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An astronaut was taken to hospital shortly after returning to Earth from an extended mission on the International Space Station.The astronaut, who NASA did not name for privacy reasons, is suffering from an undisclosed medical issue. NASA initially said the entire crew was flown to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital out of precaution, but did not specify whether all or some of the crew had been experiencing issues.The other three crew members have left the hospital and returned to Houston, the space agency said.NASA said: "The one astronaut who remains at Ascension is in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure." Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ...

Several loud explosions have been heard in Iran's capital Tehran and Israel has confirmed it has launched strikes on military targets.The Israeli military said it is conducting "precise strikes" on military targets in Iran in response to what it called "the continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against Israel". An Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) statement added: "Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond."Reports in the US said the White House was warned shortly before the strikes began.Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on 1 October - Tehran's second direct attack on Israel in six months. Iranian authorities have warned Israel against launching an attack, saying any strik...

While North Korea has been supplying weapons to Russia for some time, the arrival of troops is a major escalation in its involvement in the war of Ukraine. The first official evidence of large numbers of North Korean troops entering Russia was provided by the South Korean government, who last week published a press release outlining the increasingly close military cooperation between the two states. Image: A map of sites in the Russian far east linked to the reported presence of North Korean soldiers According to the press release, an initial contingent of 1,500 North Korean special forces troops were transported on Russian naval ships to the port city of Vladivostok.The South Koreans provided two high-resolution satellite...

A torrent of big-name earnings hit the stock market this week — and the majority did not live up to analysts' muted expectations. Of the S & P 500 companies that have reported so far, about 74% of companies have beaten earnings expectations . But their blended earnings growth rate, which includes the reports already out and estimates for those on the docket, is 3.4%, falling short of the 4.2% estimate. The growth rate of just the companies that have posted so far is 3.1%, according to FactSet. Aside from electric vehicle maker Tesla , tobacco company Philip Morris and cloud-based IT service manager ServiceNow , this week was especially rough for most of the approximately 110 companies that posted earnings. Of the 20 largest companies that reported, shares of 13 ended in the red. Take a...

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has engaged in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, according to reporting published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.Citing "several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials," the Journal reported that conversations between Putin and Musk, a Republican megadonor and Pentagon contractor, took place while Russia was waging a brutal war on Ukraine, a top U.S. ally. Topics ranged from business to personal and geopolitical issues.In one instance, Putin pressured Musk to direct SpaceX to withold Starlink, its powerful satellite internet communications service, from Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Journal reported, citing two people briefed on the request. Beijing is a crucial ally to the Kreml...