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SpaceX launched 29 new satellites for its Starlink constellation into low Earth orbit as part of its global network expansion.In a statement, the company announced that a Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying satellites for the “Group 10-54” mission.SpaceX successfully deployed the satellites into orbit as planned, while the rocket continued its successful operational record. The “B1080” booster returned safely to its designated landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean after completing its 27th flight.This launch marks the 68th Falcon 9 mission since the beginning of 2026, reflecting SpaceX’s accelerated launch pace this year.The Starlink system continues to expand its global network, currently comprising more than 10,600 active satellites, and providing internet services to users around the world, including in-flight connectivity and direct mobile phone connectivity from some telecommunications providers. Source link
An Indian pollution regulator has alleged wastewater discharged from a Tata components factory for Apple’s iPhone has contaminated the groundwater for nearby farms and warned of a forced shutdown unless Tata gives a satisfactory explanation. India’s Tata Electronics is central to Apple’s push to diversify iPhone production beyond China and is the second-biggest supplier to Apple in South Asia after Taiwan’s Foxconn.The Tata plant under investigation is in Hosur in southern Tamil Nadu state and makes back panels and other components for iPhones. Farmland owners near the plant had complained for months to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board that wastewater from the factory was contaminating their land and open wells. The complaints led to five state inspections between December 2025 and May 2026, according to details from a previously unreported regulatory notice dated May 25 and reviewed by Reuters. The inspections found that Tata discharged wastewater into a rainwater harvesting pond inside its facility and that the pond overflowed to contaminate “groundwater in the open wells located in the adjacent agricultural lands”, the pollution board’s warning notice to Tata said. Tata had not taken any corrective actions on instructions issued by the pollution board in a previous letter dated December 23, 2025, it said in the three-page notice. Tata Electronics told Reuters in a statement it had commissioned an independent analysis through an accredited laboratory and that the study determined the company was “in full compliance with all regulatory norms”. Tata said it was “committed to responsible business practices and protection of the environment and local communities”, and that it had responded to pollution authorities, although giving no further details. The pollution board in its May notice asked Tata to explain why power to the unit should not be cut and the unit closed for its alleged breach of the rules. Apple, which has strict rules on how its suppliers handle wastewater, and the Tamil Nadu government did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Companies have often faced disciplinary action from pollution authorities in India. In 2024, Mercedes-Benz improved wastewater and air pollution management at its only car factory in India after officials detected lapses in compliance with environmental law. India’s environment ministry told parliament in February that 4.4% of 544,364 industries were found non-compliant with environmental standards in the last five years, and 3,600 were shut down by pollution control departments. The Tata notice adds to a series of issues that have dogged Apple’s India supply chain. A fire at Tata’s Hosur plant in September 2024 halted iPhone component production briefly, while a fire in September 2023 at former supplier Pegatron’s iPhone plant shut production for days. In 2024, a Reuters investigation found that major Apple supplier Foxconn systematically excluded married women from iPhone assembly jobs at one of its plants in India, although the company said at the time that it complied with all laws. India is projected to make 26% of all iPhones globally in 2026, from just 6% four years ago, according to research firm Counterpoint. Source link
Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Ishaq Dar and head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis discussed, over the phone on Saturday, the latest developments regarding the understandings reached between the United States and Iran.In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that the Pakistani and Swiss sides welcomed the encouraging progress toward reaching an understanding between Washington and Tehran.Both ministers expressed hope that the ongoing efforts would soon contribute to peace and stability in the region.On Thursday, US President, Donald Trump had announced that US Vice President, JD Vance will attend the signing ceremony of the US-Iran deal, adding that the ceremony is expected to take place in Europe early this week. Related Story Source link
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian territories in a phone call today with Vice President of the State of Palestine, Hussein Al Sheikh.The call addressed efforts to implement the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, including ensuring full and sustainable access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, deploying an international stabilization force to monitor the ceasefire and secure humanitarian access, and enabling the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza to carry out its duties from within the Strip until the Palestinian Authority resumes its full responsibilities.The two sides also discussed the dangerous developments in the West Bank, where the Egyptian Foreign Minister condemned the escalating pace of settlement activity and the continued Israeli violations in East Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, warning of the repercussions of these actions on the prospects for achieving peace and stability in the region. Source link
