Author: KBC Digital

CGTN
China’s Shenzhou-15 astronauts, or taikonauts, returned to Earth safely on Sunday after an over 180-day mission in the country’s orbiting space station.
The re-entry capsule with the three taikonauts aboard – Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu – touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 6:33 a.m. Beijing Time, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The CMSA declared the Shenzhou-15 mission a complete success after the medical team waiting on site confirmed that the trio was in good health.
Fei Junlong, the commander of the mission, was the first to come out of the capsule.
“I’d like to report to my country and people that the Shenzhou-15 crew has successfully completed all the assigned work and tasks in orbit. We have returned to Earth safely. We are feeling good,” he said.
Following Fei, Deng Qingming, operator of the mission, expressed his gratitude to those who made a contribution to the mission.
“My experience of the past 25 years led me to believe in the power of dreams and perseverance, no matter what is my age, I’m always happy because I’m needed by my country,” he said.
Deng, 57, was selected as a member of China’s first-generation astronauts in January 1998, and he was a backup crew member for both the Shenzhou-10 and Shenzhou-11 missions. Shenzhou-15 was his first space mission.
Shenzhou-15 was also the first space mission for Operator Zhang Lu. “Going forward, we’ll first get back in shape as soon as possible and resume training to prepare ourselves for the next mission,” he said after exiting the capsule.
The Shenzhou-15 spaceship was launched in November 2022.
On December 3, 2022, the Shenzhou-15 crew conducted China’s first-ever in-orbit rotation with the Shenzhou-14 astronaut trio.
During their stay at the China Space Station, the three astronauts accomplished four extravehicular activities (EVAs), setting a new record for Chinese astronaut crews in spacewalks.
They also conducted a series of scientific experiments and tests, which included the installation of the extravehicular extension pump set and the cross-cabin cable installation and connection.
The Shenzhou-15 crew, with the highest average age among Chinese astronaut crews, not only achieved a milestone in EVAs, but also witnessed the historic moment when the China Space Station was fully completed by the end of 2022, according to the CMSA.

By BBC

India’s railway minister has suggested a signal fault led to the Odisha rail disaster, with a “change in electronic interlocking” the likely cause.

Ashwini Vaishnaw later said the cause and people responsible for the deadly three-train crash in eastern India had been identified but did not elaborate.

India’s Railway Board said there had been “some kind of signalling interference” rather than failure.

A report into India’s worst rail accident this century is due later.

Meanwhile the death toll has been revised down to 275 after some bodies were counted twice, officials said.

Of the 1,175 injured people taken to hospital, 793 have been discharged. Some families are still searching for their loved ones.

In railway signalling the electronic interlocking system sets routes for each train in a set area, ensuring the safe movement of trains along the track.

The crash saw a passenger train collide with a stationary goods train and derail, after being wrongly directed onto a loop track by the side of the main line. Derailed carriages then struck the rear carriages of a second passenger train passing in the opposite direction.

At a press conference on Sunday, Jaya Verma Sinha from India’s Railway Board said both passenger trains had approached a Balasore district station under a green signal – indicating it was safe – within seconds of each other at the correct speed of under 130kph (81mph).

She said the passenger trains had been supposed to pass each other on the main lines but the Coromandel Express rammed into an iron ore-laden freight train on the loop line, causing the engine and some coaches to lift over the top of the heavy goods carriages.

The passenger train took the entire impact on collision and the freight train was not derailed, or even moved, she told reporters.

The Howrah Superfast Express had nearly crossed in the opposite direction, but two of its rear coaches were struck by the derailed Coromandel Express.

Ms Verma Sinha said there was “no issue with the electronic interlocking system” and said investigations indicated “some kind of a signalling interference” rather than failure.

“Whether it was manual, whether it was incidental, whether it was weather related, whether it was because of wear and tear related, whether it was a maintenance failure, all that will come out after the inquiry,” she added.

Infrastructure expert Partha Mukhopadhyay told the BBC it should not be possible for green signals to display on the main line if the track is set for the loop.

“Signal interlocking is supposed to be failsafe and this level of failure is quite unprecedented,” Mr Mukhopadhyay, from the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Policy Research, said.

On Saturday Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash scene and vowed that anyone found guilty would be “punished stringently”.

Around 2,000 people are thought to have been on board the two passenger trains – the Coromandel Express, travelling between Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Chennai (formerly Madras) and the Howrah Superfast Express travelling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – when the crash happened at about at about 19:00 (13:30 GMT) on Friday.

Odisha state official Pradeep Jena told the BBC that at least 187 bodies remained unidentified and officials were uploading pictures of the victims on government websites and would carry out DNA testing if needed.

Rescue work was completed on Saturday and efforts were underway to clear wreckage and restart train traffic, officials said.

India has one of the largest train networks in the world with millions of passengers using it daily, but a lot of the railway infrastructure needs improving.

Trains in India can get very packed at this time of year, with a growing number of people travelling during school holidays.

The country’s worst train disaster was in 1981, when an overcrowded passenger train was blown off the tracks and into a river during a cyclone in Bihar state, killing about 800 people.

By BBC

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have gathered in Warsaw for one of Poland’s largest demonstrators since the fall of communism in 1989.

Most opposition parties have called on supporters to join the march against the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Among those attending are former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and former President Lech Walesa.

The PiS has condemned the gathering as a “march of hate”.

The mayor’s office for Warsaw has estimated half a million people attended the event, which fell on the 34th anniversary of Poland’s first partially-free elections.

Many travelled from across the country to take part, and simultaneous demonstrations have been held in other Polish cities like Krakow.

A wide variety of issues brought protests together, including frustrations over inflation, costs of living, and rights for women and LGBT.

Concerns have also been raised against new law accused of undermining Poland’s democracy.

The law, criticised by the EU and US, sets up a commission to investigate undue Russian influence in Polish politics, and has the power to ban people from assuming public office for 10 years.

The government denies it is subverting democracy and President Andrzej Duda has proposed amendments to remove these powers.

But critics say it could still be used against people, including Mr Tusk – Poland’s main opposition leader and head of the centrist Civic Platform (PO) party.

Opponents say it could also bolster the PiS’ standing in this year’s parliamentary elections.

Crowds of people have been pictured waving Polish and EU flags and holding placards, and participants told the BBC that protesters were chanting “democracy” and “we will win”.

“I came here to defend democracy because I can’t stand how our parliament, the constitutional tribunal are destroyed, the European Union is diminished,” one protester told Reuters news agency.

Donald Tusk, a former head of the European Council, also welcomed supporters during the “record” march.

“Democracy dies in silence but you’ve raised your voice for democracy today, silence is over, we will shout,” said Mr Tusk.

Ahead of the event, the PiS accused organisers of of hypocrisy, tweeting a video that police brutality and violence against the media while Mr Tusk was in office.

Wojciech Przybylski, editor of Visegrad Insight, told the BBC that these protests show Poland’s opposition groups can unite over common causes, despite their political differences.

But PiS is still ahead in opinion polls, he adds, and “this is going to mobilise them, because they know the opposition is for real”.