Russian cosmonaut sets world record for most time spent in space

A Russian cosmonaut has set a world record for the most time spent in space on Sunday, after logging more than 878 days or nearly two-and-a-half years.

As of 0830 GMT, Oleg Kononenko overtook the record set by his compatriot Gennady Padalka, according to Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos. Padalka logged 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds during five space flights before retiring in 2017.

Kononenko, 59, broke the record while orbiting 263 miles (423km) from Earth during his fifth space flight. “I fly into space to do my favourite thing, not to set records,” he told in an interview from the international space station (ISS).

“I am proud of all my achievements, but I am most proud that the record for the total duration of human stay in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut,” Kononenko, who is the commander of Roscosmos, said.

His current space flight is scheduled to end in late September, by which time he will have logged 1,110 days in space.

He started his space career as an engineer, according to the European Space Agency, and began training as a cosmonaut at the age of 34 after joining the group selected for the ISS programme. His first space flight took place soon after, in April 2008, and lasted 200 days.

Kononenko told reporters, that video calls and messaging allowed him to keep in touch, but that it was on coming back to Earth that he realised how much of life he had missed out on.

“It is only upon returning home that the realisation comes that for hundreds of days in my absence the children have been growing up without father,” he said. “No one will return this time to me.”

He also said he worked out regularly in an effort to counter the physical effects of “insidious” weightlessness. “I do not feel deprived or isolated,” he said.

His five space flights have spanned 16 years, during which time advances in technology had made preparing for each flight more difficult, he said. “The profession of a cosmonaut is becoming more complicated. The systems and experiments are becoming more complicated. I repeat, the preparation has not become easier.”

68 Myanmar border guards take shelter in Bangladesh amid clashes with rebels

At least 68 members of Myanmar’s border police have taken refuge in Bangladesh amid intensifying clashes between the junta’s armed forces and a rebel group inside the Southeast Asian nation, the Bangladesh border force said Sunday.

Of the members of Myanmar’s paramilitary Border Guard Police (BGP) who have crossed into Bangladesh, 15 were being provided treatment, said the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB).

“They (BGP) intruded through the Tumbru border area of Bangladesh in southeastern Bandarban district with weapons. The BGB, however, has disarmed them and taken them in safe refuge…The next course of action (involving sending them back to Myanmar) is underway,” said the BGB in a statement.

Their weapons and ammunition are in the BGB’s custody.

Another six people who crossed the border into Bangladesh on Sunday were admitted to a hospital in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district who Bangladesh police identified as members of the insurgent group the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), local media reported.

Bangladesh’s Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said that Myanmar’s internal conflict spilled over into Bangladesh's border areas.

Following a meeting with China’s ambassador in Dhaka, he told reporters that Bangladesh has sought China's help to quell the situation along the border.

“The Chinese government has a good relationship with Myanmar. Therefore, we want the Chinese government to help mitigate the conflict inside Myanmar, which has already impacted the Bangladesh border,” he added.

Bangladesh has already sheltered around 1.2 million refugees belonging to Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslim community in Cox’s Bazar. The majority of Rohingya living in Bangladesh fled a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine, Myanmar in 2017.

Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters in Dhaka that security along the border with Myanmar has been beefed up, including to check for any fresh influx from Myanmar.

The situation remains tense inside Bangladesh along the border with Myanmar.

Bandarban's Deputy Commissioner Shah Mujahid Uddin told reporters that gunshots were also fired in Bangladesh from Myanmar's Ghumdhum region late Saturday, with the sound of shelling continuing until Sunday.

 

Study says 2035 is climate change point of no return

The time for action is now, at least when it comes to climate change. If the world's major governments don't enact measures that limit global warming, it may be impossible to stop its progress, according to a study published Aug. 30, 2018 in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

The study, led by scientists in the United Kingdom and Netherlands, claims that in 2035, we will cross a point of no return — after which it will be extremely unlikely we can stop Earth's temperature from rising by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and kicking off a dangerous medley of global disasters.

"The 'point of no return' concept has the advantage of containing time information, which we consider very useful to inform the debate on the urgency of taking climate action," Matthias Aengenheyster, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University and the study's lead author, said in a statement.

The 2 degrees Celsius mark is critical for Earth's well-being. Once the planet warms an additional 2 degrees Celsius, scientists predict a range of catastrophic effects, from widespread flooding in coastal areas to searing heat waves and extreme storms.

