Kim Kardashian, long at the center of a few conspiracy theories herself, has cosigned one that’s a fan favorite — and also thoroughly debunked.
During the most recent episode of Hulu’s “The Kardashians,” the fashion and beauty mogul professed her belief that the 1969 moon landing, a watershed moment of great American pride, never really happened. She also tried to get her “All’s Fair” co-star Sarah Paulson to drink the Kool-Aid.
“I’m sending you, like, so far a million interviews with both Buzz Aldrin and the other one [Neil Armstrong],” Kardashian told Paulson on the show.
“Yes, do it,” Paulson told the Skims founder, promising to go on her own “massive deep dive.”
Kardashian then went on to cite an interview that’s made the rounds on TikTok wherein she alleged that Buzz Aldrin — who completed the Apollo 11 mission alongside Armstrong and capsule communicator Michael Collins — gave the hoax away. (The going theory, of course, is that famous footage of the mission was actually filmed on a sound stage.)
“So I think it didn’t happen,” Kardashian concluded, adding that Aldrin, 95, has “gotten old and now he, like, slurs.”
Hours after the episode dropped, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy fact-checked the socialite.
“Yes, @KimKardashian, we’ve been to the Moon before… 6 times!” Duffy wrote Thursday on X. “And even better: @NASAArtemis is going back under the leadership of @POTUS.”
“We won the last space race and we will win this one too,” Duffy wrote.
As for Aldrin’s takes on the matter, a 2022 Reuters article debunked one of the most popular clips used to implicate the former astronaut, which was was taken out of very critical context.
In a shortened version of the clip, Conan O’Brien recounts to Aldrin a childhood memory of his family watching the astronauts walk on the moon.
“No, you didn’t,” Aldrin responds, seemingly contradicting O’Brien’s account. Later in the interview, however, Aldrin clarified that the moon landing itself was authentic, but the animated footage broadcast by TV stations at the time was not.
The National Air and Space Museum has explained that there was a $2.3-million camera on board to capture the real-life images that were sent back to Earth.
Nonetheless, Kardashian doubled down on her opinion when a producer on “The Kardashians” probed further.
“For the record, you think that we didn’t walk on the moon?” the producer asked.
“I don’t think we did. I think it was fake,” Kardashian said, adding that she’s seen several videos of Aldrin allegedly disputing the event.
“Why does Buzz Aldrin say it didn’t happen?” she said. “There’s no gravity on the moon. Why is the flag blowing? The shoes that they have in the museum that they wore on the moon is a different print in the photos. Why are there no stars?”
For what it’s worth, there is gravity on the moon, albeit about a sixth of what it is on Earth, give or take. Hence the footage of astronauts bouncing across the lunar surface but not flying off into space. As far as there being no breeze, NASA planned for the lack of one — a rod can be seen holding up the top of flag, because scientists knew the stars and stripes wouldn’t fly without one. And did we mention that Aldrin did not say it didn’t happen? Yes, we did. We did mention that.
To her credit, Kardashian was self-aware enough to add that people were “gonna say I’m crazy no matter what.”
She also encouraged viewers to look for themselves on Tiktok. Keep in mind, though, the accounts that regularly promote the moon-landing conspiracy theory are also fond of other mistaken notions, like saying the Earth is flat and aliens built the pyramids.
US President Donald Trump broke into dance with local performers as he arrived in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit. It marks his first trip to the Asia Pacific since his re-election.
Fans of Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel watched on as a lollipop lady took home one of the biggest jackpots in the show’s history after a dramatic final question
Sally took home a huge jackpot on The Wheel(Image: BBC)
Michael McIntyre made dreams come true after an elated contestant on The Wheel bagged one of the biggest ever jackpots on the show. Lollipop lady Sally from Gateshead went all in in the final showdown, surprisingly choosing the game’s lowest-ranked celebrity to help her with the final question.
It saw her have the chance to scoop a £110,000 jackpot, doubling what she had banked in the cash builder throughout the show. After picking former rugby star Joe Marler as her famous face to help her, he joked: “I’m not doing it. I feel sick,” as he looked stunned she had gone for broke.
But together the pair somehow managed to unearth the right answer, correctly revealing that Jade Jones had medalled in the Olympics in Taekwondo. Sally, who had earlier this year recovered from lung cancer, had doubted herself after locking in the answer.
Both she and Joe looked far from convinced they were onto a winner. But thankfully for the north-east based contestant, the ticker turned gold, giving her the huge six-figure sum.
The gobsmacked contestant couldn’t believe it as she gasped: “Oh my God,” before removing her glasses to wipe away the tears. She was in so much shock that she kept asking the celebs around the wheel, including Jill Scott and Roman Kemp, if this was really happening.
Revealing to comedian Michael how she would be spending the prize, she sobbed how she would treat her husband and friends who had helped her through her tough cancer treatment: “We can get the van and we can go off on our adventures,” she revealed.
“I can treat my friends to thank them,” she said before breaking down in tears again to a round of applause from the celebs and the audience. “What a year,” she continued.
“What a year, of course,” Michael replied. “You got the all clear this year.” “Oh my God,” she again exclaimed before revealing: “I’m not going to hang my lollipop up, mind! I love it… Oh my God. Did that just happen?”
“And well done Joe as well,” Michael added in between applause. He had helped whittle down the question to two answers, with Sally picking the correct one for a dramatic end to the popular gameshow.
Sally’s tears weren’t the only shed on the show on Saturday. Michael McIntyre said, “I wasn’t expecting this,” as the first contestant also down in tears.
Hannah, a data analyst from Macclesfield, revealed a special connection she had with rugby star Joe. “I struggled with mental health for quite a while,” she said.
“I never really had a hobby,” she went on before pausing as she began to tear up. “I was always kind of a lost kind of person growing up; I didn’t know if I was coming or going. This said person brought out a podcast about mental health and rugby”.
As she welled up again, she then told Michael: “I now play rugby; it is a massive passion of mine and if it wasn’t for Joe, then I wouldn’t be doing it.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
A C-32A carrying War Secretary Pete Hegseth was forced to make a rapid descent over the Atlantic and an “unplanned landing” on Wednesday.
“On the way back to the United States from NATO’s Defense Ministers meeting, Secretary of War Hegseth’s plane made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom due to a crack in the aircraft windshield,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell explained on X. “The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe.”
On the way back to the United States from NATO’s Defense Ministers meeting, Secretary of War Hegseth’s plane made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom due to a crack in the aircraft windshield. The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including…
Open source trackers state the C-32A was forced to descend to under 10,000 feet while flying off the coast of Ireland, over the Atlantic Ocean. After a steep emergency descent, which is standard procedure for a broken windscreen, the modified 757-200 ended up diverting to RAF Mildenhall in the U.K. We’ve reached out to the Pentagon for more details.
A U.S. Air Force C-32A carrying Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth back from today’s meeting of NATO Defense Chiefs in Brussels, Belgium, was forced to descend to under 10,000ft and divert to RAF Mildenhall in England earlier due to a cracked windscreen, which reportedly caused… pic.twitter.com/YgcwQjgOt9
As we have reported in the past, the C-32A is the real workhorse of the executive airlift fleet. Known as “Air Force 2” when it carries the vice president, these aircraft also transport other senior U.S. officials, such as Hegseth or the Secretary of State, along with Congressional delegations and the President’s spouse – and often the President themselves.
