ISS crew endangered by space junk from ‘reckless’ Russian weapons test
A “reckless and irresponsible” Russian weapons test has created more than 1,500 pieces of debris now endangering the seven crew aboard the International Space Station, US officials have said.
Crew members were forced to take emergency measures on Monday after debris floated dangerously close by – and took cover in their docked capsules amid fears of a collision with the “space junk”.
The State Department later confirmed that the debris was from an old Russian satellite destroyed by the missile.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: “Needless to say, I’m outraged. This is unconscionable.”
He said it was “unbelievable” that the Russian government would do this test and threaten not only international astronauts, “but their own cosmonauts that are on board the station”, as well as the three people on China’s space station.
The SpaceX Dragon docking with the International Space Station, on Thursday, 11 November Pic: AP
Mr Nelson said the crew members now face four times greater risk than usual – just based on the debris big enough to track.
Hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces will go undetected and could cause “enormous damage” if it hits the right place, he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia and said satellites were also now under threat.
In a statement, he said the test clearly demonstrates that Russia, “despite its claims of opposing the weaponisation of outer space, is willing to imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behaviour”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned Russia over the weapons test
The ISS crew, four Americans, one German and two Russians, learned of the last-minute threat early on Monday before retreating into their capsules.
They were told to close the hatches between the space station compartments, including the European Lab, every 90 minutes until bedtime as a safety precaution, interrupting their scientific research.
Only the hatches to the central core of the station remained open by the end of the day as the crew slept, according to Mr Nelson.
When orbiting at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph), even a fleck of paint could cause significant damage, so something big could be catastrophic upon impact.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the US has repeatedly raised concerns with Russia about doing a satellite test.
“We are going to continue to make very clear that we won’t tolerate this kind of activity,” he said.
NASA Mission Control said the heightened threat could continue to interrupt science research and other work on the space station.
A computer-generated image of objects in Earth orbit that are currently being tracked. Approximately 95% of the objects in this illustration are orbital debris Pic: NASA
In 2007, a similar weapons test by China also resulted in countless debris, with one of those pieces threatening to come dangerously close to the space station last week.
NASA subsequently had the station move away despite it being dismissed as a risk.
The US Space Command had previously been tracking around 20,000 pieces of space junk before Monday’s incident, including old and broken satellites from around the world.
It will take days, if not weeks and months to catalogue the latest wreckage and confirm their orbits, according to Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
He explained the fragments will begin to spread out over time due to atmospheric drag and other forces, and the space station is at especially high risk because the test occurred near its orbit.
However, all objects in low-Earth orbit – including China’s space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope – will be at “somewhat enhanced risk” over the next few years, he noted.
Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada have come into effect, as has an additional 10% on Chinese products, bringing the total import tax to 20%.
The US president confirmed the tariffs in a speech at the White House – and his announcement sent US and European stocks down sharply.
The tariffs will be felt heavily by US companies which have factories in Canada and Mexico, such as carmakers.
Mr Trump said: “They’re going to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.”
There’s “no room left” for a deal that would see the tariffs shelved if fentanyl flowing into the US is curbed by its neighbours, he added.
Mexico and Canada face tariffs of 25%, with 10% for Canadian energy, the Trump administration confirmed.
And tariffs on Chinese imports have doubled, raising them from 10% to 20%.
Canada announced it would retaliate immediately, imposing 25% tariffs on US imports worth C$30bn (£16.3bn). It added the tariffs would be extended in 21 days to cover more US goods entering the country if the US did not lift its sanctions against Canada.
China also vowed to retaliate and reiterated its stance that the Trump administration was trying to “shift the blame” and
“bully” Beijing over fentanyl flows.
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What is America’s trade position?
Mr Trump’s speech stoked fears of a trade war in North America, prompting a financial market sell-off.
Stock market indexes the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.48% and 2.64% respectively on Monday.
