SpaceX in its fifth Starship test flight on Sunday returned the rocket’s towering first stage booster back to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant mechanical arms, achieving another novel engineering feat in the company’s push to build a reusable moon and Mars vehicle.

The rocket’s first stage “Super Heavy” booster lifted off at 7:25 a.m. CT (1225 GMT) from SpaceX‘s Boca Chica, Texas launch facilities, sending the Starship second stage rocket toward space before separating at an altitude of roughly 70 km (40 miles) to begin its return to land – the most daring part of the test flight.

The Super Heavy booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent back to SpaceX‘s launch site, as it targeted the launch pad and tower it had blasted off from. The tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, is fitted with two large metal arms at the top.

With its engines roaring, the 233 foot (71 metres)-tall Super Heavy booster fell into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air.

The Telangana government has officially commenced a comprehensive household caste survey, marking the state as the third in the country to undertake such an initiative, following Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

This survey is aimed at ensuring targeted and equitable distribution of resources across all communities.

Orders to begin the door-to-door survey were issued by Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari on Friday. The government has set a timeline of 60 days for the survey’s completion, with the Planning Department appointed as the nodal agency for its execution.

“This survey is crucial for planning and implementing various opportunities- socio-economic, educational, employment, and political—for the upliftment of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and other marginalized groups within the state,” the order stated.

In IWLF National Weightlifting Championships, Harmanpreet Kaur set a new national record in 76 kg Senior section women category at Rainbow Khelo India Residential Academy, Nagrota Bagwan in Himachal Pradesh yesterday. Harmanpreet lifted 127 kilograms in clean and jerk and 223 kilograms in total. Meanwhile in the Junior section, Heena lifted 123 kg in clean & jerk and 211 kg in total to set a new record in the 76 kg category.

In the total category, G. Ravishankar also set a new national record with a combined lift of 311 kg, surpassing the previous record of 304 kg held by Ramkaran Prajapati in the Junior section.

In Table Tennis, India’s top-ranked pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee have scripted history by clinching the first-ever medal for the country in Women’s Doubles of Asian Championships 2024 at Astana in Kazakhstan. The Indian pair settled for the bronze medal after losing to the Japanese combination of Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara 0-3 in the semi-finals today.

India was a notable exclusion from a letter signed by 104 countries, including European and African countries, as well as much of the Global South that “condemned” Israel for banning United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres from entering Israeli territory.

While India has broken with the Global South on a number of resolutions that are critical of Israel, abstaining in at least four such major resolutions on Palestinian issues, the decision not to sign the letter circulated by Chile, and supported by Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Uganda, Indonesia, Spain, Guyana and Mexico is particularly significant given it is seen as a defence of the U.N. Secretary General and the U.N. itself, not any of the parties in the conflict.

Most neighbouring countries in South Asia, as well as West Asia, South America and Africa — making up the developing world — signed the letter that was circulated at the U.N. last week.

The maharaja of the erstwhile princely state of Jamnagar and former cricketer Shatrushalyasinh Jadeja declared his nephew and former cricketer Ajay Jadeja as his heir to the throne on the auspicious eve of Dussehra on Saturday.

Jadeja, 53, will now be named the new Jamsaheb, the titular head of Jamnagar.

Known as a family of cricket legends, Jadeja’s great grand uncle Ranjitsinh and grand uncle Duleepsinh, both former Jamsahebs, have trophies named after them.

In a statement, Shatrushalyasinh, titular head of the former Nawanagar state, said on Saturday, “It is a blessing for Jamnagar that Ajay Jadeja has accepted to be my heir.”

India has been ranked 105th out of 127 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2024, placing it in the "serious" category for hunger levels. The GHI, a tool used to measure and track hunger globally, is based on indicators like undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality. The index is published by Concern Worldwide, an Irish humanitarian organisation, and Welthungerhilfe, a German aid agency.

With a GHI score of 27.3, India's performance remains concerning, particularly when compared to its South Asian neighbours such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, which fall into the "moderate" category. India is listed alongside countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, which also face severe hunger challenges.

After two years of Europe-centric Nobel Prizes in Literature (Jon Fosse, Annie Ernaux), the Swedish Academy has looked east this year. It has awarded the 2024 prize to South Korean writer Han Kang “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.

In awarding the top prize to a 53-year-old Asian writer at the peak of her writing career, the academy has ensured a wider readership of an “innovator in contemporary prose” who with her experimental style has conjured up universal tales of the human condition. With a radical and poetic imagination, she writes about women battling patriarchy, violence, grief and also about historical wrongs and injustices.

The US and India have announced grants of over USD 2 million for joint research projects aimed at advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies for social good.

This announcement was made during an event hosted by US Ambassador Eric Garcetti and Seth Center, Acting Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technologies, along with Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh and other top officials, the US Embassy said in a statement.

A total of 17 projects, 11 focusing on AI and 6 on quantum technologies, will receive nearly USD 120,000 each. These projects aim to tackle critical societal challenges, including AI-assisted early cancer detection and advancements in quantum computing. The grant competition is part of the broader US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).

Saudi Arabia was thwarted Wednesday in its bid to join the UN's human rights council, which is charged with protecting freedoms globally, after coming sixth in a vote of UN members for one of five regional seats.

Ethiopia and Qatar were among the 18 countries elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for three-year terms, despite campaign groups previously alleging rights violations in both countries.

"This vote to deny Saudi Arabia a seat on the UN Human Rights Council matters. For far too long, (Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman's regime has acted as if it has complete impunity to commit grave human rights abuses, safe in the knowledge that its international partners would look the other way," said campaign group Reprieve.