Why China's $167 Billion Mega-Dam Project In Tibet Is So Controversial
The colossal undertaking in the mountainous region of Tibet is set to cost around 1.2 trillion yuan ($167 billion), could take at least a decade to complete and would boost China's output of clean energy. It will also stir controversy over the potential impact on the local environment, and could further strain relations with its downstream neighbor, India.
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26 minutes ago
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Next astronauts could be heading to the space station in week: What to know about Crew-11
The next group of astronauts could be heading to space in a week, where they will relieve a group of spacefarers at the International Space Station who played a critical role in bringing the Boeing Starliner saga to an end. The mission, known as Crew-11, is the latest in a series of joint ventures between NASA and SpaceX to send astronauts to the outpost, where they spend months at a time conducting scientific research only possible in orbit. The four-person crew, which includes two NASA astronauts, are the first humans to fly to space since a relatively brief private voyage known as Axiom Mission 4 came to an end earlier in July after 20 days. The arrival of the astronauts selected for the Crew-11 mission at the space station will also pave the way for four others to leave. Their Crew-10 predecessors arrived at the ISS in mid-March in a headline-grabbing mission that set the stage for the long-awaited departure of the NASA astronauts − Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams − who crewed the ill-fated Starliner space capsule the year before. Here's everything to know about the Crew-11 mission and its impending launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is the SpaceX Crew-11 mission? As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. When was the first NASA, SpaceX Crew mission? What is the Dragon? The first of SpaceX's Crew missions ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost on its Dragon capsule began in 2020. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of SpaceX's Crew missions feature a crew of four. The Dragon is also the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station. For that reason, NASA selected the Dragon to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who rode the Boeing Starliner capsule to the space station in June 2024 for the vehicle's inaugural human spaceflight test. Certifying the Starliner capsule for operation would eventually give NASA a second vehicle in addition to Dragon for regular human spaceflights to orbit. Who are the astronauts on the Crew-11 mission? The Crew-11 mission includes four spacefarers: Mission commander , a NASA astronaut from Virginia making her first spaceflight Pilot , a NASA astronaut from Pennsylvania making his fourth trip to space Mission specialist , a Japanese astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut making his second trip to the space station Mission specialist Oleg Platonov, a Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut making his first spaceflight Crew-11 astronauts reassigned after Boeing Starliner failure In an interesting twist, Cardman, Fincke and Yui all experienced major spaceflight assignment changes as a result of the Boeing Starliner debacle. Fincke and Yui were both originally selected to fly on the Starliner's crew rotation mission had the spacecraft's inaugural human flight test in June 2024 been a success. Fincke was also the backup astronaut on a flight test for which Wilmore and Williams were ultimately selected. As for Cardman, she would have flown on the Crew-9 mission in September 2024 before she and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the mission. Instead of a full contingent, only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov traveled to the space station to leave two seats for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight. The decision was made when NASA opted to undock the troubled Starliner capsule without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride home. When will NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 for ISS? The Crew-10 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. 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McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Crew-11? SpaceX astronauts prepare for space station mission Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
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CEO of Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara resigns after EU sanctions, sources say
(Refiles to fix formatting) By Nidhi Verma NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy has named a new chief executive after its previous CEO resigned following European Union sanctions that targeted the company, four sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The reshuffle at the top is the latest disruption for the company since the EU announced a new round of sanctions last Friday directed at Russia over its war in Ukraine. This week, a tanker carrying Russian Urals crude was diverted away from Nayara's Vadinar port to unload its cargo at another port in western India, Reuters reported. That came after two other tankers skipped loading refined products from Vadinar, Reuters reported. Mumbai-based Nayara has appointed company veteran Sergey Denisov as chief executive to replace Alessandro des Dorides, the sources said. Denisov's appointment was decided at a board meeting on Wednesday, they said. Nayara Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Des Dorides, who joined Nayara Energy in April 2024, for a three-year term, did not immediately respond to a message sent on LinkedIn. In its