Author: News Desk

US: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and British billionaire businessman Richard Branson, who are dreaming of calling themselves astronauts by taking a spacewalk, have suffered a severe setback. The US government has made it clear that both billionaires cannot be granted astronaut status according to the New Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to a BBC report, the new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules say astronaut hopefuls must be part of the flight crew and make contributions to space flight safety. These are the first changes since the FAA wings program began in 2004.

Tokyo: Austrian equestrian Victoria Max-Theurer was forced to withdraw from the Olympics on Saturday after learning that her horse had developed a tooth infection. Max-Theurer said her 11-year-old horse, Abegglen NRW, had been behaving oddly during training but it wasn’t until the horse was seen by a team vet that they discovered he had developed an abscess in one of its molars, according to a report.

Tokyo: The Chinese government criticized NBC for displaying an “incomplete” map of the country during its coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday, calling it an attempt to “play political ‘tricks.’” The Chinese consulate in New York issued a statement that the decision by NBC not to include Taiwan or the South China Sea in the map displayed during the parade of athletes, “hurt the dignity and emotions of the Chinese people.”

China: A new study suggests that a Sinopharm vaccine offers poor protection from COVID-19 among the elderly, raising questions for dozens of countries that have given the Chinese company’s shots to their most vulnerable populations. A survey of blood samples taken from 450 people in Hungary at least two weeks after their second Sinopharm dose found that 90% under 50 years old developed protective antibodies. But the percentage declined with age, and 50% of those over 80 had none. The study by two Hungarian researchers was posted online this week but not yet reviewed by other scientists. Three outside experts said they had no problems with…

MUMBAI :  Rescue teams in India struggled through thick sludge and debris on Saturday to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125. n India struggled through thick sludge and debris on Saturday to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125.Rescue teams i Maharashtra state is being hit by the heaviest rain in July in four decades, experts say. Downpours lasting several days have severely affected the lives of hundreds of thousands, while…

BUDAPEST: Thousands of Hungarians decided to join the annual Budapest Pride march held on Saturday in a show of support for LGBT people and to protest against a law banning the use of materials in schools seen as promoting homosexuality and gender reassignment. Hungary’s nationalist Viktor Orban, in power since 2010, has grown increasingly radical on social policy in what he portrays as a fight to safeguard traditional Christian values from Western liberalism. The European Commission has launched legal action against Orban’s government over the new law, which came into force this month, saying it is discriminatory and contravenes European…

MELBOURNE: Sydney will get 50,000 more doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week to battle its worsening COVID outbreak, Canberra said on Saturday, reversing a rebuff by the Australian government and other states the previous day of a plea for more supplies. Australia reported 176 new locally acquired COVID cases on Saturday, a third consecutive daily record with nearly all cases in the state of New South Wales, centred in the country’s largest city, Sydney. Officials fear the outbreak could jeopardize the rest of the country. Defying a statewide stay-at-home order, however, 3,500 mostly maskless protesters clashed with police in…

Tunisia: Tunisian President, Kais Saied, yesterday extended the state of emergency imposed across the country for another six months. “The nationwide state of emergency has been extended 6 months from July 24, 2021, to January 19, 2022, by means of a presidential decree, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Tunisia on Friday, state-run Agence Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) reported. According to TAP, the state of emergency has been in place since November 24, 2015, following the terrorist attack on a presidential guard bus in the capital, which left 12 dead and 16 injured.

Florida: The Miami-Dade County fire and rescue department on Friday declared an end to its search for human remains in the rubble of a Florida condominium tower that collapsed on June 24, killing at least 97 people. Authorities said one victim was still believed to be unaccounted for. The Miami-Dade Police Department will continue to sift through what is left of the debris pile for additional remains and personal effects, officials said in a statement. The fire department’s round-the-clock operation at the beachfront site of the Champlain Towers South condo, in the Miami suburb of Surfside, was demobilized four weeks…

Beijing: Internet giant Tencent was ordered by regulators to end exclusive contracts with music copyright holders, adding to increased enforcement of anti-monopoly and other rules as Beijing tightens control over booming online industries. Tencent controls more than 80% of “exclusive music library resources” following its 2016 acquisition of China Music Group, the State Administration for Market Regulation said Saturday. It said that gives Tencent the ability to get better terms than competitors receive or limit rivals’ ability to enter the market, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Tencent Holdings Ltd., best known abroad for its WeChat messaging service, has a sprawling…