The launch was ‌the latest chapter in Blue Origin’s intensifying rivalry with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The rocket lifted off at around 7:25am from Cape Canaveral, with the booster touchdown coming about 10 minutes later.

New Glenn carried AST’s BlueBird 7 satellite to low-Earth orbit. In a statement, AST said that BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower-than-planned orbit by the upper ​stage of the launch vehicle.

“While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations ​with its onboard thruster technology and will be de-orbited,” AST said.

Designed to connect directly with smartphones, AST’s satellite was part of ⁠an effort to build a space-based cellular broadband network, similar to Amazon’s Leo or SpaceX’s Starlink.

‘Never tell me the odds’

Sunday’s mission - the third for New ​Glenn - was key to demonstrating that the 29-story heavy-lift rocket has a reliable booster reuse capability and can compete with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The ​rocket’s booster, dubbed “Never Tell Me the Odds,” previously flew on the second mission in November and was recovered, setting up this milestone attempt.

The booster’s name is a nod to a Han Solo line in the film “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”

Following a series of delays this month, the mission came amid a surge of activity in the space sector, including ​the successful NASA Artemis II lunar flyby that took people further from Earth than any had travelled before.

Blue Origin said in November that it would build a bigger, ​more powerful variant of its New Glenn rocket, called New Glenn 9x4.

New Glenn is designed for the higher end of the commercial launch market with a seven-meter (23-foot) ‌nose cone ⁠allowing it to carry bulkier payloads, including multiple satellites in a single mission.

“We fundamentally developed New Glenn for what we think space is going to look like 50 to 100 years from now,” said New Glenn Vice President Jordan Charles.

AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 is the second satellite in its next-generation Block 2 constellation. The satellite featured what the company describes as the largest commercial communications array deployed in low-Earth orbit.

AST said the company is currently in production through BlueBird ​32, with BlueBird 8 to 10 expected ​to be ready to ship ⁠in approximately 30 days.

SpaceX vs Blue Origin

Reuters reported this month that SpaceX confidentially filed for a US initial public offering targeting a valuation of about $1.75 trillion.

SpaceX and Blue Origin, in the latest competition between the billionaire-run companies, have been racing to ​help return people to the moon ahead of a planned crewed mission by China in 2030 by designing the ​lunar landers NASA will ⁠use.

In a response to a post on X from Bezos regarding Sunday’s launch, Musk acknowledged the launch, congratulating Bezos.

SpaceX is building a massive stainless-steel Starship-based Human Landing System, while Blue Origin is developing a more traditional Blue Origin lander and aims to achieve a pivotal uncrewed soft lunar landing, Mark 1, this summer.

NASA’s next Artemis mission, ⁠planned for next ​year, is expected to test both landers while in Earth orbit before the mission that ​would return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.

“New Glenn is the vehicle that can take NASA or anyone, anywhere in the solar system,” said Laura Maginnis, New Glenn ​mission vice president.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in an April 8 order that Apple has not submitted details of its financials ​and its views on the investigation since October 2024, and instead cited a separate case pending in the ​Delhi High Court where the company has challenged India’s entire antitrust penalty law.

The CCI typically requires financial ⁠information from companies to calculate penalties when they are found to have contravened the law.

Apple, which denies any wrongdoing ​in the case, has said it fears it could be fined up to $38 billion if the watchdog uses its global turnover ​to calculate penalties in the case.

Apple has “been afforded adequate opportunities to file” its objections or suggestions to the investigation report and has also “not submitted the requisite financial information,” said the CCI order, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters.

Apple and the CCI did not respond ​to Reuters queries.

The Indian case is among the many Apple faces around the globe for alleged antitrust breaches.

India ​is a key market for Apple where its iPhones have an 9% market share, compared to just 4% two years ago, Counterpoint Research ‌says.

Although ⁠the CCI has given Apple two more weeks to file its responses, it has for the first time fixed a final hearing date of May 21.

Hearing date significant date

Lawyers said the setting of a final hearing date signals the watchdog is hardening its stance.

“Apple has the opportunity right now to submit its financials supported by an auditor’s certificate and then argue ​on the quantum of penalty during ​the hearing based on these ⁠financials,” said Gautam Shahi, an antitrust partner at Dua Associates.

“In case it fails, its arguments on quantum of penalty will be constrained accordingly.”

The Apple case started way back in 2021 ​after a non-profit group opposed Apple’s practices.

Later, Tinder-owner Match and Indian startups also ​opposed Apple.

CCI investigators ⁠issued a report in 2024 that Apple exploited its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system.

Apple denies wrongdoing by arguing it is a small player in India, where phones that use Google’s Android system ⁠are ​dominant.

In its April 8 order, the watchdog also noted Apple requested the CCI ​in March to put its proceedings “in abeyance” while the Delhi High Court hears its challenge to the penalty law.

The CCI rejected that demand. The watchdog has ​maintained that Apple is trying to stall the antitrust case by challenging the penalty law.

New battery-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations, a proxy for sales, rose 29.4% from a year ago to almost 560,000 in the ​quarter and were up 51.3% at over 240,000 in March alone ​in 15 European markets, data collected by trade association E-Mobility ⁠Europe and research firm New Automotive showed on Monday.

Last year, those markets ​accounted for 94% of all BEV sales in the European Union and ​the European Free Trade Association, whose countries align with EU laws regulating CO2 emissions, data by the ACEA auto lobby shows.

“March’s surge in electric car sales is one ​of Europe’s biggest recent gains in energy security, in a month when ​oil dependence has become a real vulnerability,” E-Mobility Europe Secretary General Chris Heron said ‌in ⁠a statement.

The joint statement from the two organisations said the half-million BEVs registered in the quarter were enough to reduce oil consumption by 2 million barrels per year.

The region’s five largest EV markets - Germany, France, Spain, Italy ​and Poland - have ​recorded growth of ⁠more than 40% in BEV sales so far this year, it said. It is estimated that 21.2% of all ​new cars registered in the EU and EFTA in ​March were ⁠electric.

In a separate report published earlier in April, New Automotive said BEV registrations in Britain, Europe’s second-biggest BEV market after Germany, grew 12.8% in the ⁠quarter, also ​helped by rising petrol prices, and accounted ​for 22.5% of new car sales in the country.

It was not ​clear if Musk would attend the hearing.

The date was set in February when ​the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit raided the French office of the social media ⁠platform in a probe related to fraudulent data extraction.

It was later expanded to ​include suspected complicity in the distribution of child pornography and the creation of sexual deepfakes.

While attendance at Monday’s hearing is mandatory, the authorities at this stage cannot compel Musk to appear.

Reuters could not reach representatives for Musk ahead of the summons.

In July, Musk denied the initial accusations and ​said French prosecutors were launching a “politically-motivated criminal investigation”.

The Paris prosecutor’s office declined to comment.

X ​has come under scrutiny from regulators and governments in several countries since Musk’s takeover of the platform, with ‌authorities ⁠examining issues including content moderation, data practices and compliance with local laws.

Prosecutors have said the centres on whether X’s algorithms distorted the treatment of content on the platform and whether the company improperly extracted user data, after complaints from French lawmakers and advocacy groups.

In a ​sign of the potential ​for the investigation ⁠to worsen already tense relations with Washington, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that the US Justice Department sent a letter to ​the Paris prosecutor saying it would not cooperate in the probe, ​which it viewed ⁠as politically motivated.

The Paris prosecutor said it had no knowledge of such a letter, and added that “the French constitution guarantees the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.”

Former X ⁠CEO ​Linda Yaccarino and several other X staff have also been summoned ​as witnesses for questioning.

After such a hearing, authorities can decide to either shelve or continue the probe, and potentially ​place suspects under formal investigation.

The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with ‌mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish.

Last year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.

This year’s contrast was stark.

Not only had the number of participating teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the ​human winners by more than 10 minutes.

Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by ​remote control during the 21-km race.

The robots and 12,000 men and women ran in parallel tracks to avoid collisions.

The winning ⁠robot, developed by Chinese smartphone brand Honor, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan ​runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

Teams from Honor, a Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times.

Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer ​on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 cm long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.

Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing.

“Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, ​but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling, and eventually industrial applications,” Du said.

Robotics improvements

Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different ​sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China’s improvements in robotics.

“The humanoid robots’ running posture I saw was really quite impressive… considering that AI has only been developing for a ‌short time, ⁠I’m already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance,” said Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

“The future will definitely be an AI era. If people don’t know how to use AI now, especially if some are still resistant to it, they will definitely become obsolete,” he said.

Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.

Guo said he takes regular ​classes in robotics theory and programming at ​his elite Beijing school, and is ⁠part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers.

Economically viable applications

While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon’s showcasing of these machines’ physical prowess highlights their ​potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat.

However, Chinese robotics firms are still struggling to develop the AI ​software that would enable ⁠humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.

Experts said the skills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate to the widespread commercialisation of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial.

China is seeking to become a global powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has ⁠enacted a ​wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local firms.

The country’s most-watched TV ​show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, in February showcased China’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.

That included a lengthy martial arts demonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight ​sequences, waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers.

Reuters reported last month that UIDAI, the state body that operates Aadhaar, had asked the IT ministry in January to engage with Apple, Google and other leading smartphone makers to consider mandatory pre-installation of ​the Aadhaar app.

A unique 12-digit identity number tied to an individual’s fingerprints and iris scans, Aadhaar is held by ​nearly 1.34 billion residents and is widely used for verification purposes in banking and telecom services, ⁠as well as for faster airport entry.

India’s IT ministry reviewed the proposal and “is not in favour of mandating the pre-installation of ​the Aadhaar App on smartphones,” UIDAI said in a statement to Reuters on Friday.

It gave no reason for the decision in the ​statement. India’s IT ministry did not respond to Reuters queries.

The IT ministry held a “consultation with stakeholders from the electronics industry” before reaching its decision to drop the Aadhaar preloading proposal, UIDAI said in its statement.

The Aadhaar request was the sixth time in two years the government has sought pre-installation of ​state apps on phones, according to industry communications reviewed by Reuters earlier this year. All six attempts were opposed by the ​industry.

Smartphone makers flagged concerns about device security and compatibility when they received the Aadhaar preload proposal, and also flagged higher production costs as they ‌would have ⁠been required to run separate manufacturing lines for India and export markets, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

Apple and Samsung in particular both had concerns with the proposal due to questions over safety and security, sources told Reuters in March.

The government’s decision not to proceed with the proposal shows the constraints on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s digital push as India courts firms like Apple to expand ​its role as a global ​smartphone hub.

In December, India ⁠faced criticism over an order mandating smartphone firms to pre-install a telecom security app, forcing a rollback within days.

A senior Indian official said on Friday, on condition of anonymity, that the IT ministry ​is not supportive of any preloading of apps, “unless it is considered very essential.”

Safety concerns

While the ​government maintains that Aadhaar ⁠is safe and secure, the app has faced persistent criticism from privacy advocates, including for data leaks where personal details of millions of holders surfaced on the dark web.

Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a New Delhi-based digital advocacy group, welcomed the government’s decision ⁠to drop ​the Aadhaar pre-installation proposal, and said other such proposals should also be spiked ​as they lack a legislative foundation and have no public policy goal.

“Hopefully it is a welcome exercise of regulatory restraint that recognises that citizens carry their phones as ​extensions of their autonomy, not as vessels for government order,” Gupta said.

- Commercial launches now account ​for over 60% of all space launches ⁠and a number of companies are ​rushing to go public, Beijing Daily ​said.

- Gao Yibin, head of the Strategic Research Department at Future Aerospace, said with the acceleration ​of launch approvals, the localisation of ​components and the continued injection of capital by ‌industrial ⁠funds, China’s trillion-yuan commercial space market is moving towards standardisation and scale

- “The accelerated implementation of scenarios such as low-Earth ​orbit constellation ​networking, satellite ⁠internet, space computing power, and 6G air-space-ground integration suggests sustained ​growth is expected in 2026,” ​said ⁠Gao.

- The Beijing Satellite Town will provide support to develop the aerospace ⁠industry ​by fostering industrial clustering ​and enabling talent, capital and technology to flow efficiently.

The Facebook and Instagram owner will lay off about 10% of its global workforce, or close to 8,000 employees, in that initial round, one of the sources said.

The company is planning further layoffs in the second half of the ​year, the three sources said, although details of those cuts, including date and size, were not yet settled. ​

Executives may adjust their plans as they observe developments in artificial intelligence capabilities, the sources added.

Reuters ⁠reported last month that the company was planning to lay off 20% or more of its global workforce.

Meta declined to comment ​on the timing or scope of planned cuts.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into AI as he seeks ​to dramatically reshape his company’s inner workings around the technology, reflecting a broader pattern among major US companies this year, particularly in the tech sector.

Amazon.com similarly has trimmed 30,000 corporate employees in recent months, representing nearly 10% of its white-collar workers, while in February the fintech company Block chopped nearly half of its staff.

In ​both of those cases, executives tied the cuts to efficiency gains from artificial intelligence.

Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech job cuts ​around the world, reported that 73,212 employees have lost their jobs so far this year. For all of 2024, the figure was 153,000.

Meta’s ‌layoffs this ⁠year will be the social media giant’s most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the “year of efficiency,” when it eliminated about 21,000 jobs.

At that time, Meta’s stock was in freefall, and the company was struggling to correct for Covid-era growth assumptions that ultimately proved unsustainable.

The company is in a more comfortable financial position this time, but executives ​envision a future of fewer ​management layers and greater efficiency ⁠brought about by AI-assisted workers.

Meta’s shares are up 3.68% since the start of the year, although they are down from a record high achieved last summer.

Last year, it generated more ​than $200 billion of revenue and achieved a $60 billion profit despite outsized spending on artificial intelligence.

Menlo ​Park, California-based Meta ⁠employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing.

In recent weeks, Meta has reorganised teams in its Reality Labs division and transferred engineers from throughout the company into a new “Applied AI” organisation tasked with accelerating the development of AI agents ⁠that can ​write code and carry out complex tasks autonomously.

One of the sources said ​some staffers also would be transferred into Meta Small Business, a unit set up last month, as part of the restructuring.

While Leo has called for caution on artificial intelligence several times since his election in May 2025, his latest warning comes as Trump faces a backlash over a now-deleted AI-generated post seemingly depicting the US leader as Jesus.

After holding Mass in the stifling heat in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala for more than 120,000 joyous worshippers — the biggest event of his landmark Africa trip so far — the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics sounded the alarm over the perils of the technology.

“The challenge posed by these systems is greater than it appears: it is not just about the use of new technologies, but about the gradual replacement of reality by its simulation,” he said in a speech to teachers and students at the Catholic University of Central Africa in the capital Yaounde.

“In this way, polarisation, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”

It marks the pontiff’s latest outspoken intervention on his 11-day Africa tour that has seen him abandon his previous restraint to deliver impassioned pleas for world peace – and tussle with fellow American Trump.

‘Handful of tyrants’

After the pope criticised the US-Israeli war with Iran, Trump lashed out at Leo, branding him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”.

He then posted an AI-generated image seemingly depicting himself as a Christ-like figure, which he later deleted after religious leaders accused him of blasphemy.

And shortly after Leo denounced the “handful of tyrants” ravaging the world in a speech on Thursday, the US president said the pope needed to understand the realities of a “nasty world”.

Far from the Trump broadsides, Leo has been greeted by adoring, singing-and-dancing crowds wherever he has gone in Cameroon.

Some of Friday’s throng had travelled far or arrived the previous night in the hope of catching a glimpse of the pope at his Douala Mass.

Waving “branches of peace” and Vatican flags, to lively choral music punctuated by percussion, the crowd chanted “Long live the pope!” as Leo arrived in a popemobile at the esplanade outside the Japoma Stadium.

“It’s the achievement of a Christian lifetime. When I was little, I thought you couldn’t see the pope with your own two eyes,” Marguerite Tedga, 72, said after waiting all night with friends from her parish.

Edith Fifi, a 25-year-old beautician, said seeing the pontiff gave her “a feeling of deliverance”.

“I was deeply moved by his message, and what I remember most is his call for sharing,” she said.

But some Cameroonian Catholics had feared that Leo’s visit could help President Paul Biya, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1982, burnish his image.

Douala, one of central Africa’s largest ports, was among the cities to see a violent crackdown on demonstrations against the re-election in October of a man who at the age of 93 is already the world’s oldest head of state.

Witnesses have reported that the security forces fired live rounds into the crowds. The authorities have acknowledged dozens of deaths without giving a precise toll.

No to ‘plunder’

Without mentioning Trump or Biya by name, Leo has delivered unusually pointed speeches across his African tour — ignoring Catholic US Vice President JD Vance’s call to “stick to matters of morality”.

