“Everything is possible and is on the table, including the downgrade of the relations. But we are not there yet. We are talking to the Israelis, trying to explain and reach a consensus,” the official said.

The official said that coordination between the two countries on the Rafah operation, which Egypt has publicly opposed, “didn’t go well. And that’s why we warned Israel of dire repercussions.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Egypt was considering downgrading ties with Israel.

The top diplomats in both countries traded blame over the closure of the Rafah crossing as aid deliveries through the key land crossing halted.

Rafah had been the entry point for nearly a quarter of the relief entering the Gaza Strip before Israel’s operation. On Tuesday, the US State Department warned that only 50 humanitarian aid trucks made it through to Gaza on Sunday, down from hundreds per day in previous weeks, adding that the number is “not nearly enough.”

Israel placed the blame for the crossing’s closure on Egypt. In a statement on X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said he had spoken to UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock “about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

The Israeli minister’s comments drew backlash from Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, who rejected Katz’ statement, calling it a “policy of distorting the facts.”

Shoukry stated Egypt’s “categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side,” adding that Katz’s remarks are “desperate attempts by Israel to hold Egypt responsible for the unprecedented humanitarian crisis facing the Gaza Strip.”

The crisis, Shoukry said, “is a direct result of indiscriminate Israeli attacks against the Palestinians for more than seven months.”

“It needs to be in the hands of the Palestinians,” the official said, adding that the crossing could be placed under the control of the Palestinian civil defense. “These are neither Hamas nor Fatah (a rival party to Hamas).”

Israeli troops at the Egyptian border

Adding to tensions are Israeli military movements that have seen the Jewish state’s tanks and soldiers operating on Egypt’s doorstep, causing outrage in Egyptian media for alleged violations of the 1979 peace treaty signed between the two countries.

Israeli troops have crossed into an area that was demilitarized in that treaty four decades ago – including parts of a border zone known as the Philadelphi Corridor, where the Rafah crossing lies. Videos released by the Israeli military last week showed Israeli flags raised on the Palestinian side of the frontier.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a 14-kilometer (about 8.7 mile) long and 100-meter-wide strip of land running along the border between Gaza and Egypt. The corridor is key to the 1979 treaty, a pact that saw Egypt and Israel end their enmity and which restricted the number of troops each side can place near the other’s territory.

Changes to the security presence in the area must be made with mutual agreement. Over the years, amendments to security agreements between Egypt and Israel have allowed Cairo to boost its security presence in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel.

Israel has not disclosed the scale of its military presence in Rafah. But according to the 1979 peace treaty, which was drawn up before Israel unilaterally withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005, Israel is allowed a limited force of four infantry battalions in Zone D – where the Philadelphi Corridor lies.

These battalions may consist of up to 180 armored personnel vehicles and a total of four thousand personnel. The presence of tanks, artillery and anti-aircraft missiles, except individual surface-to-air missiles, isn’t allowed, the treaty says.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly rule out Israeli governance over Gaza and to lay out his post-war plans, warning that he opposes Israeli rule in the Palestinian enclave.

“The ‘day after Hamas,’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’ rule,” Gallant said during a news conference at the Kirya, Israel’s military headquarters Wednesday.

“⁠I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza Strip, that Israel will not establish military governance in the Gaza Strip, and that a governing alternative to Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be raised immediately,” he added.

Gallant’s remarks come as serious questions about Israel’s long-term strategy in Gaza are being raised both inside and outside of Israel after the Israeli military sent troops back into areas of northern Gaza it had withdrawn from months ago to battle Hamas militants who had returned amid a power vacuum.

Israeli military officials have quietly warned that the lack of a long-term strategy for post-war governance will result in this pattern repeating throughout Gaza. And top US officials are doing so publicly, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning Wednesday that Israel must “focus on what the future can and must be” to avoid “anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos.”

