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SpaceX-Polaris Crew Exits Capsule for First Private Spacewalk

Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, attend a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, attend a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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SpaceX-Polaris Crew Exits Capsule for First Private Spacewalk

Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, attend a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, attend a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

A crew of four aboard a SpaceX capsule embarked on the world's first private spacewalk on Thursday, as an astronaut eased out of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a tether into the vacuum of space, hundreds of miles from Earth.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, exited first about 6:52 a.m. ET (1052 GMT). After he returned a few minutes later, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, was scheduled to take her turn in space, all their maneuvers streaming live on the company's website, Reuters reported.

"Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world," Isaacman said after emerging from the spacecraft, the planet glittering in half shadow below him.

Before the spacewalk began, the capsule was completely depressurized, with the whole crew relying on their slim, SpaceX-developed spacesuits for oxygen, provided via an umbilical connection to Crew Dragon.

The spacewalk was scheduled to last only about 30 minutes, but the procedures to prepare for it and to finish it safely last about two hours. It was meant to test the new spacesuit designs and procedures for the capsule, among other things.

Isaacman, Gillis, Scott Poteet, 50, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, 38, had been orbiting Earth aboard Crew Dragon since Tuesday's pre-dawn launch from Florida of the Polaris Dawn mission. Menon and Poteet remained inside the spacecraft during the spacewalk.

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It is the Elon Musk-led company's latest and riskiest bid to push the boundaries of commercial spaceflight.

Isaacman, a pilot and the billionaire founder of electronic payments company Shift4 (FOUR.N), opens new tab, is bankrolling the Polaris mission, as he did his Inspiration4 flight with SpaceX in 2021.

He has declined to say how much he is paying, but the missions are likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, based on Crew Dragon's price of roughly $55 million a seat for other flights.

-FARTHEST SINCE APOLLO

Throughout Wednesday, the craft circled Earth at least six times in an oval orbit as shallow as 190 km (118 miles) and stretching out as far as 1,400 km (870 miles), the farthest in space that humans have traveled since the last US Apollo mission in 1972.

The gumdrop-shaped spacecraft then began to lower its orbit into a peak 700-km (435-mile) position and adjust cabin pressure to ready for the spacewalk, formally called Extravehicular Activity (EVA), the Polaris program said on social media on Wednesday.

"The crew also spent a few hours demonstrating the suit’s pressurized mobility, verifying positions and accessibility in microgravity along with preparing the cabin for the EVA," it said.

Only government astronauts with several years of training have done spacewalks in the past.

There have been roughly 270 on the International Space Station (ISS) since it was set up in 2000, and 16 by Chinese astronauts on Beijing's Tiangong space station.

The Polaris crew has spent 2-1/2 years training with SpaceX mission simulations and "experiential learning" in challenging, uncomfortable environments, said Poteet.

A record 19 astronauts are now in orbit, after Russia's Soyuz MS-26 mission ferried two cosmonauts and a US astronaut to the International Space Station on Wednesday, taking its headcount to 12.

Three Chinese astronauts are aboard the Tiangong space station.

The first US spacewalk in 1965, aboard a Gemini capsule, used a similar procedure to the one planned for Polaris Dawn: the capsule was depressurized, the hatch opened, and a spacesuited astronaut ventured outside on a tether.

Since 2001, Crew Dragon, the only US vehicle capable of reliably putting humans in orbit and returning them to Earth, has flown more than a dozen astronaut missions, mainly for NASA.

The agency seeded development of the capsule under a program meant to establish commercial, privately-built US vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts with the ISS.

Also developed under that program was Boeing's Starliner capsule, but it is farther behind.

Starliner launched its first astronauts to the ISS in June in a troubled test mission that ended this month with the capsule returning empty, leaving its crew on the space station for a Crew Dragon capsule to fetch next year.

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India has Begun its Long-delayed Population Census

FILE - Indians crowd ticket counters at a railway station in Ahmadabad, India, Oct. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
FILE - Indians crowd ticket counters at a railway station in Ahmadabad, India, Oct. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
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India has Begun its Long-delayed Population Census

FILE - Indians crowd ticket counters at a railway station in Ahmadabad, India, Oct. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
FILE - Indians crowd ticket counters at a railway station in Ahmadabad, India, Oct. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)

India has begun the world’s largest national population count, which could reshape welfare programs and political representation across the country.

The previous census in 2011 recorded a population of 1.21 billion. It's now estimated to be more than 1.4 billion, making India the most populous nation, The Associated Press reported.

The new census had been planned for 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and logistical challenges.

Here’s how India’s census works and why it is significant:

The first phase of the count started Wednesday and will roll out around the country through September. The workers will spend about a month in each area collecting information on homes and available facilities and will document housing stock and living conditions.

The exercise will blend in-person surveys with a digital option where residents can submit information through a multilingual smartphone application that integrates satellite-based mapping.

The second phase to be conducted from September to next April 1 will record more detailed information, like people's social and economic characteristics, including religion and caste.

More than 3 million government workers are expected to be deployed over the course of the year. In 2011, nearly 2.7 million enumerators surveyed more than 240 million households nationwide.

The second phase of the census will attempt a broader accounting of caste beyond historically marginalized groups.

Caste is an ancient system of social hierarchy in India and is influential in defining social standing and deciding who gets access to resources, education and economic opportunity.