In his speech on AI on Friday, the pope also condemned the “environmental devastation” caused by the extraction of the rare earths essential to the technology’s stunning growth — a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s approach to Africa.

And Leo also demanded an end to the corruption of a mining industry through which foreign powers — China foremost among them — reap the riches of Africa’s wealth while locals suffer.

After arriving in the country Wednesday, the pope urged Cameroon’s leaders to root out corruption and abuses carried out in the name of order — within Biya’s earshot.

The Catholic Church plays an important social role in Cameroon, where more than a third of the population of 30 million people are Catholic.

Leo wraps up his visit to the country with a Mass on early Saturday.

He was previously in Muslim-majority Algeria for a visit marred by two suicide bombings.

The pope heads on to Angola before wrapping up his 18,000-kilometre (11,200-mile) tour in Equatorial Guinea.

The four Artemis II astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean last Friday, capping ‌a nearly 10-day test flight in which they reached the farthest distance in space any humans have gone before as their gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule sailed around the moon’s far side.

Speeding back into Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 32 times the speed of sound, the finale of the high-stakes mission was a crucial test of the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule before NASA plans to use it again for another pre-lunar landing ​flight in Earth’s orbit next year.

“We came in fast, and we came in hot,” Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman told reporters in the crew’s first ​press conference since returning to Earth.

In the months following the flight, NASA engineers will comb through hoards of data illustrating how well the ⁠Orion vehicle performed.

They are likely to pay close attention to the capsule’s heat shield, a critical barrier that protects the crew from temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees ​Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) during the descent from space.

In the 2022 Artemis I uncrewed mission, Orion’s heat shield sustained far more damage than NASA had expected, showing small cracks and some ​layers charred off by its re-entry, leading to an intense two-year investigation.

NASA did not upgrade the heat shield, but it changed the angle and trajectory in which the Artemis II crew entered Earth’s atmosphere to reduce heat.

Wiseman said he and mission pilot Victor Glover “maybe saw two moments of a touch of char loss” during re-entry.

When they examined the capsule on the naval ship that recovered them from the ocean, Wiseman ​said he saw “a little bit of char loss on what’s called the shoulder,” referring to the edge of the heat shield.

Falling at least 32 times the speed of sound

Photos ​of the capsule after the Artemis II crew’s return showed an unusual white mark on the edge of the heat shield, but NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman downplayed concerns and said it had behaved ‌similarly in ⁠high-heat ground testing.

“No chunks missing,” Isaacman told Reuters on Monday, saying he has seen underwater photos of the heat shield bobbing in the ocean shortly after splashdown.

“The heat shield performed as expected, and I’m thrilled, because now we’re done with this thing.”

Glover described the crew’s re-entry as “a very intense 13 minutes and 36 seconds.”

NASA officials at the time said the crew’s maximum speed at re-entry was 24,664 mph (39,692 kph), or roughly Mach 32, 130 mph short of the Apollo 10 record reached in 1969 for the fastest humans have ever travelled.

But ​Glover on Thursday told reporters Orion’s onboard ​screens showed they reached speeds of Mach ⁠38.89, or 29,839 miles per hour.

He added that NASA might release a new number “when we figure it out” because it is challenging to measure speeds in space.

After the atmospheric friction slowed their speed, an initial set of parachutes slowed them further once they entered Earth’s ​lower atmosphere before detaching ahead of a final set of chutes that carried them to a gentle 17 mph on the ​ocean surface.

When the initial ⁠parachute set cut away, Glover said, “We went back to free fall… I’ve never been BASE jumping, I’ve never been skydiving, but if you dove off a skyscraper backwards, that’s what it felt like.”

While Orion is the capsule that sends humans to and from space, launching off Earth on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, a future crew will use the capsule to dock with ⁠moon landers ​built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin that will land them on the moon as soon ​as 2028, though engineering challenges with both landers could push that date back.

Those landers will be tested in Earth’s orbit for the first time in the Artemis III mission planned for next year.

In his personal opinion, Wiseman said, “They ​could put the Artemis III Orion on the Space Launch System tomorrow and launch it and the crew would be in great shape.”

At the centre of the strategy is the development of a nationwide AI education pipeline, starting at the school level, where authorities have directed the introduction of an AI curriculum across federal institutions, with plans to extend it to remote regions to expand early digital literacy.

The government also plans to offer 1,000 fully funded AI scholarships by 2030 to support advanced research and training for engineers, researchers and specialists, while a separate initiative aims to upskill 1 million non-IT professionals across sectors, including business, finance and the public sector.

Recent efforts were highlighted during the Ministry of IT and Telecom’s National AI Training Programme at Indus AI Week, where participation rose from an initial 600 learners to more than 2,000 due to demand.

An inclusion-focused initiative, AI for HER, trained more than 500 women and girls and showcased 10 women-led AI startups across multiple cities.

Building on these efforts, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, in collaboration with Google for Developers, Telenor and Innovista, is launching AI Seekho 2026, a nationwide upskilling programme focused on introducing participants to “vibe coding” through hands-on training using Google AI Studio and Antigravity.

The programme will focus on building AI-powered applications, games and practical solutions, supported by hackathons and a prize pool of 2.5 million rupees.

Officials say AI Seekho is linked to broader pathways, including National Incubation Centres, which support more than 1,900 startups, the Pakistan Startup Fund, and global freelancing platforms.

During the launch session, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Khawaja said, “Pakistani youth are simmering with talent, and the government is committed to ensuring that anyone who wants to learn should have access to training in Artificial Intelligence.”

The initiative is part of wider national efforts, including the National AI Advancement Initiative, which targets 20,000 trainings and the development of AI hubs across the country.

The programme, branded with #VibeKaregaPakistan, is aligned with the government’s Digital Nation Pakistan vision, under which the prime minister has directed a transition from a services-led economy to an AI-powered growth model.

Telenor Pakistan CEO Awais Vohra said, “Artificial Intelligence is rapidly shaping the future of economies and societies worldwide. Through AI Seekho, we aim to democratize access to AI learning and empower Pakistan’s youth to become creators of innovation rather than just consumers of technology.

This initiative reflects Telenor Pakistan’s continued commitment to building a digitally inclusive and innovation-driven ecosystem in the country.”

Google Cluster Director for Pakistan and Frontier Markets, Farhan Qureshi, said, “Google believes very strongly in the future of Pakistan. Through initiatives like AI Seekho, we are helping build the necessary capacity and speed for the local ecosystem. If we want to secure Pakistan’s digital future, we must commit to scaling AI skills, ensuring that our talent can continue to lead in the global freelance and gaming industries.”

Amit Vadi, Head of Community at Google DeepMind DevX, said, “At Google, being AI-first means being responsibility-first. Our mission is to ensure that whatever we build serves the global community safely. Building AI that benefits humanity is at the core of our DNA, ensuring that cutting-edge technology always meets the highest standards of safety and responsibility.”

Innovista CEO Hisham Sarwar said, “Pakistan is at a pivotal turning point. Having already established our excellence and a global reputation within the freelance economy, it is now time to evolve. Our goal is to translate that success into high-value innovation, ensuring Pakistan is recognised globally as an AI powerhouse. This is precisely why programs like AI Seekho are so critical; they provide the bridge from being a workforce to becoming world-class creators.”

These warnings became more urgent after a federal judge in New York ruled this year that the former CEO of a bankrupt financial ​services company could not shield his AI chats from prosecutors pursuing securities fraud charges against him.

In the wake of the ruling, attorneys have been advising that conversations with chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and ‌OpenAI’s ChatGPT could be demanded by prosecutors in criminal cases or by litigation adversaries in civil cases.

“We are telling our clients: You should proceed with caution here,” said Alexandria Gutiérrez Swette, a lawyer at New York-based law firm Kobre & Kim.

People’s discussions with their lawyers are almost always deemed confidential under US law. But AI chatbots are not lawyers, and attorneys are instructing clients to take steps that could keep their communications with AI tools more private.

In emails to clients and advisories posted on their websites, more than a dozen major US law ​firms have outlined advice for people and companies to decrease the chances of AI chats winding up in court.

Similar warnings are also appearing in hiring agreements by some firms with their clients. For instance, New ​York-based firm Sher Tremonte stated in a recent client contract that sharing a lawyer’s advice or communications with a chatbot could erase the legal protection known as attorney-client privilege ⁠that usually shields communications between lawyers and their clients.