Gallant has previously said he opposes Israeli control over post-war Gaza, but his remarks Wednesday were his most direct on the topic as he warned of the consequences of a long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza and called out Netanyahu directly.

“I will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military rule in Gaza. Israel must not establish civilian rule in Gaza,” he said, warning that a military occupation of the Palestinian territory would take a heavy toll in “bloodshed and victims, as well as a heavy economic price,” he warned.

Netanyahu appeared to respond to Gallant’s remarks later on Wednesday, saying in a video statement posted to social media that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority would be acceptable entities to govern Gaza.

“I’m not willing to replace Hamastan with Fatahstan,” he said, referring to Fatah, the Palestinian political party that dominates the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu also said that a complete routing of Hamas would be his prerequisite for a new civilian government in Gaza. “As long as Hamas remains in place, no other entity would enter Gaza to administer the civilian aspects, especially not the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

Gallant’s remarks set off a political firestorm in Israel, with a number of right-wing lawmakers condemning Gallant’s statement and some even urging Netanyahu to remove him from his position. War cabinet member Minister Benny Gantz meanwhile has endorsed Gallant’s stance, saying he was “speaking the truth”.

The public clash between Gallant and Netanyahu follows repeated calls by the US for Israel to produce a clear plan for post-war Gaza.

“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told journalists at press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, adding, “We also can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos.”

“There needs to be a clear and concrete plan, and we look to Israel to come forward with its ideas,” he said.

A young activist jailed for insulting Thailand’s monarchy died on Tuesday following a prolonged hunger strike, officials said, prompting an outpouring of grief and renewed calls for justice reform in the Southeast Asian kingdom

Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom, 28, died after suffering a “sudden cardiac arrest,” Thailand’s Corrections Department said in a statement. A medical team tried to resuscitate her before transferring her to Bangkok’s Thammasat University Hospital but she “did not respond to treatment,” the department said.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death, the department added.

Netiporn was a member of protest group Thalu Wang, which has pushed for reform of Thailand’s powerful monarchy and amendment of the country’s draconian lese majeste law, in which criticizing the king, queen, or heir apparent can lead to a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

The group’s name loosely translates to “piercing through the palace,” in reference to its drive to hold the monarchy accountable; it campaigns by holding public opinion polls questioning the monarchy’s power.

Netiporn had been part of the nationwide 2020 youth-led protests that saw millions of young Thais take to the streets of major cities calling for constitutional, democratic and military reforms, and, for the first time, openly criticizing the monarchy and publicly questioning its power and wealth.

She had been in jail since January 26 and was awaiting trial, according to legal advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

While in detention, Netiporn went on a 65-day hunger strike until April to protest the jailing of political dissidents without bail, the group said. During this time, she had been moved back and forth to the prison hospital due to her deteriorating health.

After Netiporn was sent back to jail on April 4, the Thai Corrections Department said she was able to eat and drink normally, but she was weak and suffered from swollen limbs and anemia. She had refused to take “minerals and anti-anemia supplements,” the department said.

The activist faced seven criminal cases, including two lese majeste charges. She previously spent 94 days in jail in 2022 and conducted a hunger strike before being released on bail, which was later revoked.

One lese majeste case against her was filed in relation to a 2022 protest where she held up a banner at a busy shopping mall in Bangkok that read: “Did the royal procession cause an inconvenience?”

The other lese majeste charge is from a similar 2022 protest where she held a sign asking the public: “Do you agree that the government allows the king to use power as he pleases?”

In an open letter Netiporn wrote from jail in March, she said growing up as a judge’s daughter made her realize “this country doesn’t exist to serve small people’s justice.”

“You don’t have to be a judge’s daughter to understand the scale of the failure in the justice system. Their existence is not for the people, they exist shamelessly for the powers and a few groups of people in this country,” she wrote. “By simply asking question and honking a car, you go to jail.”

Calls for reform

Netiporn’s death has shocked many in the country and sparked renewed calls for reforms to the judicial system, which allows activists to be denied bail and held in detention for extended periods of time before trial.

