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After the Moon, India Launches Rocket to Study the Sun

This handout screen grab taken and received from the live feed of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) website on September 2, 2023, shows the Aditya-L1 spacecraft take off from Sriharikota, on a voyage to the center of the Sun. (Photo by ISRO / AFP)
This handout screen grab taken and received from the live feed of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) website on September 2, 2023, shows the Aditya-L1 spacecraft take off from Sriharikota, on a voyage to the center of the Sun. (Photo by ISRO / AFP)
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After the Moon, India Launches Rocket to Study the Sun

This handout screen grab taken and received from the live feed of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) website on September 2, 2023, shows the Aditya-L1 spacecraft take off from Sriharikota, on a voyage to the center of the Sun. (Photo by ISRO / AFP)
This handout screen grab taken and received from the live feed of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) website on September 2, 2023, shows the Aditya-L1 spacecraft take off from Sriharikota, on a voyage to the center of the Sun. (Photo by ISRO / AFP)

Following the success of India's moon landing, the country's space agency launched a rocket on Saturday to study the sun in its first solar mission.
The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped, a live broadcast on the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) website showed.
The broadcast was watched by nearly 500,000 viewers, while thousands gathered at a viewing gallery near the launch site to see the lift-off of the probe, which will aim to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on earth commonly seen as auroras, Reuters reported.
Named after the Hindi word for the sun, the Aditya-L1 launch follows India beating Russia late last month to become the first country to land on the south pole of the moon. While Russia had a more powerful rocket, India's Chandrayaan-3 out-endured the Luna-25 to execute a textbook landing.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to travel about 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) over four months to a kind of parking lot in space where objects tend to stay put because of balancing gravitational forces, reducing fuel consumption for the spacecraft.
Those positions are called Lagrange Points, named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
The mission has the capacity to make a "big bang in terms of science," said Somak Raychaudhury, who was involved in the development of some components of the observatory, adding that energy particles emitted by the sun can hit satellites that control communications on earth.
"There have been episodes when major communications have gone down because a satellite has been hit by a big corona emission. Satellites in low earth orbit are the main focus of global private players, which makes the Aditya L1 mission a very important project," he said.
Scientists hope to learn more about the effect of solar radiation on the thousands of satellites in orbit, a number growing with the success of ventures like the Starlink communications network of Elon Musk's SpaceX.
"The low earth orbit has been heavily polluted due to private participation, so understanding how to safeguard satellites there will have special importance in today's space environment," said Rama Rao Nidamanuri, head of the department of earth and space sciences at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.
Longer term, data from the mission could help better understand the sun's impact on earth's climate patterns and the origins of solar wind, the stream of particles that flow from the sun through the solar system, ISRO scientists have said.
Pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has privatized space launches and is looking to open the sector to foreign investment as it targets a five-fold increase in its share of the global launch market within the next decade.

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French Scramble to Find Air Conditioners before Next Heatwave

A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
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French Scramble to Find Air Conditioners before Next Heatwave

A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco

Hundreds of people were besieging Lidl supermarkets in and around Paris Thursday, with scuffles and shouting matches breaking out as residents scrambled to get their hands on bargain air-cooling units before the next heatwave hits the French capital.

With few air conditioners on sale elsewhere for less than 1,200 euros ($1,400), police were called to at least two stores as huge crowds descended on Lidl supermarkets trying to get their hands on basic models on sale for as low as 179 euros, AFP said.

Mousa Traore, who had been waiting for more than an hour along with some 200 other customers at a small Lidl store in a northern Paris neighborhood, said he had been told there were only two units on sale, AFP .

"But then the police came and we were told there were none. The police officers took them I think," he said laughing.

France has just been through a record heatwave that led to excess deaths, overwhelmed hospitals, closed schools and cancelled music festivals, and weather services are forecasting another round of hot weather this coming weekend.

Due to historically mild summers, few homes and schools in France are equipped with air conditioning, making them ill-equipped to face increasingly frequent heatwaves that scientists say are linked to human-induced climate change.

- 'It's madness' -

Even so, the crowd at the Lidl store was mostly good-humored, but some disputes broke out as people tried to jump the queue.

"I am not opening the store unless you leave," a manager shouted, as customers harangued her, with another member of staff telling AFP only two air conditioners had been delivered.

He refused to say if they had already been sold.

Hundreds more descended on a supermarket in Sevran, with cars queuing for the store blocking the center of the poor northern suburb. It was much the same story in nearby suburb of Livry-Gargan.

"I give up, it's madness. I abandoned my car several streets away to get there on foot but there is already a huge queue of people in the car park. It's impossible," one local called Lolo told AFP.

The rush for cooling units comes despite longstanding skepticism towards air conditioning in France.

Eight in 10 people view it as environmentally unfriendly, according to a survey of more than 1,000 people published last month.

But attitudes appear to be shifting as temperatures climb, with cooling units flying off shelves.

In the midst of the heatwave on June 22, hypermarket operator Carrefour had sold 30,000 units by 6:30 pm - "a thousand times more than on a normal day", CEO Alexandre Bompard said.

The share of French households equipped with air conditioning rose from 18 percent in 2023 to 24 percent in 2025, according to the state environment agency Ademe.