Judicial ruling

The case that helped set off the alarm bells involved Bradley Heppner, the former chair of bankrupt financial services company GWG Holdings and founder of alternative asset firm ​Beneficent. Heppner was charged by federal prosecutors last November with securities and wire fraud and pleaded not guilty.

Heppner had used Anthropic’s chatbot Claude to prepare reports about his case to share with his attorneys, who later argued that his AI exchanges ​should be withheld because they contained details from the lawyers related to his defence.

Prosecutors argued that they had a right to demand material that Heppner created with Claude because his defence lawyers were not directly involved, and because attorney-client privilege does not apply to chatbots.

Voluntarily revealing information from a lawyer to any third party can jeopardise the customary legal protections for those attorney communications.

Manhattan-based US District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled in February that Heppner must hand over 31 documents generated by Anthropic’s chatbot Claude related to the case.

No attorney-client relationship exists “or ​could exist, between an AI user and a platform such as Claude,” Rakoff wrote.

Lawyers for Heppner did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

Courts already are grappling ​with the growing use of artificial intelligence by lawyers and people representing themselves in legal cases, which, among other things, has led to legal filings containing made-up cases invented by AI.

Rakoff’s decision was an important early test in the AI chatbot era for ‌bedrock legal protections ⁠governing attorney-client communications and materials prepared for litigation.

On the same day as Rakoff’s ruling, US Magistrate Judge Anthony Patti in Michigan said a woman representing herself in a lawsuit she brought against her former company did not have to hand over her chats with OpenAI’s ChatGPT about the employment claims made in the case.

Patti treated the woman’s AI chats as part of her own personal “work-product” for the case, rather than as conversations with a person whom her employer could seek to use for its defence.

ChatGPT and other generative AI programs “are tools, not persons,” Patti wrote in his order.

The privacy and usage terms for both OpenAI and Anthropic state that the companies can share data involving their users with third parties. Both ​also state that they require users to consult a qualified ​professional before relying on their chatbots for legal ⁠advice.

Rakoff at a February hearing in Heppner’s case noted that Claude “expressly provided that users have no expectation of privacy in their inputs.”

Representatives for OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lawyers race to set guardrails

The advice from lawyers has ranged from telling clients to select their AI platforms carefully to suggesting specific language to use in ​chatbot prompts.

Los Angeles-based O’Melveny & Myers and other firms said in client advisories that “closed” AI systems designed for corporate use could provide stronger protections for legal communications, though they ​said even that remains largely untested.

Some ⁠firms said AI legal research is more likely to be protected by attorney-client privilege when it is conducted at the direction of a lawyer. If a lawyer does advise the use of AI, a person should say so in the chatbot prompt, New York-headquartered law firm Debevoise & Plimpton said in a notice on its website.

“I am doing this research at the direction of counsel for X litigation,” the firm suggested people write.

Information about AI use is also becoming common in contracts used by law firms ⁠with clients, according ​to a Reuters review of contracts posted to a US government website.

Sher Tremonte, who often represents white-collar criminal defendants, said in a new ​contract in March: “Disclosure of privileged communications to a third-party AI platform may constitute a waiver of the attorney-client privilege.”

Justin Ellis of New York-headquartered law firm MoloLamken and other lawyers said they expect that more rulings will eventually clarify when AI chats can be used as evidence.

Until then, attorneys ​are saying that an age-old assumption still applies: Do not talk to anyone except your lawyer about your case - including AI.

The trial involved an unmanned 7.5-tonne cargo aircraft fitted with the AEP100 engine, developed by the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC).

The aircraft took off from Zhuzhou, climbed to about 300 metres, and stayed in the air for around 16 minutes before completing the test flight.

It covered a distance of 36 kilometres at a speed of 220 km/h before landing safely, with the engine maintaining stable performance throughout the flight, the Daily Galaxy said in a report.

Unlike many similar Western projects, China’s approach relies on direct hydrogen combustion, the report stated.

According to the report, the AEP100 engine burns liquid hydrogen in a turbine cycle similar to conventional jet engines, rather than using fuel cells to generate electricity.

By contrast, Airbus is pursuing hydrogen fuel cell technology under its ZEROe programme, targeting a commercial aircraft by 2035, the report added.

While fuel cells produce only water vapour as emissions, they have yet to be deployed in full-scale flight applications, the report points out.

The report said China opted for direct hydrogen combustion because it can deliver more power and is easier to scale up for larger aircraft.

However, this approach has its own downside, particularly when it comes to handling extremely high temperatures.

The report pointed out that the test flight has come at a time when energy security has become a global concern.

Ongoing disruptions in oil markets and worries about oil shipments through key routes like the Strait of Hormuz are forcing countries to start looking for alternatives to fossil fuels.

For China, hydrogen also provides a way to cut dependence on imported fuel, especially in aviation, where electric alternatives are still not viable for long-distance travel.

The report suggests that, at least for now, the technology will likely be rolled out in more controlled and limited areas — such as unmanned cargo operations and regional logistics — where building and managing the necessary infrastructure is relatively easier.

Experts say both hydrogen combustion and fuel cell technologies are expected to progress in parallel, with each offering its own advantages.

While Airbus is concentrating on fuel cell systems, China is pushing ahead with combustion-based engines and is also looking into alternative solutions for smaller aircraft.

The AgiBot Lingxi X2 appeared in an interactive zone at the commemorative event, where it played table tennis against Chinese sports legend Deng Yaping, US guests and participants linked to earlier diplomatic exchanges.

The 1971 visit of a US table tennis delegation to China is widely regarded as a key moment in easing tensions between the two countries.

Standing about 1.3 metres tall, the robot requires no remote control and is able to track high-speed balls, return shots and sustain rallies, demonstrating autonomous movement and coordination.

NASA’s gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, parachuted gently into calm seas off the Southern California coast shortly after 5.07pm.

Pacific Time on Saturday, concluding a mission that ‌, four days prior, took the astronauts 252,000 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than anyone had flown before.

The Artemis II flight, travelling a total of 694,392 miles in two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface starting in 2028.

‘Perfect bull’s eye’

The splashdown, under partly cloudy skies about two hours before sunset, was broadcast live via a NASA webcast. “A perfect bull’s eye splashdown for Integrity and its four astronauts,” NASA commentator Rob Navias said moments after the landing.

“We are stable one - four green crew members,” mission commander ​Reid Wiseman radioed just after splashdown, signalling the capsule was steady and that all four astronauts were in good shape.

It took NASA and US Navy recovery teams less than two hours to secure the floating capsule and retrieve the four crew members — US ​astronauts Wiseman, 50, Victor Glover, 49, and Christina Koch, 47, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, 50.

NASA reported that a Navy medical officer who briefly checked the astronauts aboard the capsule found them ⁠all to be healthy.

The crew’s homecoming cleared a critical final hurdle for the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft, proving it would withstand the extreme forces of re-entry from a lunar-return trajectory.

It followed a white-knuckle, fiery plunge as Orion barreled into Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 33 times the speed ​of sound, generating frictional heat that sent temperatures on the capsule’s exterior soaring to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

A plume of ionised gas from the intense heat and air compression enveloped the vehicle, causing a planned radio blackout of several minutes at the peak of re-entry stress.

The ​tension broke as contact was re-established and two sets of parachutes were seen billowing from the nose of the free-falling capsule, slowing its descent to about 15 mph before Orion gently hit the water.

Once Navy divers had attached a floating collar to stabilise the capsule, the four astronauts, still wearing their orange flight suits, were helped onto an inflatable raft.

From there, they were hoisted one by one to helicopters hovering overhead and flown a short distance to the nearby Navy amphibious transport vessel, the John P. Murtha, for further medical examination.

Glover and Koch smiled broadly and waved toward the cameras as they sat on the edge of a helicopter ​door on the flight deck.

The crew was expected to spend the night aboard the ship and be flown on Saturday to Houston, where they will be reunited with family, NASA said.

Stepping stone to Mars

The quartet blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, lofted into an initial ​Earth orbit by NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket before sailing on for a rare journey around the far side of the moon.

In so doing, they became the first astronauts to fly around Earth’s only natural satellite since the Apollo programme of the 1960s and ’70s.

Glover, Koch and Hansen also made ‌history as the first ⁠Black astronaut, the first woman and the first non-US citizen, respectively, to take part in a lunar mission.