“This is a shocking reminder that Thai authorities are harshly denying pro-democracy activists their freedom in an apparent bid to silence the peaceful expression of dissent. Many are currently detained, with their right to temporary release on bail denied,” said Amnesty International in a statement.

“This tragic incident should serve as a wake-up call to Thai authorities to drop charges against and release all human rights defenders and other people who are unjustly detained.”

On Tuesday night, supporters held a candlelight vigil outside the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court. Those attending included Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, a fellow activist who also faces lese majeste charges for her involvement in the 2020 protests.

Calling on the government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to respond to her death, Panusaya demanded the release of all political prisoners in Thailand.

“Do we have to have more people die before you will care?” she asked.

On Wednesday, Srettha called Netiporn’s death a “tragic incident,” adding he had ordered Thailand’s Ministry of Justice to investigate the circumstances surrounding it.

“I would like to convey my condolences to her family. I am confident that we will give justice,” he said.

Responding to the calls for the release of all political prisoners, Strettha said, “I believe that the justice minister has heard about the call, and he’s working on looking into the whole legal system. We have to give justice to everyone.”

Thailand has some of the world’s strictest lese majeste laws and sentences for those convicted under Section 112 of the country’s criminal code, can be decades long. Hundreds of people have been prosecuted in recent years, including Mongkol Thirakhot, who was sentenced to a record 50 years in prison in January for social media posts deemed damaging to the king.

For years, human rights organizations and free speech campaigners have said lese majeste has been used as a political tool to silence critics of the Thai government.

Rights groups say the right to freedom of expression in Thailand has come under increased attack since the 2020 protests. Despite the change from a military-backed government to civilian leadership last year, surveillance and intimidation against activists and students continues, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

The legal advocacy group said that since the start of those protests in July 2020 and up until March 2024, at least 1,954 people have been prosecuted or charged for their participation in political assemblies and for speaking out, with 286 of those cases involving children.

At least 270 people have been charged with lese majeste during that time, the group added.

Netiporn’s death comes as Thailand is running for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council and while the Thai government is negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union, Akarachai added.

“The right to bail must be granted to political detainees who have not been found guilty of any crimes by a final judgment,” he said. “The price of fundamental freedoms should not be their lives.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

Deadly violence on the French island of New Caledonia erupted for a third day Wednesday, with armed clashes between protesters, militias and police, and buildings and cars set on fire in the capital of the South Pacific archipelago.

At least three people have been shot dead during the unrest, which is considered the worst since the 1980s, and prompted authorities to impose a curfew in the capital Noumea. It has also banned public gatherings, carrying weapons and selling alcohol, and closed the main airport – usually a busy tourist hub – to commercial traffic.

The violence is the latest outburst of political tensions that have simmered for years and pitted the island’s largely pro-independence indigenous Kanak communities – who have long chafed against rule by Paris – against French inhabitants opposed to breaking ties with their motherland.

France’s military has mobilized and flown in “four additional squadrons to restore order,” according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Lying in the South Pacific with Australia, Fiji and Vanuatu for neighbors, New Caledonia is a semiautonomous French territory – one of a dozen scattered throughout the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean.

Protests began Monday involving mostly young people, in response to the tabling of a vote 10,000 miles (17,000 kilometers) away in the French parliament proposing changes to New Caledonia’s constitution that would give greater voting rights to French residents living on the islands.

On Tuesday, legislators voted overwhelmingly in favor of the change.

The move would add thousands of extra voters to New Caledonia’s electoral rolls, which have not been updated since the late 1990s. Pro-independence groups say the changes are an attempt by France to consolidate its rule over the archipelago.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm, issuing a letter Wednesday to New Caledonian political leaders urging them to “unambiguously condemn all this violence” and inviting both pro- and anti-independence leaders to meet him “face to face” in Paris.

