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China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
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China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS

Chinese rocket developer LandSpace plans to successfully recover a reusable booster in mid-2026, a company executive said in an interview, underscoring the Beijing-based firm's ambition to become China's answer to SpaceX.

The ability to return, recover, and reuse a rocket's engine-packed first stage, or booster, after launch is crucial to reducing costs and making it easier for countries to send satellites into orbit, and to turn space exploration into a commercially viable business similar to civil aviation, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, privately-owned LandSpace ‌became the first ‌Chinese entity to conduct a full reusable rocket ‌test, when ⁠Zhuque-3 ​blasted off ‌from a remote area in northwest China for its maiden flight, drawing comparisons to US aerospace giant SpaceX.

SECOND ATTEMPT PLANNED

While LandSpace failed to complete the crucial final step of landing and recovering the rocket's engine-packed booster, it hopes to clear this challenge in mid-2026 with a second test flight, Zhuque-3 deputy chief designer Dong Kai told Chinese podcast Tech Early Know in an interview published on Tuesday.

"If the second flight's recovery (stage) succeeds, we ⁠plan that on the fourth flight we will use a reused first stage to launch," Dong said.

So far, ‌the only company that has mastered reusable rocket technology is ‍SpaceX, founded by the world's richest ‍person Elon Musk. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches around 150 times a year, or roughly ‍three times per week, with its booster reused dozens of times if necessary.

Musk said in October that LandSpace's Zhuque-3 design could allow it to beat the Falcon 9, but went on to state that the Chinese challenger's launch cadence would take more than five years to ​reach that of SpaceX's workhorse model, at which point the US firm would have transitioned to its heavier, new-generation model Starship and "doing over ⁠100 times the annual payload to orbit of Falcon".

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

LandSpace's Dong said that, while the company was already building an engine for a future Starship-like model, he was not optimistic that in five years Falcon 9's work rate could be surpassed, noting that all rocket models in China combined this year totalled only around 100 launches.

"It's very difficult for a single company to reach that kind of frequency. It requires the support of an entire ecosystem," Dong said, adding that LandSpace had 10 launches planned next year for all its models.

Other executives have previously said that the financial cost of a high-frequency testing and launch regimen was crucial to SpaceX's success, and that LandSpace's only ‌hope of amassing enough funds to sustain a similar programme would be by tapping China's capital markets, pointing to plans for an initial public offering next year.

 

 

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Varieties

Greece Is Paying Fishermen to Catch Toxic Toadfish Invading the Warming Mediterranean

A silver-cheeked toadfish placed on the ground after being caught by fishermen on the southern island of Crete, Greece, Monday, June 22, 2015. (InTime News via AP)
A silver-cheeked toadfish placed on the ground after being caught by fishermen on the southern island of Crete, Greece, Monday, June 22, 2015. (InTime News via AP)
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Greece Is Paying Fishermen to Catch Toxic Toadfish Invading the Warming Mediterranean

A silver-cheeked toadfish placed on the ground after being caught by fishermen on the southern island of Crete, Greece, Monday, June 22, 2015. (InTime News via AP)
A silver-cheeked toadfish placed on the ground after being caught by fishermen on the southern island of Crete, Greece, Monday, June 22, 2015. (InTime News via AP)

Fishermen in Greece are getting cash payouts to catch toxic fish migrating north into the Mediterranean Sea due to climate change.

The silver-cheeked toadfish is a torpedo-shaped species with prominent, humanlike teeth. Its skin and organs contain a powerful neurotoxin that can cause heart failure in humans if consumed.

Authorities say the fish have not been sighted in bathing areas at Greek island resorts. But in recent weeks, the fish have wreaked havoc for fishermen off the coast of Crete and several other Greek islands, chomping through nets.

“It’s got to the point where we might go out fishing one day and then spend the next three days fixing our nets,” Giorgos Kyriakakis, of a Cretan fishermen’s association, told Greek public broadcaster ERT on Friday.

“They eat our catch and damage our nets — that’s very costly,” he said.

The fish are believed to have traveled up the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, attracted by warming waters. The invasion prompted Cyprus to launch a similar catch program earlier this year.

Starting Friday, Greece's government is offering 5.33 euros per kilogram (about $2.75 per pound) for catches of the fish, which is normally found in tropical waters.

“It’s the first time that such a measure has been taken in Greece,” Agriculture Minister Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice president, said ahead of the program’s launch.

The fish – a member of the puffer fish family – will be frozen and incinerated at local government facilities, Schinas said. He added that the measure would likely be expanded from the currently affected islands to all Greek waters.

Public concern has been stoked in Greece by online videos posted by Greek fishing crews, showing the fish sinking their teeth into soda cans or pieces of wood.

The Greek Red Cross has issued a public health warning about the fish, outlining first-aid protocols for bleeding caused by potential bites and warning of the deadly neurotoxin in the fish’s organs.

But authorities and businesses on the island of Crete cautioned against overreacting to the fish’s offshore presence.

“The presence of these fish in the Mediterranean has been known for years,” a statement issued Friday by 16 medical and tourism associations on Crete said.

