​ Nasa’s Moon rocket Artemis rolls back to pad for possible April launch. 3 hours ago. Pallab GhoshScience correspondent. Getty Images. Nasa is rolling out its giant Moon rocket to the launch pad for a second time, ahead of a mission to send astronauts around the Moon – something not attempted in more than 50 years.. The 98m tall Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft are making the four mile journey from their assembly building to Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.. The move comes after a problem with the rocket’s helium system forced Nasa to abandon a launch attempt in March and return the vehicle indoors for repairs.. Engineers say the issue has now been fixed and hope that a series of final tests at the pad will confirm the rocket is ready for an early‑April launch window.. Just after nightfall, the SLS emerged from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) – one of the largest buildings in the world – and began its slow crawl towards the Atlantic coast.. Standing taller than Big Ben’s clock tower at nearly 100m, the rocket and its launch platform weigh about 5,000 tonnes. They are being carried by Crawler‑Transporter‑2, a low‑slung, tank‑like vehicle on caterpillar tracks that Nasa built in 1965 to inch Saturn V Moon rockets to the pad.. Its maximum speed is about 1mph (1.6km/h), and it crawls even more slowly on bends and up the gentle ramp to the launch pad, so the four‑mile journey can take up to 12 hours.. The snail’s pace is intentional: as if carrying a precious Ming vase, the slow, gentle motion reduces stresses on the multi‑billion‑dollar rocket and launch tower. The slow speed also gives flight teams the best chance of spotting and stopping any unwelcome movement of what is in effect a mobile skyscraper.. NASA. Once the rocket reaches the pad, engineers will spend several days checking that the repairs carried out in th VAB have worked as intended and that nothing has shifted during the slow journey out. They will plug the launch tower back into the vehicle, run pressure tests on the helium system that caused the earlier problem.. Controllers will also rehearse parts of the countdown, sending commands through the same computers and networks that will be used on launch day, but without filling the tanks with fuel.. Once those tests are complete, Nasa’s mission management team will meet a few days before the earliest launch opportunity on 1 April to review the data and decide whether to proceed.. When does the Nasa Moon mission launch and who are the Artemis II crew?. Artemis II: Nasa targets early April for Moon mission. Nasa announces change to its Moon landing plans. The Artemis II crew – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – have entered pre flight quarantine and will travel to Florida closer to launch to take part in various rehearsals, including suiting up and travelling to the pad. Nasa is working towards launch opportunities in the first week of April for the ten  

​ Australia PM heckled at Sydney mosque Ramadan event. 6 hours ago. Lana LamSydney. Australia’s prime minister has been heckled during an event at a Sydney mosque marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.. Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke were at Lakemba Mosque – one of the largest in Australia – after being invited by community leaders to attend Eid prayers on Friday morning, local time.. Several attendees accused the pair of being “genocide supporters”, shouting “boo” and “get out of here” as a mosque leader gave a speech calling for the government to better engage with Muslim Australians.. There is deep upset within much of Australia’s Muslim community over the government’s response to the Israel-Gaza war and rising Islamophobia at home.. A man who was shouting at Albanese was removed from the mosque by police but later released without charge and told to move on, according to news agency Australian Associated Press.. After the speech finished, the prime minister made his way out of the mosque through the crowds and continued to be shouted at by several people, with one asking: “Why is he here? Get him out of here! It’s a disgrace”.. Shortly after the event finished, the Lebanese Muslim Association – which operates the mosque – released a statement saying Albanese was welcome at the prayers and that they would “continue to open” their doors.. “We understand that emotions are high, particularly given the ongoing suffering in Gaza and the devastation in Lebanon. These are not distant issues for our community,” it said.. “But we also need to be clear. Choosing to engage with the elected leadership of this country is not a betrayal of those concerns. It is how we give them a voice.”. Albanese later told media he was welcomed by most of the 30,000-plus crowd at the mosque – which has been the target of several threatening letters in recent months.. “Overwhelmingly the reception was incredibly positive,” he said, according to the Guardian Australia.. He suggested the unrest from a few protestors may be over his government’s recent moves to outlaw extremist organisations such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group which calls for a single Islamic government across the Muslim world and which has been accused of celebrating terrorism.. Earlier, Albanese had posted about the visit on social media, writing that it was “an honour” to join the prayers, alongside smiling photos of him greeting worshippers.. During his speech in the mosque, community leader Gamel Kheir told attendees that “we can neither totally disengage nor invite politicians for some cheap token photo opportunity”.. The mosque also said, in a social media post, that Friday’s event was the first time the prime minister had been invited to attend prayers since the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict.. Community tensions – and reports of both antisemitism and Islamophobia – have been rising in Australia since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing more than 1,200 people an  

​ Several injured as turbulence hits Delta flight into Sydney. 8 hours ago. Tiffany Wertheimer. Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images. Several people have been injured after a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence on Friday morning.. Delta Flight 41 “encountered brief turbulence” as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson told the BBC. Four flight attendants were injured, and no passengers were hurt, the airline said.. The New South Wales Ambulance Service said it assessed five patients in total, and took three to hospital with minor injuries that included back pain and headaches. The patients’ ages ranged from their 30s to 70s.. It is the latest incident of planes being hit by turbulence, with experts saying climate change is a major factor.. There were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson said, adding that the plane landed “safely and normally” at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday (19:48 GMT on Thursday).. The NSW Ambulance Service said it received a call just three minutes before the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.. Why plane turbulence is becoming more frequent – and more severe. Last year, 25 people were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit “significant” turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.. In 2024, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying five seconds of severe turbulence. One passenger died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and fell back down.. Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.. Estimates show that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that now take off globally.. Severe turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a plane going through disturbed air exert more than 1.5g-force on your body – enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt.. As climate change shifts atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.. Sydney. Air travel. Delta Airlines  