C-32A taking off from PDX. (Tyler Rogoway) Tyler Rogoway
It should be noted that these jets have been flying for many years and are deeply into the back-half of their service lives. They continue to receive upgrades as a replacement program is now in the initial launch phases.
Hegseth was in Brussels meeting with NATO allies for the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting. It is unclear when Hegseth will resume his trip.
THIS is the nerve-wracking moment a Ryanair plane is forced to abort landing in Storm Amy’s 90mph winds.
The dramatic footage shows the pilot unable to land the aircraft at Dublin Airport on Friday.
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This is the nerve-wracking moment a Ryanair plane attempts to land at Dublin AirportCredit: Tiktok/@flicksey
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As the plane nears the tarmac, the pilot decides to abort the landingCredit: Tiktok/@flicksey
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The aircraft is forced to ascend and circle the airport to try and land againCredit: Tiktok/@flicksey
It comes as Storm Amy swept in on Friday with wind speeds of over 90mph, sparking widespread travel chaos for millions.
Video footage shows the Ryanair plane descending as it approaches the runway at Dublin Airport.
The aircraft can be seen buffeted by strong winds on its way down, knocking it of course as it nears the tarmac at speed.
Just moments before it is due to touch down, the pilot suddenly aborts the landing.
They then pull the plane back up as its forced to go around the airport before it attempts to make another landing.
A plane spotter posted the footage to social media on Friday, alongside the caption: “Ryanair plane has to do a go around because of the high winds.”
Hundreds of users flocked to the comments with some claiming they were on the flight itself.
“I was on that plane, was a very hairy land,” one posted.
Others claimed that it was the “worst flight of my life” and that this was one of two failed landing attempts before the plane diverted to Manchester.
“That plane was like being on the worst roller coaster ride ever, what you see in that video, doesn’t do justice to what went on onboard,” stated another.
Tens of thousands without power as Storm Amy’s 90mph gusts and torrential rain lash Britain killing one man
According to them, other passengers were panicking and an “elderly gentleman had to be taken from Manchester Airport straight to the hospital”.
Storm Amy is expected to cause further travel disruption across the UK and Ireland on Saturday with flights, rail and ferry services cancelled.
Belfast International Airport said it was expecting delays on Saturday and advised passengers to check with their airlines.
Due to winds reaching up to 100mph in some areas, “risk to life” warnings have been issued too.
Irish Police confirmed on Friday that a man in his 40s had died following a “weather related incident”.
The Scottish island of Tiree has recorded the highest wind speeds at 96mph while a provisional October record for Northern Ireland was set with 92mph gusts in County Londonderry.
An amber wind warning has been issued for the north of Scotland until 9pm on Saturday with yellow warnings covering the whole of Scotland, the north of England and north Wales until the end of the day.
A yellow wind warning will run until 7pm for the rest of England and Wales.
Additionally, yellow warnings for rain are in place in north and west Scotland until midnight and in Northern Ireland until noon.
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As the plane descended, it was visibly struggling with strong winds brought in by Storm AmyCredit: Tiktok/@flicksey
New Delhi, India — Meghna Gupta* had planned it all – a master’s degree by 23, a few years of working in India, and then a move to the United States before she turned 30 to eventually settle there.
So, she clocked countless hours at the Hyderabad office of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT firm and a driver of the country’s emergence as the global outsourcing powerhouse in the sector. She waited to get to the promotion that would mean a stint on California’s West Coast.
Now, Gupta is 29, and her dreams lie in tatters after US President Donald Trump’s administration upended the H-1B visa programme that tech firms have used for more than three decades to bring skilled workers to the US.
Trump’s decision to increase the fee for the visas from about $2,000, in many cases, to $100,000 has imposed dramatic new costs on companies that sponsor these applications. The base salary an H-1B visa employee is supposed to be paid is $60,000. But the employer’s cost now rises to $160,000 at the minimum, and in many cases, companies will likely find American workers with similar skills for lower pay.
This is the Trump administration’s rationale as it presses US companies to hire local talent amid its larger anti-immigration policies. But for thousands of young people around the world still captivated by the American dream, this is a blow. And nowhere is that more so than in India, the world’s most populous nation, that, despite an economy that is growing faster than most other major nations, has still been bleeding skilled young people to developed nations.
For years, Indian IT companies themselves sponsored the most H-1B visas of all firms, using them to bring Indian employees to the US and then contractually outsourcing their expertise to other businesses, too. This changed: In 2014, seven out of the 10 companies that received the most H-1B visas were Indian or started in India; In 2024, that number dropped to four.
And in the first six months of 2025, Gupta’s TCS was the only Indian company in the top-10 H-1B visa recipients, in a list otherwise dominated by Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Apple.
But what had not changed until now was the demographic of the workers that even the above US companies hired on H-1B visas. More than 70 percent of all H-1B visas were granted to Indian nationals in 2024, ranging from the tech sector to medicine. Chinese nationals were a distant second, with less than 12 percent.
Now, thousands across India fear that this pathway to the US is being slammed shut.
“It has left me heartbroken,” Gupta told Al Jazeera of Trump’s fee hike.
“All my life, I planned for this; everything circled around this goal for me to move to the US,” said Gupta, who was born and raised in Bageshwar, a town of 10,000 people in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
“The so-called ‘American Dream’ looks like a cruel joke now.”
Priscilla Chan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, businessman Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and businessman Elon Musk, among other dignitaries, attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC, US, January 20, 2025 [Shawn Thew/Pool via Reuters]
‘In the hole’
Gupta’s crisis reflects a broader contradiction that defines India today. On the one hand, the country — as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government frequently mention — is the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
India today boasts the world’s fourth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), behind just the US, China and Germany, after it passed Japan earlier this year. But the country’s creation of new jobs lags far behind the number of young people who enter its workforce every year, widening its employment gap. India’s biggest cities are creaking under inadequate public infrastructure, potholed roads, traffic snarls and growing income inequality.
The result: Millions like Gupta aspire to a life in the West, picking their career choices, usually in sectors like engineering or medicine, and working to get into hard-fought seats in top colleges – and then migrating. In the last five years, India has witnessed a drastic rise in the outflow of skilled professionals, particularly in STEM fields, who migrate to countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.
As per the Indian government’s data, those numbers rose from 94,145 Indians in 2020 to 348,629 by 2024 — a 270 percent rise.
Trump’s new visa regime could now effectively close the pipeline of those skilled workers into the US. The fee hike comes on the back of a series of tension points in a souring US-India relationship in recent months. New Delhi is also currently facing a steep 50 percent tariff on its exports to the US — half of that for buying Russian crude, which the US says is funding the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade officer and founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that the hardest-hit sectors after the new visa policy will be “the ones that Indian professionals dominate: mid-level IT services jobs, software developers, project managers, and back-end support in finance and healthcare”.
For many of these positions, the new $100,000 fee exceeds an entry-level employee’s annual salary, making sponsorship uneconomical, especially for smaller firms and startups, said Srivastava. “The cost of hiring a foreign worker now exceeds local hiring by a wide margin,” he said, adding that this would shift the hiring calculus of US firms.
“American firms will scout more domestic talent, reserve H-1Bs for only the hardest-to-fill specialist roles, and push routine work offshore to India or other hubs,” said Srivastava.
