BEIJING: China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe looks set to begin its historic journey back to Earth from the moon’s far side after collecting samples that scientists expect will help answer key questions about the early evolution of the solar system.
Chang’e-6, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, was launched on May 3 from the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.
The fully robotic probe landed on Sunday in a previously unexplored location in a gigantic impact crater called the South-Pole Aitken Basin, on the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.
China’s previous Chang’e mission collected samples from the moon’s near side in December 2020, restarting global lunar material retrieval efforts after a gap of 44 years.
The uncrewed Luna 24 mission launched by the former Soviet Union in 1976 collected 170.1 grams (6 ounces) of samples from Mare Crisium, or “Sea of Crises,” on the near side of the moon.
Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions, all crewed, collected 2,200 samples weighing a total of 382 kilograms, also from the side of the moon facing Earth.
James Carpenter, head of the European Space Agency’s lunar science office, said the samples collected by the Apollo missions from the moon’s near side suggested the South-Pole Aitken Basin on the far side was caused by an epoch of extremely heavy bombardment of the solar system, Earth and moon.
“This is a really core event in the history of the whole solar system, but there is some controversy about whether it happened or not,” he said.
“To understand that, you need to anchor those events, and that’s going to be done with samples from the lunar far side from the South-Pole Aitken Basin.”
SMALL WINDOW
After landing, Chang’e-6 had a 14-hour window to drill, excavate, and seal 2 kg of material, with the goal of being the first probe to bring back such samples from the moon’s far side. This compares to the 21-hour window Chang’e-5 had in 2020.
“Once it gets dark, once the sun goes over the horizon, the mission has to end, so there is a limited time window between landing, getting those samples, and getting off the surface again, so it’s quite an exciting mission because it has to be done quickly,” Carpenter said.
While China said it had improved the efficiency of its digging and drilling machines compared with 2020, the mission could still encounter snags at the sampling phase.
Chang’e-5 returned 1.73kg of lunar samples, rather than the planned 2kg, as the drill was only able to create a hole one meter deep, rather than two meters, after encountering impenetrable layers beneath the surface.
The Chang’e-6 samples will be transferred and sealed on a rocket booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, dock with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and transfer the samples.
A landing in China’s Inner Mongolia is expected around June 25.
Throughout the probe’s journey, payloads from Italian, French, and Pakistani research institutes, as well as the European Space Agency, will collect data on questions pertaining to space and the moon, highlighting the growing international weight of China’s space program, which is competing with the United States to build a lunar outpost in the next decade.
Carpenter said there was “extremely strong” collaboration between European and Chinese scientists in analizing the lunar samples brought back by Chang’e-5, and he hoped this would be repeated for Chang’e-6.
China’s lunar probe could return with answer to origins of solar system
https://arab.news/69my8
China’s lunar probe could return with answer to origins of solar system
- Chang’e-6, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, was launched on May 3
- A landing in China’s Inner Mongolia is expected around June 25
Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
- The incident comes just days after a mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia high school that saw 4 killed and nine others wounded
LONDON, Kentucky: Multiple people were shot Saturday along Interstate 75 in a rural area south of Lexington, authorities said.
The incident began just before 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) about nine miles outside of London, when officers were called for reports of multiple vehicles being fired at on Interstate 75 in Laurel County, multiple media accounts said. The shots were reportedly coming from a wooded area or an overpass.
How many were shot and the nature of the injuries was not immediately clear. Police officials said the suspect had not been caught.
“Please avoid I-75 around Ext 49. Until further notice! Use alternative route do not be any where in that area,” London Mayor Randall Weddle said on Facebook.
Kentucky state Trooper Scottie Pennington wrote on Facebook, “The suspect has not been caught at this time and we are urging people to stay inside.”
The Laurel County Sheriff’s office said in a post on Facebook that it was an “active shooter situation” and “numerous persons” were shot near the highway. It added that the interstate was closed 9 miles north of London.
A “heavy presence of police and fire personnel” was on the scene and “working diligently to address the situation,” the Mount Vernon Fire Department said in a statement. It advised motorists to avoid I-75 and US 25.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear wrote on X: “Kentucky, we are aware of a shooting on I-75 in Laurel County. Please avoid the area. We will provide more details once they are available.”
He also asked that residents, “Please pray for everyone involved.”
Agents, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been called in to assist the Kentucky State Police and local law enforcement, the agency posted on X, calling it a “critical incident.”
London is a small city of about 8,000 residents near the Daniel Boone National Forest, about 90 miles south of Lexington.
