🚀 NASA says astronauts stuck in space will not return on Boeing capsule, will wait for SpaceX craft

The Starliner drama has been a major setback for Boeing’s space ambitions, adding to years of struggle to get the capsule off the ground and keep up with rival company SpaceX.

Spaceflight is risky — even at its safest and even at its most routine — and a test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine, and so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday at a news briefing.

The Starliner drama has been a major setback for Boeing's space ambitions, adding to years of struggle to get the capsule off the ground and keep up with rival company SpaceX. Even before Wilmore and Williams launched in June, the Starliner program was more than $1.5 billion over budget and years behind schedule.

NASA said it will free up two seats on an upcoming SpaceX launch, known as Crew-9, that will be taking a new rotation of space station crew members to the orbiting outpost. By transporting two astronauts instead of the planned four, Wilmore and Williams will be able to fly back in the open seats at the end of the Crew-9 mission in February.

The Crew-9 flight is currently scheduled to lift off on Sept. 24 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The beleaguered Starliner capsule, meanwhile, will journey back to Earth without a crew, likely sometime in early September, according to NASA.

🔗 https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-astronauts-stuck-space-station-will-return-spacex-rcna167164

🇸🇪🇮🇳 Indians leaving Sweden at record rate, first negative net migration since 1998

Between January and June 2024, Sweden saw a dramatic increase in the number of Indian-born individuals leaving the country, with 2,837 departures -- a massive 171% rise compared to the 1,046 departures in the same period last year.

From 1998 to 2010, a total of 24,034 residence permits given to Indians.

🔗 https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/world/indians-abroad/story/indian-emigration-sweden-increase-immigration-ukrainians-negative-migration-statistics-sweden-2586839-2024-08-23

🇺🇸❌🇺🇸 — Outgoing Presidential Campaign RFK Jr. says the Democratic Party "has become the party of the war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big money."

Durov was supposed to have dinner with Macron on night of his arrest – report

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has told police that he was supposed to have dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron on the day of his arrest, respected French investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine has reported.

“Macron is perfectly capable of this kind of deceit aimed at fulfilling the mission demanded by his masters: jailing all those who defend freedom of expression! We demand explanations from Macron!” Les Patriots Party leader Florian Philippot wrote in a social media post commenting on the story.

The Elysee Palace rushed to deny the newspaper’s claims.

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Durov won’t bend to Western governments like Zuckerberg, that’s why he faces charges - scholar

"The French justice system has deliberately twisted the spirit of the law to formulate excessive charges against Durov. It is clear that this is a pretext," Jacques Sapir, director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, told Sputnik.

The charges brought by the French authorities against Pavel Durov stem from his refusal to censor his Telegram instant messaging service, according to the pundit. Sapir contends that it is unjust to accuse the Telegram founder of complicity in terrorism, drug trafficking, and child pornography - particularly in light of the content that permeates other social networks.

"His case is similar to all the measures that are currently being taken in Western countries that are infringing on freedom of expression," he said.

Sapir suggests that the main difference between Durov and Mark Zuckerberg, whose Instagram "has a massive child exploitation problem", is that Zuckerberg censors free speech and apparently provided Western governments with a backdoor access to user data, as Elon Musk implied on August 25.

"This is one more step, after the long prosecutions against Julian Assange and those against Snowden, in a long list of attacks on freedom of expression in Western countries," Sapir said.

According to the pundit, what should be regarded as mere administrative offenses are being reclassified as serious crimes based on dubious motives and reasoning. Consequently, he stated, social networks are now facing criminalization.

The French scholar believes this trend will further elevate the significance of social networks that originate outside the Western world and may uphold freedom of expression.

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