One important area that could slow the movement toward a point of no return in 2035 is the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. But even this will require marked progress.

Scientists have calculated that the share of renewables worldwide must grow by at least 2 percent each year in order to slow the march toward climate change. Two percent a year may not sound like much, but in the 20 years leading up to 2017, the percentage of energy from renewables grew by a paltry total of 3.6 percent.

There is hope, though. If the use of renewable energy were to outpace the scientists' model, say by 5 percent per annum, the climate change deadline could move back by at least a decade, the researchers note.

Likewise, developing technology to remove carbon dioxide and other gases from the atmosphere could help slow climate change. These gases alter Earth's atmosphere and allow it to trap more heat from the sun and cause temperatures to rise.

"We hope that 'having a deadline' may stimulate the sense of urgency to act for politicians and policy makers," Henk Dijkstra, a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and one of the study authors, said in a statement. "Very little time is left."

Joe Biden sweeps South Carolina with 'loser' taunt at Donald Trump

United States President Joe Biden Saturday won the South Carolina Democratic primary, the first officially sanctioned race of the party's nominating season, with returns showing him outpacing two other candidates, according to Edison Research.

The vote was closely watched due to concerns about Biden's popularity, particularly among Black voters.

Edison Research predicted Biden win soon after polls closed at 7pm EST on Saturday and his margin of victory held steady as the night wore on, Reuters reported.

Biden won 116,266 votes, or 96.4% out of 120,643 casts, ahead of his main challengers — Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson. However, turnout failed to exceed expectations, with Democratic officials expecting between 100,000 and 200,000 total votes.

In a victory statement, the Biden campaign said: "In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency.

"Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again," the campaign said in a statement.

Biden, an unpopular incumbent, is expected to win again with a significant majority in the upcoming US election on November 5.

Besides campaign fears that South Carolina's heavily Black electorate might not be energised this time around, there were also doubts about his age and concerns about high consumer prices and security along the US-Mexican border.

Former President Donald Trump, 77, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in the general election.

South Carolina, with over half of its Democratic electorate being Black, has not supported a Democrat since 1976, presenting a crucial test of Biden's appeal due to its typically nine-to-one support for Democrats in presidential races.

Some South Carolina voters were lukewarm about Biden's reelection bid.

"Sometimes I wonder, is his presence enough because you don't see him a lot, you don't hear him a lot," said Martin Orr, 52, a school administrator from McConnells, South Carolina, speaking about Biden, whom he planned to support in the election.

"Is it quiet because of his age or his physical condition, or what's going on? I think that's what a lot of people are concerned about right now."

How to Use WhatsApp Chat Lock Feature on Web

Meta-owned WhatsApp is working on a new chat lock feature that will allow users to lock their private talks within the web client of the service, improving the security of such exchanges.

WhatsApp is reportedly working on adding a closed chat option to its online client, per a WABetaInfo report. The encrypted chats are probably going to be kept in a special tab with the intention of providing an extra degree of protection and privacy for personal communications.

According to the source, the feature is currently under development and will be included in a future web client update.

In the meantime, Android users may no longer save their conversation history, photos, and videos on Google Drive, the world's most popular messaging platform, for free.

Due to this modification, customers may soon have to worry about their Google Drive storage limit being exceeded by WhatsApp data, which may lead them to think about purchasing a Google One membership as a workaround.

Chat backups were being kept on your Google Drive account by Meta-owned WhatsApp, regardless of whether you were using Google's free or premium cloud storage plan. This increases the amount of space used by backups from Google Photos, Gmail, and other sources on your Google Drive by using the storage connected to the Gmail account connected to your WhatsApp.

If you don't want to pay for the Google One plan and don't want to use up all of your Google Drive capacity for conversation backups, you can choose not to back up your WhatsApp talks to the cloud. When switching to a new Android phone, they might instead think about utilising the integrated WhatsApp Chat Transfer feature.

Chile declares state of emergency over raging forest fires

Chile has declared a state of emergency as it battles spreading forest fires in the centre of the country that have so far killed at least 10 people.

“All forces are deployed in the fight against the forest fires,” President Gabriel Boric posted on X as he announced the measure, adding that emergency services would meet on Saturday to assess the situation.