Macron will chair a defense and national security council on Wednesday, focusing on the violence, the presidential palace said.

Macron’s administration has pushed for a pivot to the Indo-Pacific, stressing that France is a Pacific power, as China and the United States beef up their presence amid a battle for influence in the strategically important region. New Caledonia is at the center of that plan.

The violence

Three people – two men and a woman, all indigenous Kanaks – have been shot dead in the violent protests and looting, according to Charles Wea, spokesperson for Louis Mapou, President of the Government of New Caledonia.

Demonstrators have also set fire to buildings and cars in Noumea, defying a curfew that has been extended to Thursday.

Thick plumes of black smoke covered the capital on Wednesday morning, social media video showed. Images showed burned-out cars, fires in the street, and shops vandalized and looted.

“Some are equipped with hunting rifles with buckshot as ammunition. Others were equipped with larger rifles, firing bullets,” the French High commissioner to New Caledonia Louis Le Franc said.

More than 140 people have been arrested, while at least 60 security personnel have been injured in the clashes between local nationalist groups and the French authorities, according to Le Franc.

The vote

Colonial France took control of New Caledonia in 1853. White settlement followed and the indigenous Kanak people were longtime victims of harsh segregation policies. Many indigenous inhabitants continue to live with high rates of poverty and high unemployment to this day.

Deadly violence exploded in the 1980s eventually paving the way towards the Noumea Accord in 1998, a promise by France to give greater political autonomy to the Kanak community.

Multiple referendums were held in recent years – in 2018, 2020 and 2021 – as part of the agreement offering voters in New Caledonia the option to secede from France. Each referendum was voted down, but the process was marred by boycotts from pro-independence groups and by Covid-19.

Voter roles have been frozen since the Noumea Accord, the issue that France’s parliament was seeking to address in the vote that sparked this week’s violence.

French lawmakers in Paris voted 351 – 153 in favor of changing the constitution to “unfreeze” the territory’s electoral rolls, enfranchising French residents who have been in New Caledonia for 10 years.

The lists were frozen by the French government to appease pro-independence Kanak nationalists who believe new arrivals to the former colony, including from France, dilute popular support for independence.

Both houses of France’s parliament need to approve the constitutional change passed by the National Assembly.

On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the government would not call a meeting of the parliament to vote on the motion before talks with Kanak leaders, including major independence alliance the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

“I invite New Caledonia’s political leaders to seize this opportunity and come to Paris for talks in the coming weeks. The important thing is conciliation. Dialogue is important. It is about finding a common, political and global solution,” Attal said on the floor of the National Assembly.

FLNKS issued its own statement Wednesday both condemning the vote at the National Assembly and calling for an end to the violence.

“FLNKS appeals to the youth involved in these demonstrations for appeasement and to ensure the safety of the population and property,” the statement read.

There was no doubting the message from Antony Blinken’s musical debut in Kyiv on Tuesday night.

The US secretary of state made a surprise appearance on stage in a bar in Kyiv, as he appeared alongside Ukrainian band 19.99 in a rendition of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Blinken, who played guitar with the punk/jazz band and even joined in on vocals, arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday for a surprise trip, in which he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss battlefield updates and the importance of newly arrived US aid. The visit is the first by a Biden administration official since the long-delayed passage of US supplemental funding to the war-torn country.

Perhaps even more of a surprise, however, was his appearance at Barman Dictat on Tuesday evening, a popular underground cocktail bar and music venue just off Kyiv’s main street, Khreshchatyk.

The bar, which has heavy metal doors and metal reinforcements along the walls, is popular with war veterans and soldiers on leave.

In a personal address from the stage, Blinken said: “The United States is with you, so much of the world is with you. And they’re fighting, not just for Ukraine but for the free world – and the free world is with you too.”

The venue posted about the unusual performance on its Instagram page, captioning it: “Keep on rocking on a free world! Thanks @secblinken.”