At the flight’s peak, the Artemis astronauts reached a point 252,756 miles from Earth, exceeding the previous record of roughly 248,000 miles set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13.

The voyage, following the uncrewed Artemis I test flight around the moon by the Orion spacecraft in 2022, marked a critical dress rehearsal for a planned attempt later this decade to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in late 1972.

“This is an incredible test of an incredible machine,” said NASA’s associate administrator, Amit Kshatriya.

NASA is seeking to achieve a crewed moon landing ahead of China.

But the ultimate goal of the Artemis program is to establish a long-term presence on the moon as a stepping stone to eventual human exploration of Mars.

In a ​historical parallel to the Cold War era of Apollo, the Artemis ​II mission has played out against a backdrop of political and ⁠social turmoil, including a US military conflict that has proven unpopular at home.

Public fascination

For many in a global audience captivated by the latest moon shot, it reaffirmed the achievements of science and technology at a time when big tech has become widely distrusted, even feared.

More than 3 million viewers watched the splashdown on NASA’s YouTube channel, the streaming service showed.

The return to Earth put the Orion spacecraft through a critical test of its heat ​shield, which sustained an unexpected level of scorching and stress on re-entry during its 2022 debut test flight.

As a result, NASA engineers altered the descent trajectory for Artemis II in order to ​reduce heat buildup and lower the risk ⁠to the capsule and its crew.

Last week’s successful launch was a major milestone for the SLS rocket, handing its principal contractors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, long-sought validation that the launch system, more than a decade in development, was ready to safely fly humans to space.

President Donald Trump hailed the astronauts’ return in a message posted to his Truth Social platform: “Congratulations to the Great and Very Talented Crew of Artemis II.

The entire trip was spectacular, the landing was perfect, and, as President of the United States, I could not be more proud!“

NASA’s renewed lunar ambitions have been clouded in recent months, however, by workforce ⁠reductions under the Trump ​administration’s federal downsizing efforts that have cut space agency personnel by 20%.

The Artemis program, named after the twin sister of Apollo, stands as a major turning point for ​NASA, redirecting its human spaceflight program beyond low-Earth orbit after decades focused on space shuttles and the International Space Station.

Compared with Apollo, born of the Cold War-era US-Soviet space race, NASA has characterised Artemis as a broader, more cooperative effort, while hoping to return to the moon before China, which is aiming for a 2030 crewed landing.

The US lunar ​programme has enlisted commercial partners such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which are building the programme’s lunar landers, and the space agencies of Europe, Canada, and Japan.

The finale to NASA’s celebrated 10-day mission was expected ‌to begin with the separation of Orion’s crew capsule from its service module, followed by a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and a six-minute radio blackout before the capsule parachutes into the sea.

If all goes well, US astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will end up bobbing safely in the ocean aboard their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, shortly ​after 8 pm off the coast of San Diego.

The quartet blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, lofted into an initial ​Earth orbit by NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket before sailing on around the far side of the moon, venturing deeper into ⁠space than any humans before them.

STEPPING STONE TO MARS

In so doing, they became the first astronauts to fly in the vicinity of the moon since the Apollo ​program of the 1960s and ’70s.

Glover, Koch and Hansen also made history as the first Black astronaut, the first woman and the first non-US citizen, respectively, to take part in ​a lunar mission.

The voyage, following the uncrewed Artemis I test flight around the moon by the Orion spacecraft in 2022, marked a critical dress rehearsal for a planned attempt later this decade to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in late 1972.

The ultimate goal of the Artemis program is to establish a long-term presence on the moon as ​a stepping stone to eventual human exploration of Mars.

In a historical parallel to the Cold War era of Apollo, the Artemis II mission has played out against a ​backdrop of political and social turmoil, including a US military conflict that has proven unpopular at home.

For many in a global audience captivated by the latest moon shot, it reaffirmed the achievements of ‌science and ⁠technology at a time when big tech has become widely distrusted, even feared.

Opinion polling showed broad public support for the aims of the mission.

CRITICAL TEST OF HEAT SHIELD

The return to Earth will put the Orion spacecraft through a critical test of its heat shield, which sustained an unexpected level of scorching and stress on re-entry during the 2022 test flight.

As a result, NASA engineers altered the descent trajectory for Artemis II to reduce heat buildup and lower the risk of the capsule burning up.

Still, ​with Orion plunging into the atmosphere at ​some 25,000 miles per hour (40,235 kph), ⁠temperatures outside the capsule are expected to soar to around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

The recalibrated final descent path has also narrowed the size of the potential splashdown zone, limiting target landing options in case of foul weather at sea.

NASA officials said ​on Thursday that forecasts for the preferred splashdown zone looked favourable.

Just as critical as the performance of the heat shield ​are several other factors, ⁠including achieving the spacecraft’s precise descent path and re-entry angle through a series of course-correction blasts of its jet guidance thrusters.

The last of three such jet propellant “burns” was scheduled for Friday afternoon, roughly five hours before splashdown.

Once the capsule hits the top of the atmosphere, it takes less than 15 minutes, including a six-minute radio blackout, before two sets of ⁠parachutes are ​deployed and the capsule floats into the sea.

NASA says it will take about another hour for recovery ​teams to secure Orion, hoist it onto a ship and assist the astronauts in exiting the capsule one by one.

At the flight’s peak, the crew reached a point 252,756 miles from Earth, exceeding the previous ​record of roughly 248,000 miles set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13.

The facility, developed through a partnership between Leju Robotics and Dongfang Precision Science & Technology, is capable of producing one humanoid robot every 30 minutes, translating to an annual capacity of about 10,000 units.

The factory operates across 24 precision assembly stages, supported by 77 inspection checkpoints designed to improve reliability — a longstanding challenge in humanoid robotics.

A key feature of the factory is its flexibility, allowing it to switch between different robot models without halting production.

This enables the same line to serve multiple industries, including automotive and home appliances.

The development reflects a broader shift in the robotics sector from demonstration to scalability. Other Chinese firms are also accelerating production efforts.

Agibot has already reached an output of 10,000 units, while Unitree Robotics is expanding with new funding. UBTECH Robotics is aiming to reduce per-unit costs to below $20,000.

Investors are increasingly focusing on production capacity as an indicator of commercial viability, signalling expectations that demand for humanoid robots will grow.

The factory model also highlights an emerging division of labour within the industry. Leju Robotics is focused on design and software development, while Dongfang Precision Science & Technology handles manufacturing and scaling — an approach similar to other mature technology sectors.

Despite advances in hardware production, challenges remain, particularly in software. Robots still struggle to operate reliably in unpredictable real-world environments such as homes and public spaces, where variables like lighting and object shapes can complicate tasks.

As manufacturing scales up, costs are expected to decline, potentially accelerating adoption across sectors such as logistics, retail and services. However, the expansion of humanoid robots also raises concerns around employment, safety and public acceptance.

The pace of development underscores how quickly the technology is transitioning from experimental to commercial use, marking a potential turning point for the global robotics industry.

The automaker has contacted suppliers in recent weeks to discuss details of the plan for the compact SUV, which would be a new vehicle and not a variant of Tesla’s current Model 3 or ​Y, the people said.

The conversations involved the manufacturing process and specifications for various components, they said.

Three of the people said the compact SUV would be produced in China, and one said Tesla also aims to expand ‌production to the United States and Europe. The car would be 4.28 metres in length, or about 14 feet, two of the sources said. That’s significantly shorter than Tesla’s top-selling Model Y SUV, which is about 15.7 feet long.

The effort follows a decision by Chief Executive Elon Musk to scrap a highly anticipated low-cost EV project in 2024 and pivot the company to focus on robotaxis and humanoid robots. A key question is whether this latest effort to develop a smaller SUV signals a strategy shift back to mass-market human-driven EVs or whether the new model would align more with Tesla’s vision for fully autonomous vehicles.

Such ​a model could potentially serve both purposes, according to one of the people familiar with the new-vehicle project and a Tesla employee with knowledge of its current product philosophy. The Tesla employee declined to confirm or deny details of any specific ​vehicle but said, in general, the automaker now aims to build models that would be driverless but offer a human-driven option.

While aiming for full autonomy across its lineup, the person said, Tesla realises ⁠many global markets won’t see meaningful adoption — nor regulatory acceptance — of driverless vehicles for years. Preserving the option to build a particular model with or without driving controls could enable more sales and help ensure Tesla can keep its car factories running near capacity, the ​person said.

