Author: Disha Mishra
India became the world’s fourth nation on Thursday to achieve the feat of space docking, a technological milestone that underscores its ambitions to expand its share of a rapidly growing $400-billion global space market. Target and Chaser, two satellites of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that are each roughly the size of a large refrigerator, successfully latched onto each other at about 9 a.m. (0330 GMT), an agency spokesperson said. The indigenous technology, crucial for satellite servicing, space station operations, and interplanetary missions, positions India for a key role in commercial and exploratory space efforts. “India has ambitious missions…
News that Israel and Hamas have reached a hostage release deal after 15 months of war in Gaza is bittersweet for Ruth Strum — one of her sons is expected to be freed, but a second will be left behind in captivity for now. “It is not easy for a mother to hear this,” Strum told Reuters, wearing a red t-shirt emblazoned with photos of her two burly sons and the plea: “Bring Iair and Eitan home”. Although she has no information on their whereabouts in the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip, Strum said she was sure they had been kept…
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, vowed to maintain the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency as he prepared to face questions from U.S. senators on Thursday on how he will implement Trump’s tax cut, tariff and deregulation plans. Bessent’s testimony at a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) will have financial markets on edge amid worries – reflected in rising bond yields – that Trump’s policy plans could stoke inflation and spark a new global trade war that threatens financial stability. The 62-year-old founder of Key Square…
U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump both claimed credit on Wednesday for a Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal that was months in the making but was helped across the line by a Trump envoy. In announcing the ceasefire, Biden noted the final deal largely mirrored the framework of a proposal he made back in May. He smiled when a reporter asked who the history books will credit for the ceasefire and asked, “Is that a joke?” “This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team…
Israel airstrikes killed at least 77 people in Gaza overnight on Thursday, residents and authorities in the enclave said, hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced to bring an end to 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas. The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. to stop the war that has devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East. The deal, scheduled to be implemented from Sunday, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands…
The ceasefire in Gaza represents a “great victory” for the Palestinian resistance, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday, warning against any possible breach by Israel. Palestinian armed group Hamas and Israel reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that mediators said would take effect on Sunday. The agreement provides for the release of Israeli hostages held there during 15 months of conflict that devastated the enclave and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. “The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire on the Zionist regime (Israel) is a clear and great victory for Palestine and a…
Significant progress was made on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal once the administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump began working hand in hand to make the case for urgency, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew told Reuters.. Lew’s 15 months as President Biden’s envoy overlapped with a war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, with a Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel followed by an Israeli assault on Gaza. He spoke on Tuesday before a deal was reached. Lew, 69, will hand over the ambassador’s role to Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, when…
Palestinians burst into celebration across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday at news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with some shedding years of joy and others whistling, clapping and chanting “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest). “I am happy, yes, I am crying, but those are tears of joy,” said Ghada, a mother of five displaced from her home in Gaza City during the 15-month-old conflict. “We are being reborn, with every hour of delay Israel conducted a new massacre, I hope it is all getting over now,” she told Reuters via a chat app from a shelter in Deir…
Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza gathered on Wednesday in the Tel Aviv square where they have held rallies for more than a year, as news trickled out of the agreement struck with Hamas to halt the fighting in Gaza and bring the hostages home. After more than 15 months in Hamas captivity, the first of an initial group of 33 hostages is expected to be returned to Israel on Sunday before negotiations on the release of the remaining 65 begin around two weeks later. The first group, made up of children, women, men over 50 as well as…
A long-sought Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal emerged at the end of an intense 96 hours of negotiations in Doha brokered by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari diplomats who persuaded Israel and Hamas finally to conclude the agreement. A senior Biden administration official credited the presence of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as being critical to reaching the agreement announced on Wednesday after 15 months of war that devastated the Palestinian enclave and spread conflict across the Middle East. Leading the U.S. side was President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy, Brett McGurk, who had been in the region since…