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Second Edition of Space Debris 2026 Conference Kicks Off with Participation from 75 Countries

The conference program includes specialized panel discussions addressing space sustainability and governance, in addition to the technical and regulatory challenges associated with space debris - SPA
The conference program includes specialized panel discussions addressing space sustainability and governance, in addition to the technical and regulatory challenges associated with space debris - SPA
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Second Edition of Space Debris 2026 Conference Kicks Off with Participation from 75 Countries

The conference program includes specialized panel discussions addressing space sustainability and governance, in addition to the technical and regulatory challenges associated with space debris - SPA
The conference program includes specialized panel discussions addressing space sustainability and governance, in addition to the technical and regulatory challenges associated with space debris - SPA

The second edition of the Space Debris 2026 Conference officially commenced today. Organized by the Saudi Space Agency (SSA), the conference is witnessing broad international participation representing 75 countries from around the world, with the attendance of leading experts, decision-makers, and leaders from the global space sector.

The conference is held with the support of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and with the participation of a number of local and international entities.

This reflects ongoing international efforts to strengthen cooperation in addressing space debris challenges and ensuring the sustainability of outer space, SPA reported.

In his opening remarks, SSA Acting Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mohammed Al Tamimi stated that convening the second edition of the conference reflects the Kingdom’s firm commitment to addressing the challenges of space debris management. He noted that the rapid increase in the number of objects and fragments in Earth orbits represents a growing challenge to the safety and sustainability of space activities, underscoring the need to enhance international cooperation and adopt innovative and effective solutions to address this phenomenon.

He also emphasized the importance of unifying international efforts in this field, and the role of the Kingdom, represented by the Saudi Space Agency, in supporting international initiatives and adopting best practices and advanced technologies for space debris management.

UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini affirmed that addressing space debris challenges requires comprehensive global cooperation, stating: “Global cooperation among international organizations, governments, industry, and academia in addressing space debris challenges is no longer merely a desirable objective. It has become an absolute necessity. At the same time, leading spacefaring nations must lead by example and develop concrete plans to address the accumulated legacy debris resulting from their past activities.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union Thomas Lamanauskas stressed the importance of responsible and inclusive management of space resources, stating: “We need to ensure that the opportunities created by the rapid growth of the space economy are accessible to all and can be enjoyed by future generations. Predictable, responsible, and inclusive management of space resources, including satellite orbits, is essential to achieving this.”

The conference aims to raise global awareness of the risks posed by space debris and to support international efforts to protect the future of the space economy. This is achieved through discussions on relevant policies and regulations, the promotion of research and innovation, and the development of effective international governance frameworks that contribute to mitigating the impacts of space debris and ensuring the responsible and sustainable use of orbital environments.

The conference program includes specialized panel discussions addressing space sustainability and governance, in addition to the technical and regulatory challenges associated with space debris. It also showcases innovative operational solutions and international partnerships that contribute to enhancing space security and long-term sustainability.

The conference is accompanied by an exhibition featuring 20 shortlisted projects from the DebrisSolver Competition, presenting innovative solutions and applied projects aimed at addressing space debris challenges. This reflects international innovation efforts to protect outer space as a shared resource for humanity and to ensure its sustainability.

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Varieties

Humans and Great Apes Share Similar Giggles

A Lowland gorilla plays during an environmental enrichment activity, predicting the outcome of the Spain vs. Uruguay FIFA World Cup football match, with Uruguay winning, at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on June 5, 2026. (Photo by ULISES RUIZ / AFP)
A Lowland gorilla plays during an environmental enrichment activity, predicting the outcome of the Spain vs. Uruguay FIFA World Cup football match, with Uruguay winning, at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on June 5, 2026. (Photo by ULISES RUIZ / AFP)
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Humans and Great Apes Share Similar Giggles

A Lowland gorilla plays during an environmental enrichment activity, predicting the outcome of the Spain vs. Uruguay FIFA World Cup football match, with Uruguay winning, at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on June 5, 2026. (Photo by ULISES RUIZ / AFP)
A Lowland gorilla plays during an environmental enrichment activity, predicting the outcome of the Spain vs. Uruguay FIFA World Cup football match, with Uruguay winning, at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on June 5, 2026. (Photo by ULISES RUIZ / AFP)

Humans and great apes have been giggling in similar ways since branching off the evolutionary tree, a new study suggests.

How do we know this? Researchers tickled 13 captive apes — including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos — and recorded the results. The new research reexamined those decades-old recordings and compared them with the newly captured giggles of four young children while they were being tickled and playing at home.

It turns out that the chuckles of humans and great apes follow similar rhythms, with regular timing between their laughs, a uniting thread that likely reflects their ties to a common ancestor, The Associated Press quoted researchers as saying.

“In a way, we are very similar to other great apes because we’ve been laughing in a similar way for 15 million years,” said study author Chiara De Gregorio, a primatologist at the University of Warwick in England.

Laughter communicates a playful, happy feeling without using words. Many animals can laugh too, but the giggles don’t follow human patterns as closely. When researchers tickle rats, for example, they respond with ultrasonic squeaks.

Scientists trying to uncover how laughter evolved have picked apart animals’ facial expressions, but less work has been done on how laughs sound. And compared with apes, human laughter has become faster and more complex. For one, our laughs sound different based on context — from a polite chuckle among colleagues to a full-bodied guffaw with close friends.

“We are like the masters of laughter, I would say,” said De Gregorio, whose findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.

These giggles evolved to best suit animals’ different social lives, said Brittany Florkiewicz, who studies animal communication at Lyon College and had no role in the new research. She said the study’s findings make sense, and point to a need for more investigation.