This shooting comes just days after a mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia high school that saw two teachers and two students killed and nine others wounded.
Trump, talking tariffs, immigration, revs up small-town base in Wisconsin
- He repeatedly presented migrants as a grave danger, warning without evidence that immigrants in the country illegally could evict local residents from their homes
- Trump also warned, as he has in previous rallies, that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last
MOSINEE, Wisconsin: Donald Trump pledged in Wisconsin on Saturday to throw up unprecedented tariffs and clamp down on immigrants he said are stealing jobs and killing Americans, as he sought to solidify support among working-class and rural whites, a key part of his base.
Speaking at a regional airport in Mosinee, a town of about 4,500 people, the Republican presidential candidate warned that even allies like the European Union would face new trade restrictions if he wins the Nov. 5 election against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
He repeatedly presented migrants as a grave danger to Wisconsin, warning without evidence that immigrants in the country illegally could evict local residents from their homes.
“Crime is through the roof, and you haven’t seen the migrant crime yet,” Trump said. “It started, and it’s vicious, but you haven’t seen the extent of it yet.”
Trump also warned, as he has in previous rallies, that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last.
Support for the former president has eroded among most demographic groups over the summer when his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, replaced President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
Nationally, Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters by 13 percentage points, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted in August; Biden led that demographic by just five points in May. Among Black Americans, she has been outperforming Biden by seven points.
But she has barely moved the needle among white voters, those same polls show. Whites without a college degree, long the linchpin of Trump’s coalition, still favor him by 25 points, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. They favored Trump by 29 points when he was running against Biden.
Several Trump advisers and allies have told Reuters in recent weeks that maintaining his margins and driving turnout among working-class whites will be crucial if he is to defeat Harris.
That is especially true in northern “Rust Belt” states including Wisconsin, which skew white and have large rural populations. Trump won the presidency in 2016 in part by winning these areas by promising to bring back industrial jobs to the region.
“We’re not going to watch our wealth and our jobs get ripped away from us and sent to foreign countries, and Wisconsin will be one of the biggest beneficiaries,” Trump said of his proposed trade policies.
Mosinee, where Trump spoke Saturday, is near Wausau, a small city of about 40,000, but hours from the state’s major population centers, Milwaukee and Madison.
Marathon County, where Mosinee is located, used to be politically competitive, having voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008. Since then, the county has veered right, favoring Trump in 2016 and 2020 by about 18 points both times.
While the Trump campaign has identified Hispanics and Black men as areas of growth for the Republican Party, much of Trump’s campaigning in recent weeks has been in small Rust Belt cities and towns that have few of either demographic.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio US Senator JD Vance, is expected to hit relatively rural areas of the Rust Belt hard in the final weeks before the election, two Trump advisers told Reuters.
Debate on the horizon
The Saturday rally was one of the last public appearances Trump will make before his debate with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Many of his allies are pushing him to concentrate his attacks on policy and steer clear of deeply personal broadsides.
Trump did not concentrate on Harris’ racial identity during his speech, which was laden with grievances, yet a recording the campaign played during the rally sounded like an imitation of Harris’ laugh, which Trump has frequently derided.
Trump told the crowd he would purge the federal government, including public health and intelligence agencies, of corrupt actors.
He repeatedly attacked Fani Willis, the district attorney in Georgia who is prosecuting Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 defeat in that state to Biden.
Trump also said he would support modifying the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to make a vice president covering up a president’s mental incapacity an impeachable offense. And he attacked the political leadership of Colorado and Maine.
Both states were the site of challenges to his ballot eligibility in the 2024 election. Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled last year that Trump should not be on the ballot because of his alleged role in fomenting insurrection by trying to overturn his 2020 defeat, a decision the US Supreme Court
overturned.
Trump told supporters without evidence that Colorado authorities had ceded control of parts of the state to Venezuelan gangs.
“In Colorado, they’re so crazy they’re taking over sections of the state,” Trump said. “And you know, getting them back will be a bloody story.”
Blinken to head to UK for talks on Ukraine, Mideast
- Britain and the US have cooperated in lockstep on most global issues, but PM Starmer has taken a harder line on Israel since taking office
- Starmer has also dropped his predecessor’s plans to challenge the ICC's moves to seek the arrest of Israeli PM Netanyahu over war crimes raps
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to London next week to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine, the State Department announced Saturday, ahead of a US visit by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Blinken’s visit to London on Monday and Tuesday will be the senior-most by a US official since Starmer’s Labour Party won July elections, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.
