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All-Russian cosmonaut crew launches to International Space Station

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All-Russian cosmonaut crew launches to International Space Station
Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov lifted off aboard a Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan at 11:55 a.m. ET. The crew’s launch and journey to the house station, which ought to take simply over three hours, might be streamed dwell on NASA’s web site.

It is the primary spaceflight for Matveev and Korsakov, and the trio will spend the following six and a half months aboard the house station.

The cosmonauts are anticipated to dock with the house station at 3:05 p.m. ET and the hatch will open at 5:30 p.m. ET, when they are going to be welcomed aboard the ISS by two Russian cosmonauts, 4 NASA astronauts and one European House Company astronaut.

It will convey the station’s crew depend to 10.

Usually, Russian Soyuz launches embrace two cosmonauts and at the least one NASA astronaut or one other worldwide accomplice because of a crew swap settlement between Russian house company Roscosmos and different businesses.

It isn’t the primary time an all-Russian mission has occurred — a Russian crew flew to the station in October to movie the primary film in house.

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Though this cosmonaut launch happens at a time when geopolitical tensions are mounting, the absence of different nations’ involvement is coincidental and primarily based on a previous settlement between NASA and Roscosmos to a delayed crew swap for future missions in 2022.

“We nonetheless plan to work the crew swap,” stated Joel Montalbano, the supervisor of NASA’s Worldwide House Station program, throughout a press convention Monday. “And so we nonetheless have scheduled coaching for Rocosmos to return to Houston, Hawthorne and our workforce to go over to Star Metropolis and practice for the Soyuz.

“So far as interactions with the White Home — they’re conscious that we’re persevering with these operations. We get questions infrequently, and we answered them, however as we speak we’re persevering with to work these agreements.”

Montalbano didn’t reply to a query about extending the ISS partnership with Russia to 2030.

When requested whether or not the present tensions on Earth have translated to the crew aboard the house station, Montalbano stated, “Once you’re in house, there isn’t any borders. You do not see you do not see nation strains or state strains.”

“The groups proceed to work collectively. Are they conscious of what is going on on Earth? Completely. Astronauts and cosmonauts are a number of the {most professional} teams you will ever see. They proceed to function properly, and there is actually no pressure with the workforce. That is what they have been educated to do they usually’re up there doing that job.”

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Returning to Earth

On March 30, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is about to return to Earth alongside Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.

Vande Hei — who launched to the ISS in April 2021 — surpassed NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s file of 340 days in house on March 15, and when he lands in Kazakhstan, he can have set a brand new file for the period of time a human has spent in house: 355 days.

The house company sought to reaffirm Monday that it is nonetheless working carefully with Russian house company Rocosmos on the Worldwide House Station, regardless of mounting geopolitical tensions.

Joint operations between NASA and Roscosmos on the Russian amenities at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, “proceed to go properly,” based on Montalbano. “I can let you know for positive Mark [Vande Hei] is coming residence” on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Montalbano stated Monday. “We’re in communication with our Russian colleagues, there isn’t any fuzz on that.”

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NASA says American aboard International Space Station will come back on Russian rocket 'for sure'

NASA officers didn’t say there can be any vital modifications to plans to get Vande Hei again to the USA after he lands. He’ll journey residence through a Gulfstream jet, as different US astronauts have earlier than him.

For practically a decade, Russia’s Soyuz autos had been the one technique of getting astronauts to and from the house station. However that reliance ended after SpaceX debuted its Crew Dragon capsule in 2020, and the US regained human spaceflight capabilities.

When Montalbano was requested by CNN’s Kristin Fisher about whether or not NASA has contingency plans in place if the US-Russia relationship additional deteriorates, he stated: “The Worldwide House Station, I am going to let you know, it has been the flagship mannequin for worldwide cooperation. We talked earlier (about) the interdependency that now we have between the US and the Russian section. That’s the reason we’re in a position to function and the way we’re working…At the moment there isn’t any indication from our Russian companions that they need to do something totally different. So we’re planning to proceed operations as we’re as we speak.”

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Palisades and Eaton Fires May Not Be Fully Extinguished for Weeks

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Palisades and Eaton Fires May Not Be Fully Extinguished for Weeks

It may take weeks or longer for firefighters to fully extinguish the two most destructive fires that have ravaged parts of the Los Angeles area, fire officials warned.

The sheer sizes of those blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, have presented a significant challenge. They have charred almost 40,000 acres combined and are still only partly contained.

Difficult weather conditions have also hindered efforts. David Acuna, a battalion chief with Cal Fire, said the persistence of strong winds, and the fact that fires were burning through homes, which can generate intense heat, made containment impossible when the blazes first ignited.

Crews have been trying to establish a boundary around the fires, using trenches, natural barriers and other methods to prevent further spread. But Capt. Erik Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said, “It’s going to be a slow, arduous process.”

The emergence of smaller fires over the last week has further complicated efforts. Of particular concern was the Auto fire in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, which grew to more than 50 acres before being contained. Officials worried about it breaking free again in windy conditions.

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These fires have required an immediate response from both air and ground crews to prevent them from growing, Mr. Acuna said, which diverts resources from the larger blazes.

Stopping the fires’ forward progress is only the first step. Firefighters must also extinguish all remaining flames inside the contained area.