“There is, however, no ‘invisible’ or imminent danger to bathers. Marine predators do not threaten the safety of visitors and residents,” it said. “Exaggeration is often a feature of public debate.”

Varieties

St. Bernard Dogs Still Roam the Swiss Alps as Part of 'Living Museum'

St. Bernard dogs from the Barry foundation run in the hills at the St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jez Fielder)
St. Bernard dogs from the Barry foundation run in the hills at the St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jez Fielder)
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St. Bernard Dogs Still Roam the Swiss Alps as Part of 'Living Museum'

St. Bernard dogs from the Barry foundation run in the hills at the St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jez Fielder)
St. Bernard dogs from the Barry foundation run in the hills at the St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jez Fielder)

At the Great St. Bernard Pass high in the Swiss Alps, the eponymous dogs still walk the same mountain paths their ancestors patrolled for hundreds of years to find travelers buried beneath the snow.

Down in the valley, a living museum honoring the Swiss national dog's history — and its future — is marking its first year.

More than 130,000 people have visited Barryland, the world's only space dedicated to St. Bernards, since it opened last summer in Martigny, Switzerland, after outgrowing a much smaller space. Tourists can watch live grooming and physiotherapy sessions, explore the mountain pass with augmented reality technology and learn more about the dogs.

“We have a lot of demand and interest for this breed and this whole history and patrimony,” The Associated Press quoted Barryland director Mélanie Glassey-Roth as saying. “So we decided to create a new park, a big one.”

At 2,469 meters (8,100 feet) above sea level on the Swiss-Italian border, the Great St. Bernard Pass is one of the country’s highest and most treacherous.

Since the mid-17th century, large mountain dogs have been kept on the pass. They arrived as guard dogs, became companions, and gradually evolved into something the Alpine world had never seen before: Animals with an extraordinary instinct for locating hikers lost in snow and fog.

The breed's name stems from the Great St. Bernard Hospice, which was founded in 1050 by Bernard de Montjoux, the archdeacon of Aosta and future saint, to provide refuge for pilgrims and merchants crossing the dangerous pass. The dogs became central to that mission, and by the early 19th century they had a reputation that was carried across Europe by soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte following his army's own crossing of the route.

Barry the First, the most celebrated dog, is traditionally credited with saving more than 40 lives when he was at the hospice between 1800 and 1812. At the Barry Foundation, the steward for the breeding program, there is always a male dog called Barry.

Currently, the foundation's 21 keepers care for 32 dogs. Roughly 20 pedigree puppies are born annually. These dogs, as well as other St. Bernards, no longer do mountain rescues because they’re too big to be transported by helicopter. Smaller breeds like Australian shepherds are used instead, though a number of St. Bernards are kept on the pass to keep the tradition alive.

The foundation's dogs typically eat about 10 metric tons (22,046 pounds) of dry food each year and spend their summers gamboling in the remnants of snow in the mountains before heading 40 kilometers (25 miles) down winding roads back to the kennel in Barryland.

“We get to see them born, and we get to see them grow up, and then become mothers, and we get to accompany them through all those different challenges in life,” keeper Alexandra Piatti said. “We are their guide, so we can help them with socialization and educate them, and really be by their side for their whole lives.”

In 2025 alone, the foundation says its dogs completed 609 jobs by visiting hospitals, care homes, schools and prisons across Switzerland.

Keeper Déborah Dini balances the weight of the breed's history with affection for the dogs in her charge.

“We perpetuate the tradition,” she said. “We take care of them. We love them.”

Varieties

Analysis: At Least 150 Mn People in Europe Forecast to Face Temperatures Above 35C Friday

Youths cool down in the waters of the Canal Saint-Martin as France experiences a heatwave, in Paris on June 25, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
Youths cool down in the waters of the Canal Saint-Martin as France experiences a heatwave, in Paris on June 25, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
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Analysis: At Least 150 Mn People in Europe Forecast to Face Temperatures Above 35C Friday

Youths cool down in the waters of the Canal Saint-Martin as France experiences a heatwave, in Paris on June 25, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
Youths cool down in the waters of the Canal Saint-Martin as France experiences a heatwave, in Paris on June 25, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

At least 150 million people in Europe are expected to experience temperatures above 35C on Friday, according to an AFP analysis.

Germany is now expected to bear the brunt of the heatwave, with some 82 million people forecast to experience temperatures above 30C on Friday, including 52 million facing temperatures exceeding 35C.

Some 420 million people across Europe (excluding Türkiye) -- around 70 percent of the population -- will swelter in temperatures of more than 30C, according to the analysis.

Pedestrians cool off at “The area with Ljubljana’s own weather” in Preseren Square in Ljubljana on June 24, 2026. (Photo by Jure MAKOVEC / AFP)

Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland have all broken temperature records during the heatwave, with the high temperatures now expected to affect large parts of Hungary, Belgium and Luxembourg, among others.

The analysis is based on forecasts from the German Meteorological Service and 2025 population projections from the Joint Research Center and is in line with figures from Austrian NGO Klimadashboard.