Florkiewicz said she’d like to hear comparable recordings of other animals with playful facial expressions, like dogs, horses and cats. That could tell us more about how laughter evolved, so we can “understand what makes us uniquely human, but also what is similar between humans and other animals.”

Studying the origins of laughter may seem corny, but it's one aspect of human communication that can help us understand others — including how we learned to speak.

Because sounds don't fossilize, scientists are using the evidence we do have to trace things back, one chuckle at a time.

Varieties

Researchers: 'Master Key' Vaccine Technique May 'Prevent Next Pandemic'

FILE - A sign for flu & COVID-19 vaccines is displayed outside a CVS store in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)
FILE - A sign for flu & COVID-19 vaccines is displayed outside a CVS store in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)
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Researchers: 'Master Key' Vaccine Technique May 'Prevent Next Pandemic'

FILE - A sign for flu & COVID-19 vaccines is displayed outside a CVS store in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)
FILE - A sign for flu & COVID-19 vaccines is displayed outside a CVS store in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)

Known by acronyms that need no explanation, viruses like Covid, Sars and Ebola conjure up images of medics in protective suits and spark fear in populations worldwide.

Vaccines for individual viruses have provided some relief, but new strains pose a constant challenge.

Now, new AI-aided vaccine technology developed by scientists at Cambridge University offer potential immunity against whole families of viruses and could even prevent the next pandemic, according to researchers.

Professor Jonathan Heeney of Cambridge University likened the new technique to having the "master key" for an apartment block.

The main problem with vaccines, he said, was that they were "all historic" so the strain you are vaccinated with might not be the one you end up being exposed to in six months time.

Vaccines were "always chasing the virus", the project lead researcher told AFP in an interview.

"So we're getting rid of that variability by making something that's across the board recognizable by your immune system that should cover you from all these eventualities ... a real big paradigm change," he said.

Canadian Heeney, of the lab of viral zoonotics at Cambridge University's Department of Veterinary Medicine, began work on the project after the 2013-16 Ebola outbreak in west Africa where he was then based.

Ebola had previously been seen in the central African Democratic Republic of Congo, not in west Africa and it was initially misidentified as lassa fever, gastroenteritis or cholera.

The west African outbreak eventually claimed around 11,300 lives, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

But Heeney said three or four months were spent trying to discover what it was before work could even begin on a vaccine.

"In that time, it spread from Guinea, to Sierra Leone to Liberia, three different countries quickly. The horse had bolted, the fire was raging," he said, adding many health workers were among the victims.

Returning to Cambridge after the west African outbreak, Heeney said there was a determination that "we've got to change the way this works, we can't go through it again".

Harnessing early AI, he said, his team used all the information they could get about various viruses and brought it together.

This allowed them to look for the "similarities and the differences in the important parts of the virus that the immune system responds to", recognizing not just one variant but all of them.

The new technology was all the more vital given the frequency with which viruses are now emerging due to population growth, greater movement across borders and human encroachment on animal habitats, he said.

Viruses that had previously existed harmlessly, residing in animals that had grown resistant, were coming into contact with a new species, humans, and "wow, there's no immunity, no natural defenses... and the virus goes crazy", he said.

A trial involving 39 volunteers -- sponsored by the University Hospital Southampton and published in the Journal of Infection -- found "no significant safety concerns" with the universal Sarbeco coronavirus vaccine made using the AI-aided technology.

The vaccine developed by the Cambridge scientists and biotechnoloy firm DIOSynVax will now move to larger tests.

Plagues have existed throughout history, said Heeney, from the Black Death of the Middle Ages to the 1918-20 influenza pandemic which killed an estimated 25-50 million globally.

Heeney's most pressing concern was a potential influenza outbreak, he said, describing it as one of the "trickier" viruses.

But he was hopeful the new technology could help prevent another deadly pandemic.

"Now, there's a whole different layer of AI, and we have a team using the latest AI technology ... to build a real powerful platform so we can work even faster with more data," he said.

"This, I hope is the start of a whole new era of vaccine manufacturing ... From my point of view it's about proving this technology to the world that it's safe, that it's more effective and actually jump on board.

"I think this opens the door to a whole new kind of technology. Hopefully that can change the future," he said.

Varieties

Swedish Minister Breaks Ground Bringing Baby to EU Talks

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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Swedish Minister Breaks Ground Bringing Baby to EU Talks

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Sweden's environment minister brought her baby to an EU meeting Thursday, in a barrier-breaking move she said showed it was possible to be both "a present minister and a present mother".

Romina Pourmokhtari arrived at the ministerial talks in Luxembourg with her three-month-old son, Adam, in a sling with a pram-pushing aide in tow -- becoming the latest public figure to shake up conventions around motherhood and work, AFP said.

"Happy also to be an example of not having to choose between being a present minister and a present mother," the 30-year-old told journalists as Adam rested on her chest.

"There are many things that make Europe a wonderful place to live. One of them being just this, that we can have the possibility of attending meetings and attending to my child."

Her French colleague Monique Barbut promptly gave her a baby gift.

An EU official said it was thought to be the first time a baby was brought to one of the bloc's ministerial meetings.

Mothers are particularly affected by the challenge of juggling work and childcare, with studies showing women tend to miss out on promotions, career opportunities and higher earnings after having a child.

In a bid to make the lives of female lawmakers easier, the European Parliament recently changed its internal rules to allow new mothers the right to vote by proxy.

Pourmokhtari is not the first politician to highlight maternity struggles.

In 2018 former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern won accolades for bringing her three-month-old daughter, Neve, to the United Nations General Assembly in the first such appearance by a baby in the organization's history.

A year earlier Larissa Waters made Australian political history by becoming the first woman to nurse her newborn baby in the nation's parliament.

Ardern is still only the second prime minister to have given birth while in office after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990.