announcement of his appointment last year, Nayara described Des Dorides as a 24-year veteran of the energy industry. He left Italian major Eni in 2019 after about six months as head of oil trading and operations. Denisov has been with Nayara since 2017. His LinkedIn profile describes him as Nayara's chief development officer. In recent days, Nayara's website has no longer carried pages listing its leadership. The company is one of India's two major private-sector refiners, along with the larger Reliance Industries. The pair have been India's biggest buyers of discounted Russian crude. Nayara, which operates India's third-biggest refinery at Vadinar in western Gujarat state, typically exports at least four million barrels of refined products per month, including diesel, jet fuel, gasoline and naphtha. It also operates more than 6,000 fuel stations. The 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) Vadinar refinery is equivalent to nearly 8% of India's total refining capacity of about 5.2 million bpd. Nayara Energy has criticised the EU's "unjust and unilateral" decision to impose sanctions. Russia's Rosneft holds a 49.13% stake in Nayara and a similar stake is owned by a consortium, Kesani Enterprises Co Ltd, led by Italy's Mareterra Group and Russian investment group United Capital Partners, according to a 2024 note by India's CARE Ratings agency. India, which has become the top importer of seaborne Russian oil in the aftermath of Moscow's Ukraine invasion, has also criticised the EU's sanctions. Rosneft, which said the sanctions on Nayara were unjustified and illegal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
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China Premier Warns of AI ‘Monopoly' as US Effort Quickens
(Bloomberg) — China will spearhead the creation of an international organization to jointly develop AI, the country's premier said, seeking to ensure that world-changing technology doesn't become the province of just a few nations or companies. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Trump Administration Sues NYC Over Sanctuary City Policy Artificial intelligence harbors risks from widespread job losses to economic upheaval that require nations to work together to address, Premier Li Qiang told the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Saturday. That means more international exchanges, Beijing's No. 2 official said during China's most important annual technology summit. Li didn't name any countries in his short address to kick off the event. But Chinese executives and officials have taken aim at Washington's efforts to curtail the Asian country's tech sector, including by slapping restrictions on the export of Nvidia Corp. chips crucial to AI development. On Saturday, Li acknowledged a shortage of semiconductors was a major bottleneck, but reaffirmed President Xi Jinping's call to establish policies to propel Beijing's ambitions. The government will now help create a body — loosely translated as the World AI Cooperation Organization — through which countries can share insights and talent. 'Currently, key resources and capabilities are concentrated in a few countries and a few enterprises. If we engage in technological monopoly, controls and restrictions, AI will become an exclusive game for a small number of countries and enterprises,' Li told hundreds of delegates huddled at the conference venue on the banks of Shanghai's iconic Huangpu river. China and the US are locked in a race to develop a technology with the potential to turbocharge economies and — over the long run — tip the balance of geopolitical power. This week, US President Donald Trump signed executive orders to loosen regulations and expand energy supplies for data centers — a call to arms to ensure companies like OpenAI and Google help safeguard America's lead in the post-ChatGPT era. At the same time, the breakout success of DeepSeek has inspired Chinese tech leaders and startups to accelerate research and roll out products such as open-sourced models, robots and AI agents. That parade of technology represents Chinese developers' efforts to set world standards and benchmarks, and grab a bigger slice of the global market. They also dovetail with Beijing's broader efforts to ensure self-reliance on critical technologies in the face of tensions between the world's economic superpowers. The weekend conference in Shanghai — gathering star founders, Beijing officials and deep-pocketed financiers by the thousands — is designed to catalyze that movement. The event, which has featured Elon Musk and Jack Ma in years past, was launched in 2018 to showcase China's cutting-edge technology. This year's attendance may hit a record because it's taking place at a critical juncture in the global race to lead the development of generative AI. It's already drawn some notable figures: Nobel Prize laureate Geoffrey Hinton and former Google chief Eric Schmidt were among industry heavyweights who met Shanghai party boss Chen Jining on Thursday, before they were due to speak at the conference. Going forward, China will seek to propel AI development in the Global South, Li said, referring to a loose gathering that includes Brazil and Africa. Schmidt later echoed Li's call for nations to work together — particularly China and the US. 'The upsides are phenomenal,' he told delegates. 'As the largest and most significant economic entities in the world, the United States and China should collaborate on these issues,' he said. 'We have a vested interest to keep the world stable, keep the world not at war, to keep things peaceful, to make sure we have human control of these tools.' —With assistance from Jing Li and Charlie Zhu. (Updates with Schmidt's comments from the 11th paragraph.) Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