“The market has already priced in this pivot,” he said, citing the fall of Indian stock markets since Trump’s announcement, “as investors brace for shrinking US hiring”.
Indian STEM graduates and students, he said, “have to rethink US career plans altogether”.
To Sudhanshu Kaushik, founder of the North American Association of Indian Students, a body with members across 120 universities, the Trump administration’s “motive is to create panic and distress among H-1B visa holders and other immigrant visa holders”.
“To remind them that they don’t belong,” Kaushik told Al Jazeera. “And at any time, at any whim, the possibility of remaining in the United States can become incredibly difficult and excruciatingly impossible.”
The announcement came soon after the start of the new academic session, when many international students – including from India, which sends the largest cohort of foreign students to the US – have begun classes.
Typically, a large chunk of such students stay back in the US for work after graduating. An analysis of the National Survey of College Graduates suggests that 41 percent of international students who graduated between 2012 and 2020 were still in the US in 2021. For PhD holders, that figure jumps to 75 percent.
But Kaushik said he has received more than 80 queries on their hotline for students now worried about what the future holds.
“They know that they’re already in the hole,” he said, referring to the tuition and other fees running into tens of thousands of dollars that they have invested in a US education, with increasingly unclear job prospects.
The landscape in the US today, Srivastava of GTRI said, represents “fewer opportunities, tougher competition, and shrinking returns on US education”.
Nasscom, India’s apex IT trade body, has said the policy’s abrupt rollout could “potentially disrupt families” and the continuity of ongoing onshore projects for the country’s technology services firms.
The new policy, it added, could have “ripple effects” on the US innovation ecosystem and global job markets, pointing out that for companies, “additional cost will require adjustments”.
Employees of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) work at the company headquarters in Mumbai March 14, 2013 [Danish Siddiqui/Reuters]
‘They do not care for people at all’
Ansh*, a senior software engineer at Meta, graduated from an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), one in a chain of India’s most prestigious engineering school, and landed a job with Facebook soon after that.
He now lives with his wife in Menlo Park, in the heart of the US’s Silicon Valley, and drives a BMW sedan to work. Both Ansh and his wife are in the US on H-1B visas.
Last Saturday’s news from the White House left him rattled.
He spent that evening figuring out flights for his friends — Indians on H-1B visas who were out of the country, one in London, another in Bengaluru, India — to see if they could rush back to the US before the new rules kicked in on Sunday, as major US tech firms had recommended to their employees.
Since then, the Trump administration has clarified that the new fees will not apply to existing H-1B visas or renewals. For now, Ansh’s job and status in the US are secure.
But this is little reassurance, he said.
“In the last 11 years, I have never felt like going back to India,” Ansh told Al Jazeera. “But this sort of instability triggers people to make those life changes. And now we are here, wondering if one should return to India?”
Because he and his wife do not have children, Ansh said that a move back to India — while a dramatic rupture in their lives and plans — was at least something they could consider. But what of his colleagues and friends on H-1B visas, who have children, he asked?
“The way this has been done by the US government shows that they do not care for people at all,” he said. “These types of decisions are like … brain wave strikes, and then it is just executed.”
Ansh believes that the US also stands to lose from the new visa policy. “The immigrant contribution is deeply sprinkled into the DNA of the US’s success,” he said.
“Once talent goes away, innovation won’t happen,” he said. “It is going to have long-term consequences for visa holders and their families. Its impact would reach everyone, one way or the other.”
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, left, and Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., embrace at the conclusion of a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US on Sepember 27, 2015 [David Paul Morris/Bloomberg]
India’s struggle
After the announcement from the White House on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi’s principal secretary, PK Mishra, said that the government was encouraging Indians working abroad to return to the country.
Mishra’s comments were in tune with some experts who have suggested that the disruption in the H-1B visa policy could serve as an opportunity for India — as it could, in theory, stanch the brain drain that the country has long suffered from.
GTRI’s Srivastava said that US companies that have until now relied on immigrant visas like the H-1B might now explore more local hiring or offshore some jobs. “The $100,000 H-1B fee makes onsite deployment prohibitively expensive, so Indian IT firms will double down on offshore and remote delivery,” he said.
“US postings will be reserved only for mission-critical roles, while the bulk of hiring and project execution shifts to India and other offshore hubs,” he told Al Jazeera. “For US clients, this means higher dependence on offshore teams — raising familiar concerns about data security, compliance, and time-zone coordination — even as costs climb.”
Srivastava noted that India’s tech sector can absorb some returning H-1B workers, if they choose to return.
But that won’t be easy. He said that even though hiring in India’s IT and services sector has been growing year-on-year, the gaps are real, ranging from dipping job postings to new openings clustered in AI, cloud, and data science. And US-trained returnees would expect salaries well above Indian benchmarks.
And in reality, Kaushik said, many H-1B aspirants are looking at different countries as alternatives to the US — not India.
Ansh, the senior engineer at Meta, agreed. “In the US, we operate at the cutting edge of technology,” whereas the Indian tech ecosystem was still geared towards delivering immediate services.
“The Indian ecosystem is not at the pace where you innovate the next big thing in the world,” he said. “It is, in fact, far from there.”
WASHINGTON — Early in his first term, President Trump held a modest ceremony directing NASA to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years. It was a goalpost set without a road map. Veterans of the space community reflected on the 2017 document, conspicuously silent on budgets and timelines, equivocating between excitement and concern.
Was Trump setting up a giveaway to special interests in the aerospace community? Or was he setting forth a real strategic vision for the coming decade, to secure American leadership in the heavens?
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It was a return to a plan first proposed by President George W. Bush in 2004, then abandoned by President Obama in 2010, asserting the moon as a vital part of American ambitions in space. Whether to return to the lunar surface at all — or skip it to focus on Mars — was a long-standing debate governing the division of resources at NASA, where every project is precious, holding extraordinary promise for the knowledge of mankind, yet requiring consistent, high-dollar funding commitments from a capricious Congress.
Eight years on, the debate is over. Trump’s policy shift has blazed a new American trail in space — and spawned an urgent race with China that is fast approaching the finish line.
Both nations are in a sprint toward manned missions to the lunar surface by the end of this decade, with sights on 2029 as a common deadline — marking the end of Trump’s presidency and, in China, the 80th anniversary of the People’s Republic.
A “What Will 2030 Look Like?” sign behind Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, during a confirmation hearing in April.
(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It is a far different race from the original, against the Soviet Union, when U.S. astronauts inspired the world with a televised landing in 1969. This time, Washington would not just plant a flag and return its astronauts home. Instead, the Americans plan to stay, establishing a lunar base that would test humanity’s ability to live beyond Earth.
China has similar plans. And with both countries aiming for the same strategic area of the surface — the south pole of the moon, where peaks of eternal light shine alongside crevices of permanent darkness, believed to store frozen water — the stakes of the race are grounded in national security. Whichever nation establishes a presence there first could lay claim to the region for themselves.
The world’s first full-scale model of the crewed pressurized lunar rover, to be used in the Artemis moon exploration program, is displayed during a press preview in July.
(Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)
Advocates of the U.S. effort, called the Artemis program, increasingly fear that delays at NASA and its private sector partners, coupled with proposed funding cuts to NASA from the Trump administration, could ensure China’s victory in a race with broad consequences for U.S. interests.