​ Russia, China and the US – the global winners and losers of the Iran war. 9 hours ago. Dharshini DavidDeputy economics editor. Sedat Suna / Gett Images. From soaring heating oil bills for homes in Yorkshire to bill-saving school closures in Pakistan, the financial fallout from the war in the Middle East is already being keenly felt.. It is increasingly clear that the impact of Tehran’s retaliation, designed to trigger economic disruption and damage, may not be fleeting. Moreover, it’s very uneven.. Alongside a hefty catalogue of those who risk being hard hit, there are some who are benefiting. So who are they?. Winners: Norway, Canada and Russia. For all the efforts to pursue renewable energy, we remain hugely reliant on oil and gas. Plentiful reserves tend to promise great riches, hence crude has been labelled “black gold”. When prices rise, producers are typically quids in, while users are out of pocket.. But this is not your usual oil price shock.. The Middle East remains the heart of supply, the Strait of Hormuz its main artery.. The impact of a de facto blockage and attacks on energy infrastructure in the region has hit Gulf producers like Qatar and Saudi Arabia hard, as Tehran targets America’s allies.. As customers seek alternative sources, it’s the likes of Norway and Canada who may gain.. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and when many countries sought to move away from relying on Russian gas, Norway was able to ramp up production and take advantage.. Meanwhile, Canada’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson has been quick to position his nation as “a stable, reliable, predictable, values-based producer of energy”, but there are questions about how much it can raise production.. Getty Images. Instead, it’s Russia that could be the biggest winner. As Washington relaxes the rules to ease the global supply crunch, Russia’s crude oil sales to India have jumped by 50%.. Some estimates say that Moscow could earn up to $5bn (£3.7bn) more by the end of March, and could be on track for its biggest year of fuel-related revenues since 2022.. America risks handing Moscow a hefty windfall at the expense of Gulf nations. There are other potential gainers too.. As some countries ramp up their use of coal, it is a tantalising opportunity for big exporters such as Indonesia, as the price of that fuel also rises.. Why has Trump eased sanctions on Russian oil – and will it help Putin?. Losers: US, UK and Europe. What of the US itself? President Donald Trump says that when oil goes up, the US “makes a lot of money”.. Certainly, American oil producers could be on track to make tens of billions of dollars of extra revenues this year if crude prices remain around current levels.. But that doesn’t make the US a net winner.. Firstly, because some producers are heavily exposed to disruption in the Middle East. ExxonMobil, for instance, has operations at Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial hub, where production has been shut down since early March, and which has now been h  

​ Nearly 100 ships pass the Hormuz Strait – who is getting through?. 9 hours ago. Kayleen Devlin, Tom Edgington, Yi MaBBC Verify. Getty Images. Just under 100 ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of March, according to data analysed by BBC Verify, despite periodic attacks on shipping in the area by Iranian forces.. While some energy and everyday goods are still moving through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, daily traffic is down about 95% since the Iran war began on 28 February.. Before the war, about 138 ships passed through the strait each day according to the Joint Maritime Information Centre, carrying one fifth of the global oil supply.. The data provided by shipping analysts Kpler shows 99 vessels passing the narrow strait so far this month, an average of just 5-6 vessels a day.. BBC Verify looks at the ships making the journey and the risks they are taking.. Our analysis indicates that about a third of these recent crossings were made by ships with connections to Iran.. These include 14 vessels sailing under Iran’s flag and others under sanctions due to suspected links to Tehran’s oil trade.. Nine other ships were owned by companies with addresses linked to China, while six listed India as their destination.. The analysis also reveals that several non-Iran linked ships have docked at the country’s ports, including vessels owned by Greek companies.. Some ships successfully crossing the strait appear to be taking a longer route than usual.. Tracking data for a Pakistan-flagged oil tanker suggests it sailed close to the Iranian coast on its passage through the strait on 15 March, rather than the more widely used route through the middle.. Bradley Martin, senior researcher at the US defence think tank RAND Corporation, told us the ship was likely “responding to some set of directions from Iran”.. He says its path could indicate the presence of mines, or an effort by Iranian officials to make the ship easier to identify.. By forcing vessels to reroute, ships are entering Iran’s territorial waters and Tehran’s maritime rules, says Michelle Wiese Bockmann from Windward Maritime Analytics.. “My takeaway is that Iran is closing and controlling the strait by the fear of attack and also the fear of mining.. “That’s why everyone is having to go around and hug its territorial coastline instead of going through that international navigation channel,” she told BBC Verify.. Michael Connell from the US-based Center for Naval Analyses agrees that ships are taking a different route.. “They probably have some agreement in place with Iranian authorities that if they stick to a defined lane they’re safe.”. Four threats to shipping. Since the conflict began we have verified 20 commercial vessels attacked off the Iranian coast, not all of them in the direct vicinity of the Hormuz Strait.. On 11 March, the Thai-flagged bulk carrier Mayuree Naree was struck by two projectiles while attempting to pass through.. EPA. Three of the 23