As Tesla chases a driverless future, some analysts predict a third-straight year of declining sales for the traditional EVs that provide the vast majority of its revenue. So far, Tesla operates a small number of robotaxis only in Austin, Texas, many with human safety monitors ​in the passenger seat.

Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment about plans for a new vehicle.

The four people familiar with the project said it remained in an early development stage. Reuters couldn’t determine whether Tesla has given the green light for the car’s production.

The automaker has a history of starting development on products that end up long delayed or cancelled. Tesla showed off concept vehicles for a Roadster supercar and a Semi freight truck in 2017, for instance, but still hasn’t produced the sports car or mass-produced the Semi.

Two of the sources said Tesla aims to offer the new vehicle at a substantially lower ​price than its entry-level Model 3 sedan, which starts at $34,000 in China and about $37,000 in the United States. They said Tesla planned to save costs in part by using a smaller battery, which would mean a shorter driving range compared with 306 to 327 miles ​for the Model Y.

One of the people added that the automaker would also offer a single electric motor instead of two, a performance option on current Tesla models. Tesla also wants to make the car much lighter, this person said, at about 1.5 metric tons compared with about two ‌tons for the ⁠Model Y.

Three of the people said the new model would be produced at Tesla’s Shanghai factory. While the timing remained unclear, the car’s production is unlikely to begin this year, the people said.

TESLA’S START-AND-STOP HISTORY ON AFFORDABLE EVs

For years after Tesla started in 2008 producing luxury electric cars, Musk said the company’s real mission was to produce affordable, mass-market electric vehicles that would be critical to fighting the climate crisis. But start-and-stop efforts to deliver on that goal have so far fallen short.

Beginning in 2020, Musk said Tesla aimed to sell 20 million vehicles annually by the end of the decade, nearly double that of Toyota, the current global sales leader. A project Musk touted to produce a $25,000 EV, often called the “Model 2” by Tesla fans and investors, was expected to drive explosive vehicle-sales growth.

Then in 2024, Reuters reported that Tesla ​had abandoned plans for the Model 2, although it still planned ​a driverless robotaxi on the same platform. Tesla’s biggest EV ⁠rivals in China had already started producing much cheaper EVs. Later that year, Musk said it would be “pointless” and “silly” for Tesla to make a $25,000 EV for human drivers because the company would soon offer driverless vehicles.

A former Tesla manager said an all-new cheaper traditional car would represent a significant departure from the company’s philosophy through mid-2025. Until then, the manager said, Tesla had dropped the effort to mass-produce an entry-level ​car in favor of robotaxis as the key to lowering costs per mile for riders and the car owners charging them for trips.

After scrapping the Model 2, Musk and other Tesla executives ​described different plans for new, “more affordable” EVs ⁠in vague terms. When the vehicles arrived last fall, however, they were stripped-down versions of the current Model 3, and Y offered in new “standard” trim levels at only a modest discount.

US prices of $36,990 for the Model 3 Standard and $39,990 for the Model Y struck some investors as too high to attract a new class of buyers and haven’t yet made a significant difference in Tesla’s overall sales.

IS THE DRIVERLESS CYBERCAB ON TRACK?

Publicly, Musk and Tesla have continued to emphasise plans for robotaxis and humanoid robots, which have been effective in sustaining Tesla’s eye-popping stock-market value.

Tesla’s market capitalisation ⁠is about $1.3 trillion — far ​outpacing its financial fundamentals, even when compared with high-flying tech peers. Last year, investors approved a compensation package granting Musk up to $1 trillion in Tesla stock tied to ​a series of product and financial goals.

The automaker now says it plans to start production this month of a two-door Cybercab robotaxi, first unveiled as a concept vehicle in 2024, with no pedals or steering wheel. But it remains unclear when the car will go on sale or see use in a Tesla-operated robotaxi fleet. The ​automaker hasn’t sought a federal exemption required to sell a vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

The Artemis II crew, flying in their Orion ‌capsule since launching from Florida last week, are due to splash down off the Southern California coast on Friday evening after reaching the moon earlier this week.

They cruised along a path that took them past the shadowed, lunar far side to become the farthest-flying humans in history.

On the trip back home, they will reach speeds of up to 23,839 mph as they enter Earth’s atmosphere, a high-risk phase of the mission that will put Orion’s heatshield to the test ​as it gets battered by intense atmospheric friction.

“I’ve actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission,” said Artemis II mission pilot Victor ​Glover, when asked how he was feeling about the return.

“There’s so many more pictures, so many more stories, and gosh, I haven’t even begun to ⁠process what we’ve been through. We’ve still got two more days, and riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.”

Glover and fellow NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch, and ​Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are the first wave of astronauts in a multibillion-dollar series of missions under the Artemis program that aims to return humans to the moon’s surface by 2028 before China, and ​establish a long-term US presence over the next decade, building a moon base for potential future missions to Mars.

Koch cast the mission series as a relay race, telling reporters: “In fact, we have batons that we bought to symbolise, physically, that.”

“We plan to hand them to the next crew, and every single thing that we do is with them in mind,” she said.

That next mission, Artemis III, will involve a docking test in low-Earth orbit between the Orion capsule ​and both astronaut lunar landers that NASA plans to use to put its astronauts on the moon in later missions.

Artemis IV, targeted for 2028, would be the programme’s first crewed lunar landing, ​and the first since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Back on Earth, dozens of lunar scientists have been packed in rooms adjacent to NASA’s Mission Control Centre in Houston this week, scribbling down notes and debating a steady stream ‌of both ⁠real-time and recorded audio from the Artemis II astronaut crew in their Orion spacecraft.

Splashdown

The crew is due to return to Earth on Friday around 8pm ET, splashing down off the coast of San Diego, California, to cap their nearly 10-day mission.

The four astronauts on Monday had reached a record-breaking distance from Earth of roughly 252,000 miles, surpassing by some 4,000 miles the previous record held by the Apollo 13 crew for 56 years.

Wiseman, Artemis II mission commander, told reporters the crew each had two “very brief” chats with their families during the mission.

“Hearing your crew mates giggling and crying, and ​just gasping and listening and loving their families ​from afar — family is so important to ⁠all four of us, and that has been amazing,” he said.

In a radio message to mission control in Houston on Monday, as the crew approached their closest distance to the lunar surface, Hansen suggested naming a fresh crater on the moon in honour of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died ​of cancer in 2020.

Wiseman told reporters his crewmates approached him with the idea to name the crater Carroll while they were in quarantine before ​launching to space.

“That was an ⁠emotional moment for me,” Wiseman said. “I said ‘Absolutely, I would love that’ … but I can’t give the speech. I can’t give the talk.”

On the mission’s sixth day, Hansen choked up as he made the suggestion to mission control in what was a tear-jerking moment for many NASA staff in Houston.

The astronauts broke their distance record during the lunar flyby in which they surveyed the moon’s surface from roughly 4,000 miles above.

Advances in lunar science have typically ⁠relied on ​lunar-orbiting satellites and Earth-based observations.

But the crew’s six-hour lunar flyby provided a real-time stream of scientific collections from human ​eyes, allowing rare back-and-forth discussions between teams on the ground and their fellow scientists over 252,000 miles away in deep space.

Scientists see NASA’s Artemis II mission as an important early step in unlocking mysteries about the solar system’s formation.

The moon, ​Artemis II mission specialist Koch said before launching to space last week, is a “witness plate” to the formation of our solar system.

While headlines have focused on the possibility of changing long-standing email addresses, experts say the more consequential change involves artificial intelligence integration, affecting Google’s 2 billion users worldwide, according to a report in Forbes.

The tech giant’s Gemini AI is being woven more deeply into Gmail, offering features such as composing, replying, summarising, and smart searching through inboxes.

“There’s a lot going on in AI these days,” Gmail’s Vice President of Product, Blake Barnes, said in a YouTube short on Tuesday. “Sometimes it might even feel overwhelming.”

Gmail has long been valued for convenience, scale, and integration with Google’s broader ecosystem, though it has not been regarded as a leader in privacy or security.

While spam and malware filters are effective, they are not infallible, and privacy concerns persist.

Gemini introduces new trade-offs. Barnes emphasised that the AI does not train on user emails, but users must weigh the implications of allowing cloud-based AI to access potentially sensitive data.

“Think about Gemini as a personal and proactive assistant that comes to you,” he said.

“It’s like inviting Gemini into a private room with your inbox; when you’re done, Gemini leaves, and all information evaporates. Gemini doesn’t learn your secrets.”