So it is a race that Trump started. The question is whether he can finish it.
While U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that Beijing is on track to meet its goals, NASA veterans say that accomplishing a manned mission before the Chinese appears increasingly out of reach.
“It’s a stretch,” said G. Scott Hubbard, a leader in human space exploration for the last half-century who served as NASA’s first “Mars czar” and former director of the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. “Bottom line, yes, it is doable. It’ll take an intense effort by the best engineers, and appropriate funding.
“It’s not inconceivable,” he added.
Visitors take photos of a space suit during an event marking China’s Space Day at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province.
(Wang Jianwei/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The White House said Trump is committed to making “American leadership in space great again,” noting his first-term push to return U.S. astronauts to the moon and his efforts to deregulate the U.S. space industry. But officials declined to comment on a timeline for the mission or on China’s steady progress.
“Being first and beating China to the moon matters because it sets the rules of the road,” Sean Duffy, Transportation secretary and acting NASA administrator, told The Times. “We’re committed to doing this right — safely, peacefully, and ahead of strategic competitors — because American leadership on the moon secures our future in space.”
The success of the Artemis program, Duffy said, is about ensuring the United States leads in space for generations to come. “Those who lead in space lead on Earth,” he added.
NASA officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly, expressed concern that while leadership on the Artemis program has remained relatively stable, talent on robotics and in other key areas has left the agency at a critical time in the race, with potentially less than two years to go before China launches its first robotic mission to the south pole — a scout, of sorts, for a manned landing to follow.
A proposal to cut NASA research funding by roughly 47% has gripped officials there with doubt, jeopardizing a sense of job security at the agency and destabilizing a talent pipeline that could prove critical to success.
In the 1960s, the federal government increased spending on NASA to 4.4% of GDP to secure victory in the first space race.
“There’s too much uncertainty,” one NASA official said, raising the specter of the Trump administration impounding funds for the agency even if Congress continues to fund it.
Inside NASA headquarters, Hubbard said, “the feeling right now is terrified uncertainty — everyone is walking on eggshells.”
“They’re treading water,” he added. “People want to be given clear direction, and they’re not getting it.”
A Chinese Smart Dragon-3 rocket carrying satellites lifts off from sea on Sept. 9.
(VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
China’s long march gets closer
Beijing conducted a series of tests over the last several weeks viewed in Washington as crucial milestones for China on its journey to the moon.
A launch of its Lanyue lander, equipped to carry two taikonauts to the lunar surface, “validated” its landing and takeoff system, state media reported. Two subsequent tests of China’s Long March 10, a super-heavy lift rocket designed to jump-start the mission, were a “complete success,” according to the China Manned Space Agency.
Unlike in the United States, China’s manned space flight program is housed within its military.
“We have seen them steadily progress on all of the various pieces that they are going to need,” said Dean Cheng, senior advisor to the China program at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
“You need a vehicle to launch, because current rockets simply don’t have enough throw-weight. They’re testing the lander to carry astronauts to the surface,” Cheng said. “These are key pieces, and significant advances — this is a brand new rocket and a lunar lander with new technology.”
China initially set a goal for its manned mission by 2035, but has since moved up its plans, an expression of confidence from Beijing and an unusual break from typical party protocol. Now, China aims not only to have completed that mission, but to begin establishing an International Lunar Research Station on its surface, in conjunction with Russia, by 2030.
They are expected to target the south pole.
“There’s room for two powers under schemes of coordination, but there’s not room in an uncoordinated environment. There can easily be a competition for resources,” said Thomas González Roberts, an assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Landing and takeoff of spacecraft on the moon will kick up lunar dust and rocks, risking the safety of astronauts on the ground and sensitive equipment across a base site — considerations that are likely driving Beijing’s strategy to get there first. Those enjoying the benefits of first arrival could set up generous routes for rovers, equipment at dig sites for deposits, telecommunication assets, and even a nuclear reactor to assert a large area of domain.
Since his first term, Trump and his aides have sought to avoid a showdown on the lunar surface, drafting a new set of international rules to govern an otherwise untamed frontier. The Artemis Accords “set out a practical set of principles to guide space exploration,” according to the State Department. President Biden embraced and extended the initiative, growing the list of signatories to 56 nations.
But China is not one of them, prohibited by Congress during the Obama era from cooperating with the United States in space after attempting to steal U.S. technology on intercontinental ballistic missiles and thermonuclear weapons. Instead, Beijing has recruited a small list of countries to join its lunar base program, including Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Egypt, Nicaragua, Belarus and South Africa.
“I don’t think there will be extreme congestion on the moon, but if you really define an area of interest — and there is that, with these peaks of eternal light next to permanently shadowed regions — you could manufacture congestion,” Roberts added.
“How do you benefit from obfuscation?” he asked. “If you’re the first arrival, you spread yourself out.”
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station.
(Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The promise and burden of Musk’s Starship
Last month, Duffy warned NASA staff that the Trump administration suspects Beijing is planning to deliver a nuclear reactor to power a long-term presence at its lunar base by 2029.
The move, Duffy said, could allow China to “declare a keep-out zone, which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first.” He ordered the agency to collect proposals by October on delivering a U.S. reactor to the surface no later than that year.
The administration’s success relies on a man whose relationship with Trump has crashed spectacularly to Earth.
Starship, a super heavy-lift launch vehicle produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is the rocket Trump is relying on to accomplish the Artemis mission. Yet repeated setbacks in the Starship program have raised alarm at NASA over its fundamental constitution. A concerning series of tests have already delayed the U.S. manned launch, known as Artemis III, toward the end of Trump’s term.
Last month, in its 10th test flight, the rocket finally succeeded in a suborbital mission. But “Starship has yet to reach orbit,” Hubbard said, “and once it reaches orbit, they’ve got to demonstrate microgravity transfer of cryogenic propellant.”
“That’s something that’s never been done before,” he added. “So to say that they’ll be ready to do all of that in two years is a real stretch.”
Setbacks are common course in the history of the U.S. space program. But the success of China’s recent tests has shown the Trump administration that NASA and its partners have run out of time for further delays.
Duffy said that Artemis II, a manned mission to orbit the moon, will take place early next year, overcoming a separate set of design flaws that faced Lockheed Martin’s Orion spacecraft. Artemis III would keep astronauts on the surface for more than a week and deliver payloads to help begin the foundation of a base.
Whether the Trump administration will commit to the funding and leadership necessary for the mission is an open question. The White House declined to say who within the West Wing is leading the effort. Trump has not named a permanent NASA administrator for Senate confirmation.
Success on the moon is meant to provide a testing ground and a launching pad for more ambitious, challenging manned missions to Mars. But Trump’s commitment to those ventures are equally in doubt. The administration has proposed canceling funds for a landmark program decades in the making to return samples from the red planet, despite a NASA announcement last week revealed it had discovered signs of ancient Martian life.
“I’ve been on the inside of it — you waste enormous amounts of time just trying to find workarounds to get funding in to stay on schedule,” Hubbard said. “If you really, really want to beat the Chinese, give NASA the funding and some stability — because you’re not going to beat them if every day, week or month, there’s a different direction, a different budget, a different administrator.