Four people were killed and 16 others injured in a series of weather-related incidents caused by heavy rains in the Bannu district of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, regional authorities said on Saturday.The Provincial Disaster Management Authority said strong winds damaged a number of homes in different areas, resulting in deaths and injuries among residents. The severe weather also led to livestock losses, the authority said.Local authorities and emergency agencies continue to carry out relief operations in the affected areas, while a comprehensive assessment is underway to determine the extent of the damage and losses.The authority urged residents to exercise caution during adverse weather conditions and avoid buildings at risk of collapse.Such incidents are common in Pakistan during the monsoon season, when severe weather fluctuations often result in casualties and property damage. Source link
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing ceremony for an executive order on mail ballots, in the Oval Office of the White House…
A live feed shows SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on the day of IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York City. Reuters Shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX jumped as much as 30% on their trading debut yesterday after the biggest IPO in history, making the polarising entrepreneur the world’s first trillionaire as he vowed to take humanity to Mars. The blockbuster initial public offering, which raised more than $75bn, is expected to kick off a series of major IPOs by AI companies in the coming months.The debut on the Nasdaq exchange in New York capped weeks of investor frenzy over the rocket company turned AI and satellite conglomerate.”SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the Moon, take you to Mars, and ultimately beyond,” Musk said at a launch event in Starbase, Texas, surrounded by staff, many of whom became multi-millionaires with the launch of trading.”I’m confident at this point that with the incredible team that we have here at SpaceX, that we will do that for you,” Musk added.About 100 people assembled outside the Nasdaq’s home in New York, where SpaceX also marked the occasion with a neon sign in Times Square. Musk “sets very futuristic goals that no one else is doing, and I think that has got a lot of people excited,” said Sarin Sio, of financial company Dovetail, who had come to the Nasdaq headquarters.The company priced more than 555mn shares at $135 each in a Thursday filing with the US markets regulator, valuing SpaceX at just under $1.8tn. In its first hours of trading on Wall Street, the price hit as much $175, up more than 30%.Friday’s gain lifted SpaceX’s market value to more than $2tn, placing it among the 10 most valuable American companies — ahead of Tesla, Facebook-owner Meta and Walmart. Options for nearly 83mn additional shares could push the total raised above $86bn.Co-founded by Musk in 2002, the rocket startup has since expanded into a major satellite operator and has also folded in Musk’s artificial intelligence company — xAI — which includes the social media platform X.Trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX,” the conglomerate is being closely watched for how Wall Street absorbs the offering and what it will mean for its AI rivals looking to trade on the public markets as early as this year. OpenAI and Anthropic both recently filed initial documents with regulators.The record IPO is nonetheless a testament to Musk’s continued support among investors, with Bloomberg reporting that the offering was more than four times oversubscribed. Demand among retail investors — for whom 20 percent of shares were reserved — was also reported to be high.The IPO is expected to mint thousands of new millionaires and several billionaires, with former and current employees — and a long list of investors — from the company’s near quarter-century history looking to cash in.While SpaceX is growing quickly — revenue hit $18.7bn in 2025 — it is also losing money, producing a net loss of $4.9bn, mainly on spending to build AI capacity.In an extraordinary prediction, SpaceX’s filing claims it can pull in more than $28.5tn in revenue from its various markets. The milestone makes Musk by far the world’s richest person — an achievement that earned criticism from some quarters.”The world will get its first trillionaire while Americans across the country are scraping together every dollar to save for retirement,” said Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. Source link
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with service members of the Russian armed forces involved in the country’s military campaign in Ukraine, following an award…