The song was released by Neil Young in 1989 – the year the Berlin Wall fell – on his album entitled “Freedom.”

Although Blinken did not share the footage – or even reference the event – on his social media, his profile describes him as a “(very) amateur guitarist.”

Blinken is not the first US politician to show off his musical talents in a European music venue. Former President Bill Clinton played saxophone at the Reduta Jazz Club in Prague in 1994, after the fall of the Iron Curtain – and returned there to play again earlier this year.

In an interview with BBC Radio’s ”Today” show on Wednesday morning, Arsen Gorbach, the band’s guitarist, said the choice of song had been made by Blinken.

“I think it’s a special song for him,” said Gorbach, who added that he had previously seen videos of the secretary of state playing the rock anthem online.

He told the BBC that the band had earlier received a message that suggested they would be playing with Neil Young himself. Gorbach said the band had been “disappointed” that the rock star did not show up, but he admitted that Blinken was “very good” and that it felt like they had played together as a band for “many years.”

French authorities launched a manhunt on Tuesday after gunmen ambushed a prison convoy in Normandy to break out an inmate, killing two guards and wounding three others.

The violent incident, extremely rare for that part of northern France, took place as the vehicle was transporting a prisoner from court to a nearby prison, French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said.

Dupond-Moretti told reporters that the incident was the first time a French prison employee had died while working since 1992. He added that one of the guards leaves behind a wife and two children, and the other a spouse who was five months’ pregnant. Dupond-Moretti added that two of those hurt sustained life-threatening injuries.

The gunmen are still at large, national police said on X.

“Everything, and I mean everything, will be done to find the perpetrators of this heinous crime. These are people for whom life means nothing. They will be arrested. They will be tried. And they will be punished for the crime they committed,” Dupond-Moretti said.

A manhunt is underway to find suspects who carried out the prison break and the inmate, a 30-year-old who had been convicted of burglary and is being investigated for a kidnapping related to death, according to the French national prosecutor in charge of organized crime, which has already opened an investigation into the incident.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on X he has mobilized the national gendarmerie and “several hundred” police officers for the manhunt. Authorities on the scene are setting up roadblocks and establishing a perimeter, BFMTV reported.

Vehicles found

On Tuesday evening local time, French police said they had discovered two burnt out vehicles used by the attackers.

Paris state prosecutor Laure Beccuau told a press conference that the two vehicles were found in Houtteville and in Gauville-le-Campagne, two towns in the département of Eure where the attack took place near the Incarville tollbooth shortly before 11am local time (5aET).

One of the vehicles, a Peugeot, had been used to ram the police van during the attack, Becuau said. The other vehicle, an Audi, had been following the van and carried the two gunmen.

Forensic experts have been carrying out “meticulous tests” at the scene of the crime, and police had been studying video of the attack filmed by eyewitnesses and posted on social media, Beccuau told the press conference.

The prosecutor also revealed more details about the escaped inmate, identifying him as Mohamed Amra, and saying he is “very well known to the justice system,” having sustained a total 13 convictions.

Most of those convictions related to incidences of theft with aggravated offences, Beccuau said, adding that Amra had been incarcerated in various facilities since January 2022.

A minimum of three police officers had been decided as the security level for the escort several weeks ago, Beccuau told journalists. In the end, five officers were involved in the escort.

A 52-year-old officer and 34-year-old officer were both killed during the attack whilst their colleagues, a 48-year-old, a 52-year-old and a 55-year-old were all injured, she said.

On May 10, Amra was found guilty on the charge of burglary by a court in Évreux and was also under investigation in Marseille for a kidnap which led to a death, Beccuau said.

The prosecutor said the authorities’ priority now is getting to the bottom of this “outburst of violence.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that “every effort is being made to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people.”

Hype over autonomous vehicles has sometimes outpaced reality. For years, forecasters have predicted that driverless cars, which would allow the average commuter to snooze or watch Netflix on their way into the office, were just around the corner.