“And China may still win,” he said, adding: “It would be another claim that they’re the dominant power in the world.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
As the U.S. deploys an armada of ships and aircraft to the southern Caribbean, at least partly aimed at Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. Navy and Marines are conducting an amphibious landing training exercise in southern Puerto Rico. While the U.S. Marine Corps does not make any mention of Maduro or Venezuela in its media release about the exercise, the move comes as tensions are mounting between Washington and Caracas over the flow of illegal narcotics. The Trump administration considers Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and has raised the award for his arrest to $50 million. You can catch up with our most recent reporting on the Caribbean deployments here.
Meanwhile, the U.S. carried out a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X this afternoon, following comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump. Striking this vessel points to a new kinetic angle to this effort, a major escalation. You can read more about the attack in our story here.
As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.
The amphibious training exercise, which began two days ago, involves Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). The 22nd MEU, part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), left Norfolk Aug. 14, bound for the southern Caribbean. That force included more than 4,500 sailors and Marines on three ships: The Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, and San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships the USS San Antonio and USS Fort Lauderdale.
The Marines and sailors involved in the training exercise are part of the ARG/MEU dispatched for the drug interdiction effort, a Navy official told The War Zone Tuesday afternoon. The three ships are currently near Puerto Rico, the official added. Given the training efforts, at least some of these vessels are almost assuredly taking part, though neither the Navy nor Marines could immediately confirm that. The Navy referred us to the Marines for clarification, and we will update this story with any pertinent details provided.
The Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) is part of a large force conducting counter-drug operations in the Caribbean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Logan Goins) Seaman Logan Goins
The deployment of the ARG/MEU is part of a much larger movement that also includes three Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, a Los Angeles class fast attack nuclear submarine as well as land-based surveillance aircraft. The movement of equipment and personnel is part of Trump’s continuing efforts to take on cartels.
The Puerto Rico training exercise “is designed to enhance the 22nd MEU’s readiness and capabilities, while also fostering stronger relationships with the Puerto Rican National Guard,” the 22nd MEU said in its release. “Amphibious operations are a cornerstone of naval integration and a core competency of the 22nd MEU. They enable the rapid deployment of Marines from naval vessels to shore, supporting U.S. strategic objectives.”
Whether coincidental or not, there are many physical and environmental similarities between Puerto Rico and Venezuela, located about 500 miles south of the U.S. territory.
The training exercise in Puerto Rico is taking place about 500 miles north of Venezuela (Google Earth)
“The challenging terrain and tropical climate of Puerto Rico provides an ideal environment for the 22nd MEU to conduct realistic amphibious training and hone specialized skills such as patrolling, reconnaissance, and survival techniques, ensuring a high level of readiness while forward deployed,” the unit explained. “These operations offer a valuable opportunity to train alongside the National Guard, leveraging existing military training facilities on the island. The 22nd MEU is actively seeking ways to expand collaborative training opportunities, including jungle training, combined exercises and community engagement events. These combined efforts are aimed at enhancing regional security, disaster response capabilities, and joint capacity building.”
In addition to the ARG/MEU ships, Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Gravely and USS Jason Dunham are underway in the southern Caribbean, the Navy official told us.
Meanwhile, at least two Navy warships have reached or transited the Panama Canal. The Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie recently passed through the canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean. The Panama Canal opens up into that body of water about 600 miles southwest of Venezuela.
The Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie recently transited the Panama Canal. (U.S. Navy photo by Naval Aircrewman (Tactical Helicopter) 2nd Class Austin Irby) Commander, Task Force 70 / Carri
Overnight, guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) transited the Panama Canal northbound and entered the Caribbean Sea. Following the transit, Lake Erie stopped broadcasting its position, steaming at 17 knots on a 36° course, heading in the direction of Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/aNmeJhmN4y
In addition, the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Sampson is docked on the Pacific side of the canal, the Navy official added. Citing Navy policy against publicly disclosing the location of its submarine force, the official would not comment on the whereabouts of the Los Angeles class fast attack submarine USS Newport News, also part of this effort.
The USS Sampson is among at least eight warships U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered toward Venezuela to take part in counter-narcotics operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Naval Aircrewmen 2nd Class John Allen) (U.S. Navy photo by Naval Aircrewmen 2nd Class John Allen)
While there is no indication that the U.S. plans to land forces in Venezuela, has the deployed capacity to do so effectively, or that any U.S. vessels are close by, Maduro and his military say they are ready to repel any attack.
“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Maduro said Monday of the deployment, which he characterized as “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
Maduro called the U.S. buildup “the greatest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years” in the form of “eight military ships with 1,200 missiles” targeting Venezuela.
Maduro asegura que 1.200 misiles y un submarino nuclear apuntan contra Venezuela
La Casa Blanca ha confirmado un despliegue militar en el Caribe como parte de su estrategia antidrogas, y aseguró que cuenta con el respaldo de varios países latinoamericanos. Maduro afirma que su… pic.twitter.com/KDAO2dUmLX
While the exact nature of this movement remains unclear, and no overt threats of kinetic action against Maduro directly have been made by the Trump administration, the Venezuelan dictator seems to be gearing up for a fight. Late last month, he announced the planned deployment of more than 4.5 million militia members around the country. They are volunteers designated to bolster the armed forces’ defense against external and domestic attacks. In addition, Venezuela announced it was deploying 15,000 troops toward the border with Colombia to conduct counter-drug operations.
Rubio said recently that “for the first time in the modern era,” the U.S. government was “truly on the offense” against organized cartels sending drugs to the United States, The New York Times noted. He and other officials in the Trump administration have called Mr. Maduro an illegitimate leader and his government a “narco-terror cartel.”
Maduro was indicted in a New York federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency. He and 14 others, including several close allies, were hit with federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy with the Colombian FARC insurgent group to import cocaine. The U.S., as we previously mentioned, has issued a $50 million reward for his capture.
El primer póster oficial del gobierno de los Estados Unidos por la captura del terrorista latinoamericano más buscado de todos los tiempos: el venezolano Nicolas Maduro Moros. pic.twitter.com/Pq0ElEOGuF
Last week, someone with direct knowledge of the operations told us that the U.S. is building up military assets in the region aimed as a direct message at Maduro in addition to taking part in counter-drug operations. With the aforementioned attack on a Venezuelan cartel drug boat, this has now become a lethal drug interdiction effort.
At a fee of £40m, in a window where players have been going for really silly money, he does not represent a massive risk.
The question is whether Garnacho is better than what Chelsea already have or what they have let go in the course of an incredible summer of buying and selling.
Garnacho is set to duke it out with fellow new arrival Jamie Gittens to be Maresca’s first choice down the left.
The Blues boss said: “They are quite similar.
“When we are looking for a winger, we like wingers who are good in one-v-one, they are quite vertical, aggressive, they can attack, they can create something.
“Jamie is that profile. If Garnacho arrives, we will see.”
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Fellow new signings Jamie Gittens had better numbers than Garnacho last seasonCredit: Getty
Garnacho brings more competition for places in Chelsea’s well-stocked attack.
But when you compare his stats for last season to those of Gittens, it is not much of a contest.
Chelsea fans needn’t worry about losing Rio Ngumoha, there’s somone better on the way
Across most of the important categories, Gittens was better: goals, assists, dribbles, chance conversion and so on.
There are two points to consider, however. Firstly, Gittens had a great time in front of goal last season, outperforming his expected goals significantly.