The share prices for automobile companies including General Motors, which has significant truck production in Mexico, Automaker and Ford also fell.
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Consumers in the US could see price hikes within days, an expert has said.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a public policy professor at Cornell University, New York, said “the automobile sector, in particular, is likely to see considerable negative consequences”.
This is due to supply chains that “crisscross the three countries in the manufacturing process” and ” because of the expected increase in the price of vehicles, which can dampen demand,” he added.
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The Trump administration is gearing up to bring in other tariffs in the coming weeks.
On 2 April, reciprocal tariffs will take effect on all countries that impose duties on US products.
He is also considering 25% tariffs on goods from the EU “very soon” after claiming the bloc was created to “screw the United States”.
A truck has collided with a bus in southern Bolivia, killing at least 31 people, according to police – just two days after a deadly crash claimed at least 37 lives.
Officers said the bus rolled some 500m (1,640ft) down a ravine after the collision on Monday, which took place on the highway between Oruro, in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the highland mining city of Potosi.
The driver of the truck has been arrested, while the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Police spokesperson Limbert Choque said men and women were among the dead, and 22 people suffered injuries.
Rescue teams operating at the site of the crash. Pic: Bolivia’s attorney general/Reuters
Bolivia’s President, Luis Arce, expressed condolences for the victims on social media: “This unfortunate event must be investigated to establish responsibilities,” he said in a post on Facebook.
“We send our most sincere condolences to the bereaved families, wishing them the necessary strength to face these difficult times.”
The crash happened between Oruro and Potosi
On Saturday morning, a crash between two buses killed more than three dozen people in the same region.
It happened between Colchani and the city of Uyuni, a major tourist attraction and the world’s largest salt flat.
People stand near the wreckage of one of the two buses involved in a crash on Saturday. Pic: Reuters/Potosi Departmental Command
Coincidentally, one of the buses was heading to Oruro, where one of the most important carnival celebrations in Latin America is currently taking place.
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More than 30 people were also killed after a bus crash on 17 February.
In that crash, police said the driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle, causing it to drop more than 800m (2,600ft) off a precipice in the southwestern area of Yocalla.
Bolivia’s mountainous, undermaintained and poorly supervised roads are some of the deadliest in the world, claiming an average 1,400 fatalities every year.
The Pope has had two episodes of “acute respiratory failure”, the Vatican has said.
The 88-year-old has been in hospital since 14 February with a severe respiratory infection that triggered other complications.
The Vatican said the respiratory failures were caused by “significant accumulation” of mucus in his lungs and a “bronchospasm”, akin to an asthma attack.
Doctors were then required to perform two bronchoscopies – a test which sees medics use a long, thin, telescope with a light to look into the lungs – to evaluate the Pope’s air passages, the statement said.
“In the afternoon, non-invasive mechanical ventilation was resumed,” the Vatican continued. “The Holy Father has always remained vigilant, oriented and collaborative. The prognosis remains reserved.”
Vatican sources said the situation had been calm this morning, before becoming worse this afternoon.
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Behind the scenes at the Vatican
The respiratory issues the Pope suffered today are due to an ongoing infection rather than a new one but he is not out of danger, they added.
Asked if the Pope is in good spirits, they gave no answer. When asked if the Vatican’s apartment is getting ready to welcome Francis back, the source said it was too premature to discuss this.
His clinical picture remains complex, they said.
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Earlier on Monday, Pope Francis issued a written message after Vatican officials begged him to let his voice be heard following more than two weeks out of public view.
He thanked his doctors for their care and well-wishers for their prayers, before praying for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“From here, war appears even more absurd,” he wrote.
People at a nightly rosary prayer for the Pope in St. Peter’s Square yesterday evening. Pic: AP
This has become the longest public absence of his 12-year papacy.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski presided over the evening rosary prayer in St Peter’s Square on Sunday night.
“Let us pray together with the entire church for the health of the Holy Father Francis,” he said.
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