Google has denied reports that Gmail users are automatically enrolled in AI data training.

However, new Gemini features are likely to be enabled by default, meaning users will need to actively choose how much AI interaction they allow with their inboxes.

“You place a ton of trust with Gmail with your personal information,” Barnes said.

“It’s our responsibility to provide the tools to help you manage it effectively.”

Experts warn that users should carefully consider their AI settings, noting that once AI features are enabled, fully removing them can be challenging.

Carrying four astronauts, the Orion spacecraft ventured farther from Earth than any humans in decades, surpassing 400,171 km on Monday at 15:58 GMT.

Later in the day, the crew is expected to reach their farthest point yet — around 406,788 km from home — on a historic journey around the moon.

According to Al Jazeera, the mission involves a flyby around the far side of the moon, during which the crew will spend more than six hours observing and documenting lunar surface features.

After completing the flyby, the Orion capsule will return to Earth via a “free-return trajectory,” a journey expected to take around four days.

The astronauts received an early message from the late Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, who encouraged them to enjoy the view and welcomed them to “my old neighbourhood.”

Travelling over previously unseen lunar terrain, the crew has already captured images of the Orientale basin, a massive crater previously only observed by uncrewed missions.

NASA emphasises the value of human observation, with lead Artemis II scientist Kelsey Young noting that “the human eye is basically the best camera that could ever or will ever exist.”

On Earth, a team of lunar scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston is monitoring the mission in real time, recording the astronauts’ observations.

The Artemis II mission also marks several historic firsts: Victor Glover is the first person of colour to orbit the moon, Christina Koch is the first woman, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen is the first non-American in the mission crew.

During roughly 40 minutes of the flyby, all communications with Artemis II will be cut off as it passes behind the moon.

Observers say the moon will appear “about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length” from the spacecraft.

The flyby is a critical step in NASA’s Artemis programme, paving the way for Artemis III in 2027 and a lunar landing as part of Artemis IV in 2028, according to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.

Last month, Musk said his rocket company SpaceX - which ​recently merged with his social media ​and artificial intelligence company xAI - and ⁠EV firm Tesla would build two ​advanced chip factories at a sprawling facility ​in Austin, Texas, one to power cars and humanoid robots and another designed for AI data ​centres in space.

SpaceX, which confidentially filed ​for a US initial public offering last week, ‌plans ⁠a market launch later this year.

“Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab’s ​aim to ​produce ⁠1 terawatt per year of compute to power future advances ​in AI and robotics,” Intel said ​in ⁠a post on social media platform X.

Shares of Intel were up about 2% ⁠in ​early trading. They have ​risen around 38% so far this year.

“Retail is going to be a critical part of this and ​a bigger part than any IPO in history,” Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said during the virtual meeting, the two people ​said, asking not to be identified because the discussion was private.

Johnsen said the large retail component is by ⁠design as “those are folks that have been incredibly supportive of us and of Elon (Musk) for a long time, and we want to make ​sure that we recognise that.”

Reuters reported last month that SpaceX is rewriting the IPO playbook with a large retail portion in the offering.

The meeting brought ​together the full syndicate for the first time as part of the process for what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering ever, as the rocket maker seeks to raise $75 billion, valuing SpaceX at as much as $1.75 trillion, Reuters has previously reported.

The Elon Musk-led company plans to launch its roadshow the week of June 8, ​when executives and bankers will pitch the IPO to investors, the people said.

About 125 financial analysts from the 21 banks on the ​deal are scheduled to meet with the company the day before, they added.

On June 11, SpaceX plans to host 1,500 retail investors at what people ‌described as ⁠a major investor event.

In addition to the US, everyday retail investors in the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea would have the opportunity to participate in the offering, the people added.

One of SpaceX’s lead underwriters told the group of 21 investment banks the retail demand and allocation will be something they’ve “never seen before,” the two people said.

The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are ​expected to be finalised closer to ​the IPO launch, they said.

Reuters ⁠previously reported that founder Elon Musk wanted to set aside up to 30% of the company’s shares for smaller investors, compared with 5% to 10% for most companies.

The company plans to make its IPO prospectus ​public in late May, they said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Morgan Stanley, Bank ​of America, Citigroup, ⁠JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks in smaller roles spanning institutional, retail and international channels, Reuters previously reported.

The $1.75 trillion target represents a significant step up from the $1.25 trillion combined valuation set when SpaceX merged with Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI in ⁠February.

Typically, SpaceX’s ​roughly twice-yearly tender offers — in which employees and investors are able to sell their ​existing shares, allowing them to cash out from a company that has remained private for nearly 25 years — have served as the primary valuation anchor.

The most recent, in ​December 2025, valued the company at $800 billion, before the merger with xAI.

The six-hour survey of the normally hidden hemisphere of ‌Earth’s only natural satellite was highlighted by the astronauts’ direct visual observations of “impact flashes” from meteors pelting the darkened and heavily cratered lunar surface.

About two dozen scientists packed a conference room adjacent to mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston to record the lunar phenomena witnessed by the Artemis crew in real time as their Orion spacecraft, about the size of an SUV, sailed around the moon roughly a quarter million miles from Earth.

The six-hour flyby, which swooped to within 4,070 ​miles of the lunar surface, came six days into a spaceflight marking the world’s first voyage of astronauts to the vicinity of the moon since NASA’s Cold War-era Apollo missions more than ​half a century ago.

Six of those missions landed two-man teams on the moon between 1969 and 1972 — the only 12 humans ever to walk on its surface.

Artemis, ⁠a successor to the Apollo programme, aims to repeat that achievement by 2028, ahead of China’s first landing, and to establish a long-term US lunar presence over the next decade, including a moon base to ​serve as a proving ground for potential future missions to Mars.

While designed as a crewed dress rehearsal for future lunar excursions, Artemis II generated a wealth of new material for lunar scientists to study, including meteor ​impact flashes recorded during Monday’s flyby that were reminiscent of sparks and streaks of light described by some of Apollo’s astronauts.

The Artemis II crew, riding in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, began their sixth day of spaceflight as they awoke on Monday to a pre-recorded message from the late NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who flew aboard the Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 moon missions.

“Welcome to my old neighbourhood,” said Lovell, who died last year at age 97.

“It’s a historic day, ​and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view… good luck and Godspeed.”

Hours later, the crew consisting of US astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian ​astronaut Jeremy Hansen, made spaceflight history by venturing farther from Earth than any humans have before, at 252,756 miles.

The previous record, roughly 248,000 miles, was set in 1970 by Apollo 13 after a nearly catastrophic spacecraft malfunction cut short that ‌mission, forcing ⁠Lovell and his two crewmates to use the moon’s gravity to help return them safely to Earth.

Naming craters

Along the way, the Artemis crew spent some time assigning provisional new names to lunar features that previously lacked official designations.

In a radio message to mission control in Houston, Hansen suggested one crater be dubbed Integrity, after the name given to the crew’s Orion capsule, and that another crater sometimes visible from Earth on the cusp between the far and near sides of the moon be named in honour of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

“A number of years ago, we started this journey, our close-knit astronaut family, and ​we lost a loved one,” Hansen said of the ​mission commander’s late spouse, his voice choking with ⁠emotion as he described the position of her lunar namesake.

“It’s a bright spot on the Moon, and we would like to call that Carroll.”

As Orion hurtled around the moon’s far side, the crew witnessed its surface as it eclipsed what appeared to be a basketball-sized Earth in the distant background.

Because the moon rotates at ​the same speed as it revolves around the Earth, its far side always faces away from our planet, so that few human beings — only members ​of the Apollo crews who ⁠orbited the moon during their missions - have ever gazed directly on its surface.

Rare detailed photos

Monday’s lunar flyby plunged the crew into darkness and a 40-minute communications blackout as the moon blocked them from NASA’s Deep Space Network, a global array of massive radio communications antennas the agency has been using to talk to the crew.

For the flyby, the astronauts were equipped with professional cameras to take detailed photos of the moon through Orion’s window, showing a rare ⁠and scientifically valuable ​vantage point of sunlight filtering around its edges.

The crew also got the chance to photograph a rare moment in which Earth, ​dwarfed by their record-breaking distance from the planet, set and rose with the lunar horizon as they swung around the moon, presenting a striking celestial reversal of the moonrise typically seen from Earth.

Supply delays have pushed up costs for consumers, while repair work has also become more expensive, affecting citizens relying on electronic devices.