Meanwhile Garnacho had a particularly bad time when it came to converting big chances.
While Sancho was playing for Borussia Dortmund – as Gittens was last season – the then England manager Gareth Southgate was asked frequently about his form and whether he deserved more game time.
Without ever actually saying, “Lads, it’s the Bundesliga”, Southgate made it pretty clear that doing well in Germany’s top flight was one thing, but reproducing that form in the Premier League and at international level was quite another.
Maresca was not impressed with Gittens’ PL debut against Crystal Palace, hooking him after 54 minutes and putting him on the bench for the 5-1 thrashing of West Ham.
Yet it would be harsh to judge Gittens so soon.
Interestingly, too, Sancho’s stats while he was on loan at Chelsea last season stand up pretty well to Garnacho’s for United in some categories.
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Jadon Sancho also put up better numbers that Garnacho during his Chelsea loan last seasonCredit: Reuters
Sancho seemed to enjoy being away from the toxicity of Old Trafford and Maresca said: “We had Jadon with us and he had a very good season.
“Again, if we finish top four and we achieve what we achieved, it’s also because of Jadon.
“Now with Garnacho, in case [if] he will arrive, we will see.”
That phrase again – we will see.
Noni Madueke, sold to Arsenal by the Blues earlier this summer, outperformed both Sancho and Garnacho last season.
Madueke, of course, plays primarily as a right winger. But on output alone, Chelsea seem to have got rid of a more potent attacking player than Garnacho.
And looking at Pedro Neto’s numbers, you wonder whether the Blues would have been better keeping Madueke.
Garnacho’s statistics for United in 2023/4 were in many cases better than in 2024/5, but not to a spectacular degree.
The Argentinian has it all to prove on the pitch.
He will also need to be careful off it.
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Noni Madueke, who was sold to Arsenal this summer, was Chelsea’s top performing winger last termCredit: Getty
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Pedro Neto also had better stats that GarnachoCredit: Getty
Garnacho infuriated United this summer with his habit of sending not-very-subtle messages of defiance through social media.
The Blues boss said: “We are in an era where I look like the strange one, because I don’t use social networks.
“I have a company that runs my Instagram but I don’t use it. I look strange because I don’t use it.
“But the normal situation in this era is that everyone uses it. I’m not going to tell them, don’t use that.
“First of all, because they have family around them that can give them advice.
“I have four kids and try to give them advice.
“But if I have to give 25 more players advice, it’s too complicated.
“Anyone can do what they want, anyone can say what they want, but in the end it’s a matter of respect.”
Garnacho may find Maresca and Chelsea intolerant of mischief-making on social media and other disruptive behaviour.
And he only has to look at the turnover of players at Stamford Bridge to know what will happen if he does not deliver.
Aug. 12 (UPI) — A small plane landing at a Montana airport crashed into a second aircraft on the runaway, according to officials who said there were only minor injuries.
The incident occurred at 2:08 p.m. MDT Monday at Kalispell City Airport, located in northwestern Montana, about 200 miles northwest of Helena.
According to a statement from the Kalispell Police Department, the preliminary investigation indicates that the pilot lost control of the aircraft while attempting to land at the airport, resulting in the runway crash.
“All four occupants of the aircraft, who were from out of state, reported only minor injuries and were treated at the scene,” KPD said. “No additional injuries have been reported.”
The Kalispell Fire Department had been among the agencies that responded to the scene, as the plane crash seemingly resulted in a fire, which authorities said has since been contained.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
Birmingham Airport’s runway was shut down for about six hours on Wednesday afternoon and evening, delaying thousands of passengers and leading many planes to divert
Birmingham Airport is still dealing with the knock‑on impact of an emergency landing that closed its runway on Wednesday afternoon.
At 1.40 pm a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air, with three people on board, began to experience issues with its landing gear. The pilot aborted the journey to Belfast and turned back to Birmingham for a bumpy landing, which saw it collapse onto its undercarriage on the tarmac.
Newly emerged footage from the scene shows the white light aircraft collapsed on the runway, its nose tilted down towards the tarmac. It is surrounded by emergency service vehicles and personnel. The incident is now being investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
Live departure and arrival boards highlight the knock‑on impact of the runway closure, which was only lifted at 8 pm last night, meaning six hours of the flight schedule were missed.
Delays this morning include a four‑hour wait for a TUI flight to Keffalinia, a three‑hour wait for Lanzarote and a three‑hour wait to Zakynthos. A handful of arrivals have also been bumped down the schedule. The 6am KLM flight to Amsterdam this morning was cancelled because the aircraft and crew could not reach Birmingham on Wednesday.
Diversions yesterday meant that several planes were in the wrong place, causing a headache for airline schedulers. Planes were diverted as far away as Liverpool, Cardiff, and Gatwick.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch says it is investigating the incident at Birmingham Airport. It said in a statement: “Following an incident involving a light aircraft at Birmingham Airport, the AAIB has deployed a team to the site to begin an investigation. A multi‑disciplinary team including inspectors with expertise in aircraft operations, engineering and recorded data have been deployed to the airport.”
The plane came to rest on the tarmac(Image: / SWNS)
The latest statement from Birmingham Airport came just before 8 pm last night. It read: “Following the aircraft incident today, the runway has reopened and operations have resumed. All passengers must check flight details with their airlines and follow advice issued by them. We understand the frustration and apologise for the disruption this has caused. Our teams have worked as quickly as possible, in line with strict protocols, which must be followed to ensure a safe reopening of the runway following a prolonged closure.”
A small silver lining for delayed passengers came in the form of a chilled pint. Organisers of a beer festival held next door to the airport offered those caught up in the chaos a free bev if they showed their boarding pass. “We hope everyone is ok at Birmingham International Airport. If you are stuck at the airport, come to the Great British Beer Festival next door at the NEC for a pint while you wait,” the organisers tweeted.
Five jockeys missed their rides on day three of Glorious Goodwood after their plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
The flight, from Bagby Airfield in north Yorkshire, suffered what was thought to be an engine problem.
But jockeys Rowan Scott, Callum Rodriguez, PJ McDonald, Tom Eaves and Jack Garritty were all fine.
Scott was booked on two rides at Goodwood, including Magellan Cloud for John and Sean Quinn in the first race.
Scott’s agent Niall Hannity said: “They set off from Bagby and something went wrong with the plane so they started to get a bit panicky, as you can imagine.
“The pilot, who has 25 years experience, said nothing like it had ever happened to him but they were able to get turned round and land back at Bagby, which must have been frightening.
Ryanair failed to load a single piece of lugagge on to a Gran Canaria-bound flight, blaming it on a security issue at Bristol Airport but refused to explain what the exact issue was
The group of 11 mates from Taunton who were stuck in Gran Canaria without their luggage (Image: BPM MEDIA)
A plane full of tourists have been left in Spain without their belongings after their Ryanair flight flew across Europe without a single piece of checked luggage on board.
Travellers on the Gran Canaria-bound flight FR4757, which departed from Bristol on Friday, were left stunned when the pilot told them there suitcases had not been loaded due to “time constraints”. The pilot blamed the blunder on a security issue at Bristol Airport.
Among the passengers were 11 pals from Taunton, who were on their way to Maspalomas, where they were going for a birthday and graduation celebration.
Madeline Cooper, 22, said it was a normal journey until they were told about the issue when they landed.