Air conditioning has emerged as a political weather vane in France, with the main far-right opposition party criticizing the government for not having prepared for hotter weather, and ecologists warning of the heavy energy demands of running air conditioners.

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India's Skyroot Aerospace Readies Country's 1st Private Orbital Rocket Launch

FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo
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India's Skyroot Aerospace Readies Country's 1st Private Orbital Rocket Launch

FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, in Hyderabad, India, November 27, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh/File Photo

Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace said on Thursday it was preparing for the launch of its Vikram-1 rocket, the first attempt by an Indian private company to place a satellite in orbit.

Founded by former Indian Space Research Organization engineers, Skyroot is developing small rockets similar to those built by Rocket Lab and Firefly Aerospace.

The Vikram-1, a seven-stories-tall, multi-stage ⁠launch vehicle, is designed ⁠to carry payloads of up to 350 kilograms into the low Earth orbit, Reuters reported.

Skyroot, which became India's first space startup to reach a $1 billion valuation after raising $60 million from ⁠GIC and Sherpalo Ventures in May, has set a July 12 - August 4 launch window for the maiden flight from the country's main spaceport, the Satish Dhawan Space Center.

The test flight, carrying a mix of domestic and international customers, aims primarily to collect in-flight performance data across propulsion, guidance and stage separation systems, ⁠the ⁠company said.

The launch comes as India opens its state-dominated space sector to private companies, seeking a bigger share of the global market for satellite launches and related services.

Industrial groups such as Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited are also moving into rocket manufacturing as the government pushes to build a $44 billion space economy by 2033.

Varieties

Coffee with a View: Tourists Flock to Starbucks Overlooking North Korea

TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
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Coffee with a View: Tourists Flock to Starbucks Overlooking North Korea

TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A visitor holding a Starbucks cup takes a selfie as he looks at the North Korean side from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

The contrast cannot be starker: selfie-taking tourists sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalization and capitalism -- while looking out over reclusive, communist North Korea.

Welcome to Aegibong Starbucks in Gimpo -- less than an hour's drive from South Korea's capital Seoul but a world away from its closed-off northern neighbor less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) across the Han river.

Perched on a hilltop beneath the Aegibong Peace Ecopark observatory where telescopes peek into the secluded state, the shop has drawn tens of thousands from South Korea and abroad since opening in November 2024.

Kim Jong-hyun, who lives in San Diego and was visiting South Korea with his family, said it was the irony of the contrast that drew him to the hilltop.

"When I heard there was a Starbucks here, I naturally thought I had to come and see it for myself. It's quite unusual," he told AFP.

Customers need to book ahead to enter the park that houses the coffee house.

They then travel from a parking lot in a shuttle operated by park authorities and cross a military checkpoint guarded by armed South Korean marines.

The journey is part of the experience -- walking the last stretch inside South Korea while looking out on agricultural and mountain landscapes in a country whose outside image the government under Kim Jong Un seeks to manage entirely.

Very few foreign journalists or tourists -- mainly from allies Russia and China -- can enter North Korea, and then under tightly controlled conditions.

South and North Korea are technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The nations are separated by an ironically-named Demilitarized Zone.

The South, an important US security ally, rose from the ruins of war to become an advanced economy home to Samsung Electronics and other tech giants.

But the North -- ruled with an iron fist by a third-generation leader -- is crippled by sanctions over its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

- 'On a different scale' -

James Seymour, an Irish tourist, told AFP the scene from the lookout point was one of "polar opposites."

"We're from Belfast and we're kind of used to war... the Troubles and all that if you know what I mean," he said, referring to the sectarian conflict that gripped Northern Ireland in the late 20th century.

But standing near the border, sipping coffee from a global chain while looking at the North's nondescript low-rise buildings, was "on a different scale completely", he said.

"You couldn't get any more American than Starbucks and you couldn't get any further than America, you know... North Korea."

The number of visitors to Aegibong Peace Ecopark has more than doubled since the Starbucks opened, according to figures provided by park management.

The number of foreign visitors last year rose 275 percent to 56,829 from a year earlier, with Chinese tourists accounting for the largest share, nearly a third.

Lee Chun-woo of the Gimpo Cultural Foundation, which oversees the park, told AFP the increase was "totally attributable to the Starbucks store".

- 'Death to Communism' -

Starbucks Korea said it chose the setting for the "scenic confluence of the Han and Imjin rivers" that offer visitors a "unique place to relax amid nature".

In a statement to AFP, it did not mention the proximity of the 136-square-meter (1,464 square foot) store to North Korea.

But Chung Yong-jin, chairman of the Shinsegae Group that operates Starbucks Korea under a licensing agreement, has been more vocal about the South's secretive neighbor.

In several Instagram posts -- all of which he has since deleted -- Chung used the phrase "Death to Communism" multiple times.

"Whenever North Korea fired missiles, investors pulled their money out," Chung said in a 2022 social media post explaining his comments.

He described himself as "a business owner and as a South Korean citizen who lives with the daily uncertainty of not knowing when a missile might strike" his country.

"To some people, Death to Communism is a political slogan. To me, it's reality," said Chung.