Blinken will take part in a strategic dialogue “reaffirming our special relationship,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
He will discuss Asia as well as the Middle East and “our collective efforts to support Ukraine,” Miller said in a statement.
The White House earlier announced that Starmer will visit next Friday, his second trip to Washington since his election.
He met President Joe Biden at the White House on July 10, days after taking office, as Starmer attended a NATO summit in Washington.
Britain and the United States have cooperated in lockstep on most global issues, and Biden’s Democrats historically have been seen as closer to the Labour Party than the Conservatives.
Starmer, however, has taken a harder line on Israel since taking office, with his government announcing a suspension of some arms shipments, citing the risk that they could be used to violate humanitarian law.
The Labour government has also dropped its Conservative predecessor’s plans to challenge the right of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court and has opposed the bid to target Netanyahu, arguing that Israel has its own systems for accountability.
But the United States, Israel’s primary weapons supplier, did not criticize the arms decision, saying that Britain had its own process to make assessments.
Iran’s secret service accused of plots to kill Jews in Europe
- The group intended to attack a Paris-based former employee at an Israeli security firm and three of his colleagues residing in the Paris suburbs
PARIS: A Paris court in May detained and charged a couple on accusations that they were involved in Iranian plots to kill Jews in Germany and France, police sources told AFP.
Authorities charged Abdelkrim S., 34, and his partner Sabrina B., 33, on May 4 with conspiring with a criminal terrorist organization and placed them in pre-trial detention.
The case, known as “Marco Polo” and revealed Thursday by French news website Mediapart, signals a revival in Iranian state-sponsored terrorism in Europe, according to a report by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) consulted by AFP.
“Since 2015, the Iranian (secret) services have resumed a targeted killing policy,” the French security agency wrote, adding that “the threat has worsened again in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.”
The alleged objective for Iranian intelligence was to target civilians and sow fear in Europe among the country’s political opposition as well as among Jews and Israelis.
Iran is accused of recruiting criminals, including drug lords, to conduct such operations.
Abdelkrim S. was previously sentenced to 10 years behind bars over a killing in Marseille and released on probation in July 2023.
He is accused of being the main France-based operative for an Iran-sponsored terrorist cell that planned acts of violence in France and Germany.
A former fellow inmate is believed to have connected the suspect with the cell’s coordinator, a major drug trafficker from the Lyon area who likely visited Iran in May, according to the DGSI.
The group intended to attack a Paris-based former employee at an Israeli security firm and three of his colleagues residing in the Paris suburbs.
Three Israeli-German citizens in Munich and Berlin were also among the targets.
Investigators believe that Abdelkrim S. despite his probation made multiple trips to Germany for scouting purposes, including travels to Berlin with his wife.
He denied the accusations and said he simply had purchases to make.
French authorities are also crediting the cell with plots to set fire to four Israeli-owned companies in the south of France between late December 2023 and early January 2024, said a police source.
Abdelkrim S. while in detention rejected the claims, the source added, saying he had acted as a go-between on Telegram for the mastermind and other individuals involved in a planned insurance scam.
13 killed, dozens injured in Ivory Coast road accident
- A bus carrying passengers and a petrol-filled truck on the opposite lane collided
- “The collision between the bus and the tanker set off a fire of terrifying intensity,” leaving “13 bodies charred” by the flames, Police Secours wrote
ABIDJAN: Thirteen people have been killed and 45 injured in a road accident in northern Ivory Coast, after a tanker truck crashed into a bus, rescuers and local media said Saturday.
A bus carrying passengers and a petrol-filled truck on the opposite lane collided on Friday where the road’s width had been narrowed by a freight truck parked without indicators, said Police Secours, a platform monitoring deadly accidents in the country.
The vehicles crashed around 2300 GMT on the highway between Bouake and Korhogo, two large cities in northern Ivory Coast.
“The collision between the bus and the tanker set off a fire of terrifying intensity,” leaving “13 bodies charred” by the flames, Police Secours wrote.
The Ivorian Press Agency (AIP) confirmed the toll which included 19 injured children rushed to hospitals in the nearby cities of Katiola and Niakara.
Deadly accidents are frequent in the Ivory Coast due to many roads and cars in poor condition and reckless driving.
The country in 2023 introduced a point-based driver’s license granting each driver a total of 12 points that can be gradually taken away depending on the violation.
Ivorian authorities have also set up cameras on the country’s main roads to fine offenders.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 people are killed every year in road accidents in the Ivory Coast, according to the transport ministry.