“We had absolutely no issues at all until we landed. Then the captain said they made the difficult decision to not bring any of our luggage,” she explained. “They wouldn’t say what the security issue was – just that every single person’s bag had been left behind.”
The crew had failed to board a single piece of luggage(Image: Getty Images)
The group quickly discovered they weren’t the only ones affected, reports Bristol Live. “We were told today that it was 70 bags that didn’t fly. One pram made it across, that’s it,” Madeline added.
“People didn’t even believe it at first – some thought it was a joke.”
Vital belongings left behind included medicines, contact lenses, cosmetics and sun protection. Sophie Payne, one of the party, suffers severe asthma and found herself stranded without her inhaler.
“It was really stressful,” she said. “I take it twice a day and it gets worse at night.
“We’ve had to search for a pharmacy in an area we don’t know.”
The group, staying at the Cordial Green Golf Bungalows, were informed that their luggage might arrive by Saturday night.
But as of 6pm, they had not received any updates from Ryanair.
“There’s been zero communication,” Madeline commented. “They keep telling us to use the app, but some older passengers don’t even have smartphones.”
The ordeal has already disrupted their plans. “We’ve had to pay €60 just to get to a shopping centre and back for clean underwear and essentials,” Madeline said. “We’re all students – we can’t afford to keep replacing everything.”
With temperatures soaring and no suncream in sight, Sophie summed up the mood: “There’s a lot of burnt bodies around here.”
Other travellers vented their frustration on social media.
One user said: “Great start to the holiday as Ryanair decided to bring 0 of the suitcases from Bristol to Gran Canaria. No heart medication for me tomorrow.”
Another shared: “Currently in Gran Canaria with zero belongings.”
Despite the problems, the group is still hopeful that their luggage will turn up in time for their activities, which include a birthday celebration, a trip to a water park, and a private boat tour.
“This is provided that we are able to get our luggage,” Sophie pointed out. “If we don’t our stuff then it’s completely ruined the holiday.”
Some of the group face an hour-long round trip back to the airport to retrieve their suitcases.
Ryanair and Bristol Airport have been contacted for comment.
Cropped shot of a woman holding a basket while shopping at a grocery storeCredit: Getty
But there are ways to drive down the cost of your weekly shop, starting with help through the Household Support Fund (HSF).
The £742million fund has been shared between councils in England who then decide how to allocate their share.
Some are directing cash payments to residents in need while others are distributing supermarket vouchers to cover the summerholidays.
We’ve rounded up what some local authorities are offering below.
We won’t have covered all the councils offering help, so if your local authority isn’t included it’s worth checking with it to see what you are eligible for.
Most councils have pages on their websites dedicated to the Household Support Fund where you’ll find details on who is eligible and what you’re in line for.
You can find what local council area you fall under by visiting www.gov.uk/find-local-council.
That said, below are some of the councils offering qualifying households supermarket vouchers.
Bracknell Forest Council
Schools in Bracknell are automatically distributing supermarket vouchers to children registered for free school meals.
These vouchers have been paid for through Bracknell Forest Council’s allotment of the Household Support Fund.
Families can get FREE washing machines, fridges and kids’ beds or £200 payments this summer – and you can apply now
The council has not confirmed how much the vouchers are worth.
Wakefield Metropolitan District Counci
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council is issuing supermarket vouchers worth £50 to families receiving council tax support.
The vouchers are being issued via letters on July 21 and take up to seven days to arrive.
Full instructions on how to redeem the vouchers will be included in the letters.
Once the voucher has been redeemed, it doesn’t have to be used all at once and can be used several times until it is spent.
Nottingham City Council
Nottingham City Council is distributing £75 supermarket vouchers to households each month until March 2026.
There is a limit on the number of vouchers being shared each month meaning you have to act fast to claim one.
Applications for this month’s vouchers opened on July 7 so may all have been allocated for July.
Nottingham City Council has said the dates applications for vouchers will open between August and next March will be confirmed “later in July”.
The vouchers are worth £90 per child meaning you could get £180 if you have two kids.
You don’t need to apply for the vouchers as they are being sent automatically to emails or as letters.
The council’s partner, Blackhawk, is issuing a 16-digit personalised code and instructions on how to redeem the vouchers on the Blackhawk website – ealingcouncil.select-your-reward.co.uk.
Devon County Council
Devon County Council has issued supermarket vouchers worth more than £90 to 22,000 families with children on free school meals.
The £90 is equivalent to £15 per week for the six week school holiday.
The council has said the vouchers can be redeemed in major supermarkets but hasn’t said which ones.
Portsmouth City Council
Portsmouth City Council is issuing £50 supermarket vouchers to children on benefits-related free school meals.
You might also be eligible if your child is not on free school meals and you’re on a low income, and can apply for the vouchers from the end of the school term.
You can also forward your email address to the council and will be contacted when the application window opens.
More details can be found via www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/benefits-and-money-advice/help-and-support/money-advice/household-support-fund.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council
Families on free school meals are eligible for supermarket food vouchers being distributed by schools in the area.
You do not need to apply as they are being issued automatically.
Food vouchers may also be available for children under five years if certain criteria is met.
To receive a voucher, children must be living in Bournemouth, Christchurch, or Poole and meet one of the following criteria:
currently claiming 2 year old early education funding at an early years setting in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole during the term
currently claiming Early Years Pupil Premium funding for 3 and 4 year olds at an early years setting in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole during the term (this is different to the early education funding available to all 3 and 4 year olds)
currently have an open case with a social worker or Early Help family support worker and are of pre-school age
Food vouchers for this group of families have to be applied for, with more details on the BCP Council website.
Household Support Fund explained
Sun Savers EditorLana Clementsexplains what you need to know about the Household Support Fund.
Sun Savers Editor Lana Clements explains what you need to know about the Household Support Fund.
If you’re battling to afford energy and water bills, food or other essential items and services, the Household Support Fund can act as a vital lifeline.
The financial support is a little-known way for struggling families to get extra help with the cost of living.
Every council in England has been given a share of £421million cash by the government to distribute to local low income households.
Each local authority chooses how to pass on the support. Some offer vouchers whereas others give direct cash payments.
In many instances, the value of support is worth hundreds of pounds to individual families.
Just as the support varies between councils, so does the criteria for qualifying.
Many councils offer the help to households on selected benefits or they may base help on the level of household income.
The key is to get in touch with your local authority to see exactly what support is on offer.
The last round ran until the end of March 2025, but was extended.
The most current round is running between April 2025 and March 2026.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
A flight attendant has shared the reason why the cabin lights are dimmed during take-off and landing on a plane, and why it’s nothing to worry about and is just standard procedure
Barbara Bacilieri shared why the cabin lights are dimmed (Image: Jam Press/@barbiebac)
If you’ve ever been on a night flight and the cabin crew has dimmed the lights for no apparent reason, it may leave you feeling a little uneasy. Suddenly, the plane is plunged into darkness, and if you’re not in the know, you may not know that there’s a reading light above your head to ensure you can see better.
It can leave you sweaty-palmed and can set you on edge for the rest of take-off or landing. Most of the time, there will be a warning to let you know it’s happening, but even then, it can get a little nerve-wracking because you won’t realise the extent of how dark it gets. Then, when you’re plunged into darkness, you’re left desperately looking around, trying to figure out how everyone else is feeling about the situation.