Nigeria’s president Bola Tinubu. Nigeria has killed more than 13,000 “terrorists” in the past year, President Bola Tinubu said yesterday, adding that the death toll from the country’s religious militant insurgency is down 81% since he took power in 2023.Africa’s most populous country is fighting the long-running conflict across its northern regions, complicated by inroads made by militants from the Sahel, and non-ideological “bandit” gangs.Tinubu, up for re-election in January, declared a nationwide security emergency last November as his administration scrambled to respond to a wave of mass kidnappings and violence.Tinubu, speaking during a televised address to mark the country’s democracy day celebrations, said: “Over 13,000 terrorists have been neutralised in the past year.”He did not specify if he meant in 2025 or in the previous 12 months.The president also said that over “124,000 fighters and dependents have laid down their arms since 2023 through Operation Safe Corridor”.Tinubu’s first term in office has also overseen the deployment of US troops to the country as major bouts of violence attracted international scrutiny.The insurgency, which has spawned multiple armed groups, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since it began in 2009 with an uprising by the religious militant group Boko Haram.The crisis has also been compounded by violent farmer-herder clashes in parts of the northeast and central regions, while secessionist agitation rumbles on in the southeast, and rampant kidnappings for ransom plague the country’s northwest and central regions.The unrest is inching closer to the relatively safer southwest, where more than 40 students and teachers were seized from their schools in the state of Oyo in May.The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the widespread insecurity from armed groups – especially in the north, where the bulk of the country’s food is grown – is a “risk to people and economic activity”.In one of the latest attempts to tackle the security crisis, the government launched a recruitment drive for 50,000 police personnel and has this year allocated a 5.41tn naira ($4bn) budget to the military – which Tinubu said was the biggest for defence in the country’s history.Military collaborations with the United States, France, and “other European countries” he did not name, have progressed from training to “precision targeting” leading to the degradation of the command centre of the Islamic State (IS)-affiliated Boko Haram in northeastern Borno state.US and Nigerian forces last month killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, an Islamic State commander described as the “most active terrorist” in the world, at a remote village in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country.The US Africa Command this week said its joint operations with Nigeria had killed more than 200 IS-linked fighters. Source link
Sushila Devi sat sobbing on the floor of her house in Deoria, northern India after authorities told her that her husband was one of three sailors killed in a US attack on a ship off Oman.’If he had told us about the dangers, I would have called him back,’ she cried out as women from the family gathered round to console her. ‘The government should not allow people to go there.’India yesterday took the rare step of lodging a second protest with the US over the strike that took place more than three months into the Iran war. Sushila Devi's words echoed calls also building up among Indians for their own government to do more to protect its sailors stuck in the Gulf.CRITICS WANT MORE THAN 'ROUTINE PROTEST'Her husband Shivanand Chaurasia, the sole earner in the family with two young children, was among 24 Indian mariners aboard the Palau-flagged tanker Settebello when it was hit on Wednesday.The US military’s Central Command said an aircraft fired precision munitions into the vessel's engine room after the crew ‘repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces’.It said the strike was part of an ongoing blockade targeting oil shipments from Iran launched after Tehran sharply curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas before the conflict.India's foreign ministry said it had summoned the US chargé d’affaires to convey ‘its deep concern over the use of lethal and deadly force against civilian shipping’.’Such actions are unacceptable and undermine the safety, security and stability of international maritime commerce in a sensitive region at a difficult time.’ The US embassy in Delhi did not respond to a request for comment.The deaths have prompted calls on India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go beyond registering protests.India — the world’s second-largest supplier of seafarers behind the Philippines according to government figures — has had to pay a huge cost for the conflict it played no part in starting, say opposition and other critics.On Thursday, another ship with 20 Indian crew was attacked, with no deaths or injuries reported.’India has responded… with a routine diplomatic protest and apparent efforts to downplay the significance of the attacks,’ said Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs analyst in New Delhi.OPPOSITION SAYS MODI SHOULD TALK TO TRUMP’Had the victims been Chinese sailors instead, Beijing would almost certainly have reacted very differently, treating the strikes as a direct and lethal provocation by the US and elevating the incident into a major international crisis.’The opposition Aam Aadmi Party urged Modi to take up the matter with US President Donald Trump. The two leaders are expected to meet on the sidelines of next week's Group of 7 summit.The main opposition Congress party said the government’s policies had ’emboldened external powers to act against Indian interests with impunity’.’India's strategic autonomy and abiding interests must be defended with clarity and resolve,’ it said.Such attacks could deter workers from taking up seafaring jobs, potentially worsening labour shortages in the industry, said Manoj Yadav, general secretary of the Forward Seamen's Union of India.’The repeated incidents demonstrate the alarming deterioration of safety and security in one of the world’s most important maritime corridors,’ he said. Source link