Mr. Scott said this second part of the process would also take time. Among other steps, he said, firefighters need to use hand tools to scrape away brush near the burn perimeter and turn over smoldering piles to ensure nothing is hot enough to reignite.

These timelines are not unusual for large fires. In 2018, the Woolsey fire burned through nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, destroying over 1,600 structures. The fire ignited in early November and was not contained for two weeks. And it took until early January for the fire to be fully extinguished.

The Santa Ana winds that have repeatedly raised the fire danger over the last week have so far proven lighter than anticipated on Tuesday, but forecasters warn that wind speeds could increase on Wednesday. The region remains critically dry, with little rain expected in the near future. The combination of those elements is threatening to ignite more fires across Southern California, and could further hinder firefighters’ efforts.

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Erin McCann contributed reporting.

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Top BlackRock executive Mark Wiedman to depart

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Top BlackRock executive Mark Wiedman to depart

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Top BlackRock executive Mark Wiedman is departing, in a move that disrupts the asset manager’s planning for the eventual departure of founder Larry Fink, according to four people close to the company.

Wiedman had been widely discussed as a potential successor to Fink for more than a decade and had recently been one of the $11.5tn asset manager’s most prominent public faces as the head of its client business.

BlackRock’s board described him in as a regulatory filing last year as one of three “senior leaders who we believe will play critical roles in BlackRock’s future” as it granted him a special retention package.

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However, Wiedman, who led the integration and rapid growth of BlackRock’s flagship index and exchange traded fund business, has opted not to wait around. His departure is expected to be announced very shortly, the people said. He is forfeiting $8mn in stock options, according to the proxy.

Wiedman’s departure comes after the world’s largest asset manager embarked on a $28bn acquisition spree last year to bulk up its footprint in the fast-growing and lucrative alternative assets sector. The strategic moves not only put pressure on Fink, 72, to personally oversee their success, but also brought in a clutch of high-powered and high-paid executives who need to be carefully managed.

Fink, who has led BlackRock since its 1988 founding, is very popular with investors and is among the most influential figures in finance. But analysts and some within the firm have begun expressing concerns whether the slow pace of succession planning will drive the next generation of top talent to start going elsewhere. BlackRock president Rob Kapito, 67, is also a founder of the firm.

BlackRock declined to comment.

Wiedman is leaving almost exactly a year after Salim Ramji, another executive who was also once touted as a potential leader. Ramji became chief executive of Vanguard, BlackRock’s chief rival in the US and the world’s second-largest asset manager. Several other lower-ranking executives have also left in the past few years to take leadership jobs at smaller firms, including Daniel Gamba to Northern Trust and Zach Buchwald to Russell Investments.

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After Ramji left, the group touted its strong stable of current leaders, including Wiedman and two other executives who also received special option grants: chief operating officer Robert Goldstein and chief financial officer Martin Small.

“BlackRock is proud to have a record of our firm’s alumni going on to lead multiple investment management companies and financial institutions,” it has previously said.

A senior Wall Street figure with knowledge of the situation said “Larry [Fink] and Rob [Kapito] are not going anywhere. They just made a major acquisition and you have to see that through, [but] Wiedman is at an age where if he doesn’t make a move, he ages out of being a CEO.”

A lawyer by training, Wiedman joined BlackRock in 2004 after stints at the US Treasury and McKinsey. He started BlackRock’s financial markets advisory consulting arm, which helped central banks and government agencies dig through the rubble of the 2008 financial crisis.

Wiedman negotiated the 2009 purchase and integration of Barclays Global Investors, the deal widely seen as the most important in BlackRock’s history. He then headed up the resulting iShares business from 2011 to 2019 as it developed into a juggernaut in index and ETFs.

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Keenly interested in talent development, Wiedman recruited or promoted many of BlackRock’s top executives, including Small and Rachel Lord, who heads the international business.

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World News Live Today January 15, 2025: Donald Trump says to create new department to collect revenue from foreign sources on inauguration day

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World News Live Today January 15, 2025: Donald Trump says to create new department to collect revenue from foreign sources on inauguration day

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World News Live: Get real-time updates on international politics, economic changes, conflicts, and environmental issues. Access the latest breaking news and in-depth stories as they happen, keeping you informed of events shaping the world.

Latest news on January 15, 2025: Trump did not specify whether the new agency would replace collections of tariffs, duties, fees and fines by US Customs and Border Protection.

World News Live: Welcome to our World News live blog, your go-to source for instant updates on major events across the globe. Whether it’s political shifts, economic trends, environmental crises, or international conflicts, we deliver real-time reports to keep you informed and engaged with the latest global developments. Disclaimer: This is an AI-generated live blog and has not been edited by Hindustan Times staff.…Read More

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Jan 15, 2025 12:30 AM IST

US News Live : Donald Trump says to create new department to collect revenue from foreign sources on inauguration day

  • Donald Trump said in a social media post he would create the department on January 20, the day he takes office as president for a second term

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Jan 15, 2025 12:15 AM IST

US News Live : Speaker Johnson orders US Capitol flags raised to full height for Donald Trump’s inauguration

  • The Republican leader’s decision means that President-elect Donald Trump will not take the oath of office for his second term under a half-staff flag

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