Many experts have tempered their expectations. Widespread implementation of autonomous technology won’t be realized within the next decade, according to an analysis released in late 2023 by S&P Global Mobility, which provides insights into the automotive industry.

But Lakmal Seneviratne, the founding director of the Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS) in Abu Dhabi, believes that autonomous mobility still has a bright future.

He’s been working on robotics since the 1980s, and he’s surprised by how quickly autonomous technology has advanced. He sees this in his day-to-day work at KUCARS, where researchers are working on everything from autonomous cars and drones to marine, agricultural, and manufacturing robotics.

Last month, the point was driven home when Khalifa University participated in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League event, or the A2RL, which pitted technologists from across the world against each other in a series of challenges.

There have been other autonomous car races before, but A2RL’s was the first to include a race between four driverless cars, according to organizers.

‘Real world robotics is very, very hard’

Khalifa University, which partnered with the Beijing Institute of Technology to form team Fly Eagle, didn’t end up racing in the final. Its car crashed a few days before the race, and they couldn’t get things back on track.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the four teams that did compete on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit, where in November Formula One’s Max Verstappen ended a record-breaking season with an Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win.

Technical University of Munich (TUM)’s car stopped on the track, before restarting. Team Polimove’s vehicle spun around after its tires locked up. Soon after, another car came to a halt – leaving just TUM moving. Then its car stopped too. Three cars were able to get going again, but towards the end of the race, the leader came to an abrupt halt, and TUM overtook it to cruise to victory.

Seneviratne wasn’t exactly surprised by the difficulties. He said that some of the challenges were beyond the scope of today’s technology. “Real world robotics is very, very hard,” he said. “But it was good to push the community.”

“I think it’s more challenging to do it on road courses because you have sharper turns, need to brake into turns, you see higher delta speeds between cars, which makes it more difficult,” Hoffman added.

Pushing the technology to the edge

Efforts to set driverless cars loose on public roads have faced setbacks, especially as the result of collisions with unforeseen obstacles. In 2018, for example, a self-driving Uber SUV killed a woman pushing her bicycle across a street, outside of a crosswalk, because it didn’t recognize a jaywalking pedestrian.

The ability to master so-called “edge cases” – situations which push technology to the limits of its ability, perhaps as the result of unexpected and improbable events – will be crucial before driverless vehicles can be widely adopted.

Some observers, organizers and participants say that endeavors like AR2L – where the technology can be tested at its limits – may provide a productive training ground for driverless cars.

“If you have other cars, how do you react with them? How do you overtake them at speed, in edge conditions?” says Seneviratne.

Hoffman agrees. “If we can develop robust software that … works in these conditions here, with very high speeds with other cars … we can make the software for autonomous driving more robust and more reliable, and in the end safer for everyone,” he says.

The world will have to wait at least another week before the highly anticipated first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

The launch was expected on May 17 after a previous delay, but teams found a small helium leak in the service module of the spacecraft, according to a release from Boeing. Starliner teams traced the leak to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster, where helium is used to allow the thrusters to fire.

“The teams now are targeting a launch date of no earlier than 4:43 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 21, to complete additional testing,” the release said.

This mission, dubbed the Crew Flight Test, could be the final major milestone before NASA deems Boeing’s spacecraft ready for routine operations as part of the federal agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Both Boeing and NASA are developing tests and solutions for the leak, the release said. Boeing plans to bring the propulsion system to the flight pressurization it would reach just before launch and then allow the helium system to naturally vent.

A review of the data from a May 6 launch attempt has not shown any other issues, Boeing said.

The NASA astronauts set to crew the mission for a weeklong stay at the International Space Station, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, have been in preflight quarantine but returned to Houston on May 10 to spend time with their families during the operations preflight, Boeing said.

Williams and Wilmore will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the coming days, according to the release.

