the week in five charts Air India crash report, Shubhanshu Shukla, rains in Himachal
Since the onset of the monsoon on June 20, 72 people have died and 34 have gone missing in rain-related incidents across Himachal Pradesh.
Of the 471 affected roads, the maximum (310) were in disaster-hit Mandi district, while 1,199 power distribution transformers and 676 water supply schemes have also been affected, according to the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC).
A 'red' alert for very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall has been issued for Monday, July 21, for five of the 12 districts of the state, including Shimla, Kangra, Chamba, Sirmaur and Mandi.
Since June 1, the State has received just 5% more rainfall than normal, but the situation remains exacerbated in certain districts, especially Mandi as of July 20. Since July 1, the district of Mandi has received 88% more rainfall than normal.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed the formation of a multi-sectoral central team in view of the rising frequency and intensity of natural disasters in Himachal Pradesh, an official statement said on Sunday (July 20, 2025).
The team will include experts from the National Disaster Management Authority, Central Building Research Institute Roorkee, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, and geologists, the statement said.
(2) Shubhanshu Shukla returns to Earth
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and his fellow crew members on the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) returned to Earth on Tuesday afternoon (July 15, 2025), as their SpaceX Dragon splashed down at 3:02 p.m. IST.
They returned from an 18-day sojourn on the International Space Station that was a first step for India's own ambitions for indigenous human spaceflight, with Mr. Shukla - a Group Captain in the Indian Air Force - selected as one of the Indian astronauts on the Gaganyaan Mission.
The four astronauts flew to the space station on the Dragon after it was launched by the Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25. During the 20-day mission, the crew completed 320 orbits around the Earth, covering 8.4 million miles of spaceflight, Axiom Space said. They also completed over 60 research activities and 23 outreach events. The Ax-4 crew members departed from the orbiting laboratory on July 14.
(3) Air India AI-171 crash: Report flags fuel cutoff error
A preliminary report on the tragic crash of Air India flight AI-171, which went down shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad en route to London on June 12, 2025, was released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
The report highlighted confusion in the cockpit moments before the crash and raised fresh concerns over the positioning of the aircraft's critical engine fuel cutoff switches.
On July 17, 2025, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with U.S. officials' early assessment of the evidence, reported that the captain may have cut off fuel supply to the engines. According to the report, the First Officer, who was piloting the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, questioned the captain moments after takeoff about his decision to move the fuel switches to the 'cutoff' position.
With no fuel flowing to the engines, the aircraft began losing thrust. The report said the fuel switches were then returned to the 'run' position, prompting the aircraft to automatically attempt an engine restart.
The pilots involved in the crash were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, with total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.
AAIB, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and Air India did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the Wall Street Journal report. Boeing also declined to comment.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA)-India said on Thursday (July 17, 2025) that the crew of AI-171 did everything they could to protect passengers and should be treated with respect rather than subjected to speculative criticism. The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA), which represents narrow-body fleet pilots at Tata Group-owned Air India, had earlier stated on Sunday (July 13) that the crew acted in accordance with their training and responsibilities under difficult conditions, and should not be vilified based on conjecture.
Meanwhile, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said on Friday (July 18, 2025) that media reports about the AI-171 crash were 'premature and speculative.'
(4) U.S. Supreme Court allows Trump to lay off nearly 1,400 Education Department employees
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (July 14, 2025) cleared the way for President Donald Trump's administration to resume dismantling the Department of Education, part of his bid to shrink the federal government's role in education in favour of more control by the states.
In the latest high court win for Mr. Trump, the justices lifted a federal judge's order that had reinstated nearly 1,400 workers affected by mass layoffs at the department and blocked the administration from transferring key functions to other federal agencies. A legal challenge is continuing to play out in lower courts.
The court's action came in a brief, unsigned order. Its three liberal justices dissented. These layoffs add to a series of layoffs that have happened in the federal government ever since Mr. Trump assumed office on January 20 this year.
A group of 21 Democratic attorneys general, school districts and unions behind a pair of legal challenges had warned in court papers that Mr. Trump's shutdown efforts threatened to impair the department's ability to perform its core duties.
Created by Congress in 1979, the Department of Education's main roles include administering college loans, tracking student achievement and enforcing civil rights in schools. It also provides federal funding for needy districts and to help students with disabilities.
Federal law prohibits the department from controlling school operations including curriculum, instruction and staffing. Authority over these decisions belongs to state and local governments, which provide more than 85% of public school funding.
Mr. Trump in March directed that the department transfer its $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration and its special education services to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Although formally eliminating the department would require an act of Congress, the downsizing announced in March by Education Secretary Linda McMahon aimed to slash the department's staff to roughly half the size it was when Mr. Trump took office in January.
(5) Last minute efforts to save Nimisha Priya
The execution of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who is on death row at the Central Prison in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national, has been postponed. It was scheduled to be carried out on Wednesday (July 16, 2025), official sources said on Tuesday (July 15, 2025).
It is understood that negotiation is currently underway to settle the matter with the family of the victim, Talal Abdo Mahdi, though details of the negotiation is yet to be known. Nimisha Priya has been on the death row in Yemen since 2018 for a 2017 murder of her then business partner.
An intervention by All India Jamiyyathul Ulama general secretary and Sunni leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar through his close friend and respected Yemeni Sufi scholar Sheikh Habib Omar bin Hafiz had positive results, with the Yemeni authorities postponing the July 16 execution of Nimisha Priya.
Mr. Musliar said talks had been underway with Talal's family to persuade them to pardon Nimisha Priya, despite their strong desire for retribution. However, social media posts purportedly by Talal's brother Abdul Fatah Mahdi indicated the family's resolute stance on retribution as per the Islamic law rather than accepting the blood money and pardon Nimisha Priya.
As the deadlock continues, the Indian government says it is in contact with 'local authorities' in Sanaa, as well as with some 'friendly governments' in the region to push for her release.
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