There are hundreds of caste groups based on occupation and economic status across India, particularly among Hindus, but the country has limited or outdated data on how many people belong to them.

The last attempt to gather detailed caste information through a census dates to 1931, during British colonial rule. Since independent India’s first census in 1951, it counted only Dalits and Adivasis, members of marginalized groups known as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who qualify for certain government benefits.

Successive governments have resisted conducting a full caste count, arguing it could heighten social tensions and trigger unrest.

Population data collected through the census underpins the distribution of government welfare programs and a wide range of public policies.

It could also prompt a redrawing of India’s political map, as seats in the lower house of Parliament and state legislatures may be increased to reflect population growth. A 2023 law reserves one-third of legislative seats for women, so any expansion would raise the number of seats set aside for female representatives.

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Pakistan’s Blossom Season Brings Calm in a Troubled World

Commuters ride past apricot blossom trees at Ghanche district in Gilgit-Baltistan region on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
Commuters ride past apricot blossom trees at Ghanche district in Gilgit-Baltistan region on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
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Pakistan’s Blossom Season Brings Calm in a Troubled World

Commuters ride past apricot blossom trees at Ghanche district in Gilgit-Baltistan region on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
Commuters ride past apricot blossom trees at Ghanche district in Gilgit-Baltistan region on March 30, 2026. (AFP)

The harsh days of winter are over in Pakistan's high north and while snow still tops the towering peaks that dominate the landscape, spring has arrived in the foothills.

But this year, visitors who have come to witness the region's cherry and apricot blossoms see it as the perfect tonic to the war in the Middle East and its knock-on effects.

"There's war going on all over the world right now. It's petrol crisis, this and that, everything has become more expensive, everyone is in a depression," Hatib, 27, from Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, told AFP.

"But to get out of depression, you need to step outside, go out somewhere for a bit, see places, explore, and relax the mind," he said.

The blossoms that turn bare trees into a vibrant shade of pink carpet the thawing farmland of Gilgit-Baltistan from late March every year, marking renewal and the promise of fruit harvests to come for local people.

"The best part is when these flowers are falling. It literally feels like a dream," Hatib said.

The region, home to about 1.7 million people, has some of the world's highest mountains, including K2, which soars to 8,611 meters (28,251 feet) -- second only to Mount Everest.

The jagged mountain ranges, high-altitude lakes and glaciers of Gilgit-Baltistan are a magnet for the daring and adventurous.

But more sedate visitors can instead take selfies in the orchards of the flowering deep valleys, under a clear blue sky with only the chirrup of birdsong and the bleat of foraging goats to break the surrounding silence.

"No matter how much inflation there is in Pakistan today, no matter how much petrol prices are going up, tourists still don't want to miss the cherry blossom and apricot blossom season," said local visitor Maria Akbar, 29.

"Even if we have to spend extra money, it's not a problem, but we'll enjoy this view."

"Things like cherry blossom and apricot blossom are what make Gilgit-Baltistan unique compared to all other regions," added Junaid Ahmed, 31.

"Tourists from all over the world come to enjoy this season. As you can see around me how beautiful it is, the beautiful view of these cherry and apricot blossoms is right before your eyes."

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Hong Kong’s ‘Hero Trees’ Lose Their Glory as Climate Warms

A kapok tree blooms with vibrant red flowers while retaining green foliage that typically would have shed during winter, in Hong Kong on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
A kapok tree blooms with vibrant red flowers while retaining green foliage that typically would have shed during winter, in Hong Kong on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Hong Kong’s ‘Hero Trees’ Lose Their Glory as Climate Warms

A kapok tree blooms with vibrant red flowers while retaining green foliage that typically would have shed during winter, in Hong Kong on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
A kapok tree blooms with vibrant red flowers while retaining green foliage that typically would have shed during winter, in Hong Kong on March 15, 2026. (AFP)

Hong Kong's beloved kapok trees are not blooming the way they used to, drawing concern from conservationists who see it as a sign that nature is falling out of sync as the climate warms.

Locally known as "hero trees" for their majestic appearance, kapoks attract large numbers of photographers every spring when their bright red flowers bloom on otherwise bare branches.

But that contrast has been fading in recent years as leaves that should have been shed during winter stay put as the seasons change, worrying researchers.

"The kapok trees we see now very often have both flowers and leaves at the same time," said Lam Chiu-ying, former director of the Hong Kong Observatory.

"In some places, half the tree is covered in green leaves and the other half in red flowers."

The kapok, also known as the red silk-cotton tree, is native to tropical and subtropical Asia, including southern China.

The shift in their springtime appearance has "become increasingly common" over the past decade due to warming winters caused by climate change, Lam told AFP.

Hong Kong has just recorded its warmest winter on record, with the mean temperature from December to February hitting 19.3C, two degrees higher than normal, according to the observatory.

Angie Ng, an ecologist and conservation manager at local NGO The Conservancy Association, said the trees seemed to be blooming about two weeks earlier than usual this year, likely due to climate factors like temperature and moisture.

The trees have to divert resources to maintain both old leaves and new flowers, which may result in fewer blooms, she said.

The disruption could have knock-on effects on wildlife, as flowers provide nectar for birds and pollen for bees.

"Ecological processes function like an intricate web," Ng says.

"When the timing of animals and plants does not align properly, it can trigger ripple effects that impact not only animals dependent on those plants but also the broader ecological chains."