But there’s no need to panic, and one flight attendant has shared the reasons why the cabin lights are dimmed during take-off and landing.
Many passengers will assume it’s a pointless exercise because the pilot isn’t in the same part of the plane – but it’s nothing to do with that.
Barbara Bacilieri, also known as Barbie Bac, shares videos about her flight experience with her 2.65million YouTube subscribers.
And the 29-year-old has confirmed the reason why take-off and landing are dark if you’re on a night flight.
She shared answers to the question everyone wants to know(Image: Jam Press/@barbiebac)
A fan asked: “Why do planes dim the lights during take-off and landing?”
Barbara confirmed that it’s to “help your eyes adjust in case of an emergency evacuation,” so you haven’t been in bright lights previously if you need to get yourself out of the plane.
Lights are dimmed in the cabin of aeroplanes during take-off and landing – especially at night or in low visibility conditions – for safety reasons.
In the unlikely event of an emergency during take-off or landing, and passengers need to evacuate, their eyes will already be adjusted to the lower light levels outside the aircraft.
This helps them see better and move more quickly if they need to find their way to exits.
When the cabin lights are dim, the emergency lighting in the flooring also becomes far more visible, and it helps guide passengers to the exits in case of an emergency.
Dimming the cabin lights reduces glare and reflections on windows, allowing passengers and crew to see outside more clearly. This can be important for situational awareness.
It’s also not the main reason; dimming lights can help conserve power for critical systems during important flight phases.
ROYAL Ascot jockey Gary Carroll has been banned and fined – days after winning the biggest race of his life.
Carroll steered home 33-1 roughie Cercene in a shock finish to the Coronation Stakes last Friday.
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Cercene was a brilliant winner of the Coronation Stakes – but the ride that got her there has seen jockey Gary Carroll banned and finedCredit: The Mega Agency
Trainer Joseph Murphy said the unlikely victory – worth just shy of £500,000 – was the culmination of his life’s work and there were emotional scenes in the winner’s enclosure afterwards.
But the superstar filly will need a new jockey for her intended run in the Irish Oaks next month after Carroll was hit with a big ban.
He has been whacked with a two-week suspension and fined £5,800 for using his whip twice above the limit of six in the mile race.
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The failed mission comes two years after the Japanese start-up’s first moonshot ended in a crash landing.
A Japanese-made private lunar lander has crashed while attempting to touch down on the moon, with its makers officially declaring the mission a failure.
Tokyo-based company ispace said on Friday that its lander, named Resilience, dropped out of lunar orbit as planned and that the mission appeared to be going well.
But flight controllers lost contact with Resilience, which was carrying a mini rover, moments before its scheduled touchdown on the surface of the moon following an hourlong descent. Ground support was met with silence as they attempted to regain contact with the lander and after several hours declared the mission a failure.
The company’s livestream of the attempted landing then came to an abrupt end.
“We have to take seriously what happened,” ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada said after the failed mission, as he apologised to everyone who contributed.
This is the firm’s second failed attempt to soft land on the lunar surface, coming two years after the Japanese start-up’s first attempt to reach the moon ended in a crash landing.
A model of the lunar lander ‘Resilience, operated by ispace, is displayed in Tokyo, Japan, on June 6, 2025 [Manami Yamada/Reuters]
Launched in December 2022, the firm’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 reached lunar orbit but crashed during its final descent after an error caused the lander to believe it was lower than it actually was.
That mission’s successor, Resilience, was launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey. It shared a ride on a SpaceX rocket with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which, upon reaching the moon first in March this year, made the US firm the first private entity to make a “fully successful” soft landing there.
The 2.3-metre (7.5-foot) Resilience lander was targeting the top of the moon, where the ispace team had chosen a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, to land.
Resilience was expected to beam back pictures within hours of landing, before ispace’s European-built rover – named Tenacious – would have been lowered onto the lunar surface this weekend. The rover, made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic and sporting a high-definition camera, would then have scouted out the area and scooped up lunar dirt for NASA.
Resilience was also carrying a toy-sized red house created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. Moonhouse, as the model Swedish-style cottage was called, was intended to be the moon’s first “building”, in a nod to Hakamada’s vision of humans living and working there as early as the 2040s.
But ispace’s now second failed landing has left the Japanese entrepreneur’s vision in doubt. The aerospace company’s next, much bigger lander is scheduled to launch by 2027 with NASA’s involvement.
Prior to Friday’s failed mission, the Japanese firm’s chief financial officer, Jumpei Nozaki, promised to continue its lunar quest regardless of the outcome.
But Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace’s US subsidiary, said at a conference last month that the firm does not have “infinite funds” and cannot afford repeated failures.
Company officials said this latest failed mission cost less than the first one – which exceeded $100m – but declined to provide an exact figure.
A pilot has been hailed a “hero” after he took revenge on a woman who sprinted to the front of the plane as soon as it landed, despite the seatbelt sign still being on
The pilot called out the passenger(Image: Getty Images)
A pilot has been praised as a “hero” for his tongue-in-cheek response to an impatient woman who dashed down the aisle to be the first off the aircraft. A fellow traveller recounted on Reddit how the woman leapt from her seat the moment the plane touched down and bolted towards the exit.
Ignoring the illuminated seatbelt sign and the cabin crew’s requests to sit down until the aircraft had come to a complete stop, she made her way to the front. The passenger posted: “The woman in the back unbuckled and darted to the front of the plane to get off first.
“She did not make any eye contact and felt that she was special. I’m talking about going from the very last seat on the plane, down the whole row, and past first class, basically standing at the little kitchen thing in the front.
“The seat belt sign was still on and we were still rolling down the runway. The flight crew had asked her to return to her seat until we reached the gate but she was not even responding.”
After the gruelling eight-hour flight, all eyes were on the woman as passengers watched the drama unfold. That’s when the captain decided to address the situation with a bit of humour.
The passenger continued: “Suddenly the captain announced we had a special guest onboard and he would be coming out to greet them after we were settled at the gate,” they added. “The woman stood there awkwardly until we did the whole rolling into the gate thing, and whatever planes do when they land, for about 15 to 20 minutes. Everyone sat there waiting to see what the captain was talking about.
“Eventually, the captain came out and asked the lady to please move back a little to get to his special guest, then a little more, then a little more. He was looking from row to row trying to find a specific person.
“Everyone is watching and looking around to see who it could be.” The pilot continued to guide her back one row at a time until she reached the very rear of the aircraft.
“Finally, as they neared the back of the plane, he asked her to sit for a moment while he fetched the intercom from the rear. He said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to announce our special guest sitting in seat 42C. Let’s give her a round of applause’.
“The whole plane erupted with laughter and applause. I loved every moment of that.” Reflecting on the pilot’s clever manoeuvre, one user commented: “That pilot is a hero to the people.
Another added: “I was hoping that the special guest was a federal marshal coming onboard to arrest the woman for refusing to follow safety-related commands given by members of the flight crew.”
One passenger contributed: “Sometimes when a plane is late arriving, there are people who have a connecting flight that will be very tight to make.
“They need to disembark quickly to stand any chance at their connection. The best way to handle that is to inform the stewardess and they can make a general announcement.
“Of course, sometimes people ignore that announcement and block the aisle for those people anyway.”