Aaj News reported that traders cited shipment disruptions as a key factor behind the rising prices.

The ‌Artemis II crew, flying in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, are due to awake around 10:50 a.m. ET on Monday for their sixth flight day. By 7:05 p.m., they will reach the mission’s maximum distance from ​Earth of roughly 252,757 miles, 4,102 miles beyond the record held by the Apollo 13 ​crew for 56 years.

As NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch ⁠and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen approach the distance record, they will be sailing around the moon’s ​far side, witnessing it from roughly 4,000 miles above its darkened surface as it eclipses a basketball-sized Earth ​in the distant background.

The milestone is a climactic point in the nearly 10-day Artemis II mission, the first crewed test flight of NASA’s Artemis programme.

The multibillion-dollar series of missions aims to return astronauts to the moon’s surface by ​2028 before China and establish a long-term U.S. presence there over the next decade, building a ​moon base that would serve as a proving ground for potential future missions to Mars.

Officially starting at 2:34 p.m. ET, ‌the ⁠lunar flyby will plunge the crew into darkness and brief communications blackouts as the moon blocks them from NASA’s Deep Space Network, a global array of massive radio communications antennas the agency has been using to talk to the crew.

The flyby will last about six hours, during which the astronauts will ​use professional cameras to take ​detailed photos through ⁠Orion’s window of the silhouetted moon, showing a rare and scientifically valuable vantage point of sunlight filtering around its edges in what will effectively be a ​lunar eclipse.

They will also have the chance to photograph a rare moment ​in which their ⁠home planet, dwarfed by their record-breaking distance in space, will rise from the lunar horizon as their capsule emerges from the other side, a celestial remix of a moonrise seen from Earth.

A team of dozens ⁠of lunar ​scientists positioned in the Science Evaluation Room at NASA’s Johnson ​Space Center in Houston will be taking notes as the astronauts, who studied an array of lunar phenomena as part of mission ​training, describe their view in real time.

The milestone came four days, six hours, and two minutes into the mission, when the crew was roughly 39,000 miles from the moon and 232,000 miles from Earth.

The next key phase will see the astronauts travel to the far side of the moon later on Monday, venturing deeper into space than any humans have before, according to a report in the Guardian.

“We’re all extremely excited for tomorrow,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission, on Sunday.

“Our flight operations and science teams are ready for the first lunar flyby in more than 50 years.”

The Artemis II astronauts are the first humans bound for the moon in over half a century, continuing the legacy of the Apollo programme, which last sent humans there in 1972.

While Apollo missions flew roughly 70 miles above the lunar surface, Artemis II will approach just over 4,000 miles, providing a complete view of the moon, including its polar regions.

During the approximately six-hour flyby, the crew will observe the moon with both the naked eye and onboard cameras, capturing views of the far side that were previously difficult or impossible to see.

When Orion passes behind the moon, the spacecraft will enter a planned communications blackout of about 40 minutes, as the lunar surface blocks radio signals to Earth’s Deep Space Network.

“I think it’s important to remember that we don’t always know exactly what they’re going to see,” said Kelsey Young, lead scientist for Artemis II, during a Sunday press conference.

If all goes according to plan, Americans Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen could set a new record for the farthest humans from Earth.

The crew has already captured unprecedented lunar imagery. Early on Sunday, NASA shared a photo taken by Artemis II showing the moon’s Orientale basin, sometimes called the “Grand Canyon of the Moon.”

“This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,” NASA said, noting that previous images were taken only from orbiting spacecraft.

On day five of the 10-day mission, Orion was nearly 215,000 miles from Earth and 65,000 miles from the moon, according to NASA’s online dashboard.

Former astronaut Charlie Duke, who walked on the moon during Apollo 16 in 1972, gave the ceremonial wake-up call, sending encouragement to the crew and praising the continuation of the Apollo legacy.

The astronauts have conducted a manual piloting demonstration, reviewed their lunar flyby plan, and studied surface features to photograph and analyse.

Nasa chief Jared Isaacman emphasised that the mission is also focused on testing the spacecraft’s life-support systems, noting, “This is the first time astronauts have ever flown on this spacecraft. That’s what we’re most interested in getting data from.”

The crew has also tested their bright orange “survival” suits, designed for takeoff, re-entry, and emergency scenarios such as cabin depressurisation.

While the astronauts will not land on the lunar surface, they are expected to set a record for the farthest distance from Earth during their orbit.

“Over the next day, they will be on the far side of the moon, they will eclipse that record, and we’re going to learn an awful lot about the spacecraft,” Isaacman said.

The data collected will be vital in preparing for future missions, including Artemis III in 2027 and the planned lunar landing of Artemis IV in 2028.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-5281, threatens the world’s 3.5 billion Chrome users, according to a report in Forbes.

Google has already begun distributing a new security update to fix this high-severity flaw, along with 20 other vulnerabilities.

The rollout of the update could take several days — or even weeks — before reaching all Chrome users.

Meanwhile, users who want immediate protection can manually update their browser to apply the patch without waiting.

About CVE-2026-5281 zero-day

Zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome are becoming increasingly common.

CVE-2026-5281 is the fourth zero-day patched in the first quarter of 2026 alone, following CVE-2026-2441 in February and CVE-2026-3909 and CVE-2026-3910 in March.

By comparison, Google patched only eight zero-days in all of 2025.

Technical details remain limited. Google’s Chrome team, represented by Srinivas Sista, explained that bug details are often withheld until most users have applied the fix.

What is known is that CVE-2026-5281 is a use-after-free memory vulnerability affecting Chrome’s cross-platform Dawn WebGPU component.

Exploitation of this flaw could result in browser crashes, data corruption, and arbitrary code execution via specially crafted web pages.

CISA adds Chrome zero-day to known exploited vulnerabilities list

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added CVE-2026-5281 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue.

The agency issued a binding operational directive requiring certain federal agencies to apply the update promptly.

CISA also strongly advised organisations outside the federal government to address the vulnerability immediately to reduce exposure to potential cyberattacks. Although non-federal organisations are not legally required to act, cybersecurity experts advise evaluating the vulnerability and installing the patch promptly.

“You are now closer to the moon than you are to us on Earth,” mission control told the astronauts at around 11.00 p.m. (0400 GMT), according to the space agency’s official live broadcast.

“We all kind of had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that… We can see the Moon out of the docking hatch right now, it is a beautiful sight,” said astronaut Christina Koch replied.

The milestone was hit around two days, five hours and 24 minutes after liftoff, according to the NASA official broadcast.

The US space agency’s online dashboard showed that the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts is now more than 219,000 kilometres (136,080 miles) from Earth.

“We’re halfway there,” NASA posted on social media.

The spacecraft’s next milestone will be entering the lunar sphere of influence, set to take place on day five of the flight, according to NASA.

The astronauts — Americans Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — are now on a “free-return” trajectory, which uses the Moon’s gravity to slingshot around it before heading back towards Earth without propulsion.

The Cyberspace Administration of ‌China’s proposed rules would require prominent “digital human” labels on all virtual human content and prohibit digital humans from providing “virtual intimate relationships” to those under 18, according to rules published ​for public comment until May 6.

The draft regulations would also ban the ​use of other people’s personal information to create digital humans without ⁠consent, or using virtual humans to bypass identity verification systems, reflecting Beijing’s efforts ​to maintain control in the face of advances in artificial intelligence.

Digital humans are ​also prohibited from disseminating content that endangers national security, inciting subversion of state power, promoting secession or undermining national unity, the draft rules said.

Service providers are advised to prevent ​and resist sexually suggestive content, depict horror, cruelty or incite discrimination ​based on ethnicity or region, according to the document.

Providers are also encouraged to take ‌necessary ⁠measures to intervene and provide professional assistance when users exhibit suicidal or self-harming tendencies.

China made clear its ambitions to aggressively adopt AI throughout its economy in the new five-year policy blueprint issued last month. The push comes alongside tightening governance in the booming ​industry to ensure ⁠safety and alignment with the country’s socialist values.

The new rules aim to fill a gap in governance in the digital ​human sector, setting clear red lines for the healthy ​development of ⁠the industry, according to an analysis published on the cyberspace regulator’s website.

“The governance of digital virtual humans is no longer merely an issue of industry norms; ⁠rather, ​it has become a strategic scientific problem that ​concerns the security of cyberspace, public interests, and the high-quality development of the digital ​economy,” it added.