Boeing aims to make history

The occasion is a decade in the making — the culmination of Boeing’s efforts to develop a spacecraft worthy of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station under NASA’s commercial program.

The launch would mark only the sixth maiden voyage of a crewed spacecraft in US history, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted in a news conference earlier this month.

“It started with Mercury, then with Gemini, then with Apollo, the space shuttle, then (SpaceX’s) Dragon — and now Starliner,” he said.

Boeing designed the Starliner to rival SpaceX’s prolific Crew Dragon capsule and would join in NASA’s push to collaborate with private industry partners, expanding US options for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station.

On board, Williams will also make history as the first woman to join on such a mission.

A slowed start

Development hang-ups, test flight problems and other costly setbacks have slowed Starliner’s path to the launchpad. Meanwhile, Boeing’s rival under NASA’s commercial crew program — SpaceX — has become the go-to transportation provider for the space agency’s astronauts.

The launch was scheduled for May 6, with Williams and Wilmore already in their seats aboard the Starliner capsule when engineers found an issue and halted the launch.

The United Launch Alliance team, which builds the Atlas V rocket, identified a pressure regulation valve on a liquid oxygen tank that needed replacing. The valve has since been replaced, but the new issue with the helium leak on the Boeing spacecraft that sits atop the rocket is causing further delay.

If the spacecraft does launch next week as planned, it and the astronauts inside will break away from the Atlas V rocket after reaching orbit and begin firing its own engines. The Starliner will likely spend more than 24 hours gradually making its way to the space station.

Williams and Wilmore are set to spend about a week aboard the orbiting laboratory, joining the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already on board, while the Starliner remains docked outside.

The two will then return home aboard the same Starliner capsule, which is expected to parachute to a landing at one of several designated locations across the southwestern United States.

A deadly heat wave in Gaza in April, which saw punishing temperatures worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis, was made hotter and more likely by the human-caused climate crisis, according to an analysis published Tuesday.

Gaza was not alone. Several heat waves spanning a vast area of the Asian continent last month during the world’s hottest April on record were made more intense and likely by the climate crisis, the analysis from the World Weather Attribution initiative (WWA) found.

The WWA report divided the heat waves into three areas: West Asia, the Philippines and a region spanning South and Southeast Asia.

In West Asia, the analysis focused on the Palestinian territories, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, where temperatures spiked above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) last month. It found climate change made the heat in this region around five times more likely and 1.7 degrees Celsius hotter than it would have been before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels.

Soaring temperatures had a particularly stark impact on the 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza, already struggling with insufficient water access and inadequate healthcare. There was little respite from the relentless heat for those crammed into makeshift tents and shelters, often covered with plastic sheets. At least three people, including two children, reportedly died from the heat, the analysis notes.

In the Philippines, the extreme heat last month — which forced hundreds of schools to close as temperatures reached more than 42 degrees Celsius — had such a strong link to human-caused global warming the report concluded it would have been impossible without it.

To calculate the influence of climate change on the extreme heat, WWA researchers used weather data and computer models to compare the world’s current climate — which is around 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels — with the climate of the past.

“From Gaza to Delhi to Manila, people suffered and died when April temperatures soared in Asia,” Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment and a report author, said in a statement. “Heat waves have always happened. But the additional heat, driven by emissions from oil, gas and coal, is resulting in death for many people.”

The scientists also examined the role of El Niño, a natural climate pattern that influences global weather.

While they found it had no influence in West Asia’s April heat, it did affect the intensity of heat in the Philippines, pushing up temperatures by 0.2 degrees Celsius. However, the impact of climate change there was greater, increasing temperatures by about 1.2 degrees.

In today’s warmer world, the kind of extreme heat waves experienced in Gaza and West Asia, as well as the Philippines, are not rare and can be expected around once every 10 years, the report found. But it warns worse could be in store.

If the planet’s average temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which is predicted to happen in the 2040s or 2050s if the world does not decarbonize fast enough, similar extreme heat waves could be expected once every five years in West Asia and every two to three years in the Philippines.

