed, and more than two million homes were without power in the US state of Florida as a result of Hurricane Milton.'We are not going to get into how many, but I can tell you its more than one person who has lost their life that we already recovered,' St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN, adding that hundreds of homes were 'completely totaled' by tornadoes across the county.The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the hurricane's wind speed reached 193 km/h, as it made landfall as a Category 3 storm, making it one of the most dangerous hurricanes the region has recently faced, along with heavy rains and dangerously high tides.The NHC expected Hurricane Milton to move from the Gulf Coast of Florida across the state towards the Atlantic Ocean, with severe destruction occurring offshore.The hurricane caused severe storm surges in parts of Florida, with water levels rising rapidly, causing massive flooding.US authorities have called on millions of residents to evacuate their homes, adding that there have been reports of traffic jams and fuel shortages.Hurricane Milton arrived just two weeks after the devastating Hurricane Helene hit Florida and other southeastern states, leaving extensive destruction and casualties.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692295/international/several-killed-in-hurricane-milton-sweeping-florida

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon target critical civilian infrastructure : OCHA

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Israeli occupation's airstrikes on Lebanon have increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure.In a statement on Wednesday, OCHA warned that Lebanon's humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate.'Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded into previously unaffected areas and increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure,' OCHA said in the statement.'The relentless bombardment is amplifying the suffering of vulnerable populations,' it added.In a single day Oct. 6, more than 30 airstrikes struck the Beirut southern suburbs and surrounding areas frightening residents and forcing additional displacement from densely populated areas, including Shatila Palestine refugee camp.On Tuesday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that the ongoing Israeli aggression since October 2023 has resulted in 2,141 deaths and 10,099 injuries.In recent days, the Israeli entity has significantly intensified its aerial and artillery bombardment and expanded its targets to include the capital, Beirut, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries and forcing over a million people to flee their homes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692293/international/israeli-airstrikes-on-lebanon-target-critical-civilian-infrastructure-ocha

Five dead after Russian missile attack on Odesa Region's Port: Ukraine

Ukraine has announced that five people were killed and nine were injured as a result of a Russian ballistic missile strike targeting the port infrastructure in Odesa region, southern Ukraine.Five dead and nine injured is the consequence of yet another ballistic missile attack by Russia on the port infrastructure in Odesa region, the Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba said in Telegram post.During the attack, a civilian vessel flying the flag of Panama - the container ship Shui Spirit - was damaged, he added.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692292/international/five-dead-after-russian-missile-attack-on-odesa-regions-port-ukraine

International conference on Lebanon to be held on Oct. 24 : French Foreign Ministry

The French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the international conference on Lebanon, announced by President Emmanuel Macron, will be held on Oct. 24.The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that this ministerial conference will bring together Lebanon's partner countries, the United Nations, the European Union, international and regional organizations, and civil society.It added that the conference aims to mobilize the ranks of the international community to respond to the urgent protection and relief needs of the Lebanese people, and to identify ways to support Lebanese institutions, especially the Lebanese Armed Forces, which guarantee internal stability in the country.The ministry stressed that in the face of a serious and profound political and humanitarian crisis, France will recall through this conference the urgent need to stop the fighting and reach a diplomatic solution based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and allow the safe return of the displaced to their homes, noting that electing a president in Lebanon is the first step towards the return of regular political institutions.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/692287/international/international-conference-on-lebanon-to-be-held-on-oct-24-french-foreign-ministry