The fires have ravaged thousands of hectares of forest since Friday, cloaking coastal cities in a dense fog of grey smoke and forcing people to flee their homes in the central regions of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso.

At least 10 people have died, according to a state representative of Valparaiso.

“We have winds of close to 40 or 50km [25-31 miles] per hour,” said Leonardo Moder, the director of Valparaiso’s national forestry corporation.

“This wind is hard because it carries lit leaves, branches or pieces of wood, and each creates a new little fire that grows into more fires,” he added.

The blaze is being driven by a summer heatwave and drought affecting the southern part of South America caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, as scientists warn that a warming planet has increased the risk of natural disasters such as intense heat and fires.

In the towns of Estrella and Navidad, southwest of the capital, the fires have burned nearly 30 homes and forced evacuations near the surfing resort of Pichilemu.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” 63-year-old Yvonne Guzman told the reporters. When the flames started to close in on her home in Quilpue, she fled with her elderly mother, only to find themselves trapped in traffic for hours.

“It’s very distressing because we’ve evacuated the house but we can’t move forward. There are all these people trying to get out and who can’t move,” she said.

 

US launches air strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria

The US carried out strikes against Iranian-linked forces in Iraq and Syria on Friday, hitting targets that included elements of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three American troops based in Jordan.

The US military’s Central Command said 85 targets at seven separate facilities were hit, including those associated with the IRGC’s Quds Force as well as Iranian-backed militia in the region. It was the first of what President Joe Biden said would be a series of retaliatory strikes.

“Our response began today,” Biden said in a statement released after the strikes were carried out. “It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”

The air strikes, including at four sites in Iraq and three in Syria, mark the first time the US has targeted the Quds Force directly in its escalating campaign in the region. The strikes will heighten fears that Washington is being drawn deeper into a widening regional conflict sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

US officials signalled that Friday’s strikes were the first in a phased response.

“These responses began tonight, they’re not going to end tonight,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. “There will be additional action that we will take — all designed to put an end to these attacks.”

Although Biden has said repeatedly he is not seeking to get involved in a wider war, he signalled on Friday that the US would continue to hit back if Iran and its proxies do not desist.

“The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world,” he said. “But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”

The IRGC is an elite Iranian military force tasked with defending the regime in Tehran and is separate from the country’s conventional military. Its Quds Force is responsible for overseas operations and trains and arms regional militant groups.

The US employed long-range B1 bombers in the attacks, among other aircraft, senior US officials said. The bombers flew from the US “in a single nonstop flight”, said Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, director for operations for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

More than 125 precision munitions were fired and hit facilities including command and control and intelligence centres; rocket, missile and drone storage sites; and logistic hubs, Centcom said. The strikes began at 4pm eastern time and lasted 30 minutes, US officials said.

“We made these strikes tonight with an idea that there would likely be casualties associated with people inside those facilities,” Sims said.

Initially, Biden showed restraint in the face of repeated attacks by Iran-backed militias on US military personnel in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. But in recent weeks, as those attacks escalated, the White House has recalibrated. The US last month launched a campaign of missile strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Iranian officials have said they do not seek direct conflict with the US and Israel, or a regional war and that the militant groups it backs have been acting independently. “We are not seeking war, but we are not afraid of it,” Major General Hossein Salami, commander of the IRGC, said on Wednesday.

Washington attributed last Sunday’s drone attack on its base in Jordan, which also injured 41 service members, to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — a shadowy umbrella group that contains Kataib Hizbollah, a radical Shia militia, as well as other groups that have claimed responsibility for more than 160 attacks against US service members since mid-October, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The IRI is part of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance, controlled by Iran, and has also targeted Israeli interests since Hamas’s attack on the Jewish state in October.

The bodies of the three US army reservists killed in Jordan arrived at Dover Air Force base in Delaware just hours before the air strikes began. The president and his wife Jill Biden attended the arrival ceremony on Friday afternoon.

Biden has been under pressure from some Republicans to hit Iran directly in response to last week’s attacks, which follow months of strikes by Houthi rebels on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, an important shipping lane for global trade.

The president’s decision to attack came after several meetings in recent days with his national security team to decide on an appropriate response. In the meantime, Kataib Hizbollah on Wednesday said it had halted attacks on US troops.

The US said it did not take that claim at “face value” and said Kataib Hizbollah was not the only group attacking its troops.