Heat wave made 45 times more likely

The WWA analysis also looked at parts of South and Southeast Asia, many of which also experienced unprecedented heat last month.

Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam all broke records for their hottest April day, while temperatures spiked to 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) in India. Bangladesh and Thailand also experienced scorching April temperatures and were included in the study.

Climate change also played a pronounced role in this region, according to the analysis, making the heat 45 times more likely and 0.85 degrees Celsius hotter.

The scientists took a simpler approach than usual for this part of Asia, looking only at weather data and not computer models, because the region overlapped with two previous analyses of extreme heat events in 2022 and 2023, which also found climate change played a strong role.

The numbers in the report are important, Otto said, “because they show us that everywhere climate change is an absolute game changer when it comes to extreme heat.” But numbers alone don’t necessarily show how bad the impacts are — these depend on people’s vulnerability and exposure.

Days of temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) were “particularly difficult for people working outdoors, people living in informal housing (and) people living in refugee camps,” Otto said.

Asia is also home to some of the planet’s fastest growing cities, said Carolina Pereira Marghidan, climate risk consultant at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, on a call with reporters. This has led to rapid, unplanned development. “Many cities have seen extreme losses of green space,” Pereira said, increasing the impacts of extreme heat on residents.

The world must take “massive, unprecedented steps to reduce emissions,” said Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Grantham Institute, in a statement. If not, she added, “extreme heat will lead to even greater suffering in Asia.”

Barcelona, Spain — Spain’s Socialists won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s Catalan elections, dealing a serious blow to more than a decade of separatist governance and the independence dreams still nursed by some in the wealthy northeastern region.

The Socialists, led locally by Salvador Illa, had 42 seats in the 135-seat chamber with more than 99% of the vote counted, while hardline separatist party Junts was in second place with 35 seats, and the incumbent more moderate separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) had 20 seats.

Spain’s largest opposition party, the conservative People’s Party, also had a good night, seeing the biggest increase since the last vote in 2021 from three seats to 15 on Sunday. Turnout for the vote was notably low at 58%.

The result looks to be an existential threat for separatist governance in Catalonia which led a 2017 illegal independence referendum and declaration of independence that caused Spain’s worst institutional crisis in more than 30 years but whose movement has lost energy and unity more recently.

It also represents a vindication of Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s controversial bid to normalize relations with restive Catalonia, including issuing pardons for convictions over the independence drive and, more recently, a controversial amnesty including others still facing prosecution.

Speaking as the voting count concluded, Illa hailed a “new era” for the region. However, with no party holding a clear majority and deep ideological divisions between them, there remains the risk the vote will have to be repeated.

The separatist parties combined of the ERC, Junts, far-left CUP and far-right Alianca Catalana, do not have the required 68 seats to be able to form a coalition government.

Illa’s Socialists will also need to forge an agreement – most likely with the ERC – but separatist parties until now have rejected any suggestion of helping the national ruling party govern in Catalonia.

Illa might instead attempt to form an unorthodox alliance with not only far-left Sumar, its coalition partner in national government, but also the conservative People’s Party and far-right Vox, with whom the socialists have long said they would not negotiate.

On Sunday night, the ERC’s leader Pere Aragones, Catalonia’s outgoing president, told reporters that his party would move into opposition, effectively ruling out backing the Socialists.

Junts’ leader Carles Puigdemont said his party had performed well but turnout among separatist voters remained low and without a strong showing by the ERC, AC and CUP, his options were limited.

He previously said that if he didn’t win and the Socialists allied with the PP to lead the region he might withdraw his support from its minority national government – offered after inconclusive national elections in July, risking fresh instability on a national level.

Political analyst and historian Joan Esculies said whatever came next, the night’s headline was the tamping down of Catalan separatist sentiment: “The pro-independence movement has run out of ideas to convince or mobilize people as they did before.”