Countdown confirmed for Tom Cruise space mission

Beijing confirmed the arrival this week of a WHO team that will study the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. But details of their investigation or whether they will visit Wuhan remain unclear.

The multiday flight will be led by US tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is also financing the mission. One seat on board the spacecraft is to be raffled off for charity.

The Emirates Mars Mission aims to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere for the first time. Women make up 80% of the program's scientific team.

The World Health Organization mission in Wuhan ended without finding the source of the coronavirus, prompting criticism from Washington. But experts have found new lines of inquiry, including some proposed by China.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala recently became the first woman and African to hold the exalted position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ The history-making economist spoke with GuardianTV’s Njideka Agbo, amongst other things, on her mission at the WTO and personal style.⁣⁣

For nine months, a group of Swiss primary school children eagerly prepared for their ‘mission to Mars’. And then came the all-clear for lift-off to a remote ‘Mars space station’ in western Switzerland for a three-day mission carrying out experiments similar to those conducted by real astronauts.

SpaceX lifted off on its third crewed mission to the International Space Station early Friday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Four astronauts were on board, including Frenchman Thomas Pesquet. le décollage de SpaceX vers la Station spatiale internationale

Ingenuity, the first ever human-built aircraft to fly on another planet, has gotten a reprieve after successfully completing four out of five planned flights.

Ivorian-Burkinabe tailor Pathe'O can look back on a 50-year career that has seen him rise from self-taught improviser to supplier of Africa's wealthy and powerful, including anti-apartheid torchbearer Nelson Mandela. Now he's doing his best to ensure that fashion becomes "part of Africa's wealth".

Known in Lagos at the "snake man," Mark Ofua is the face of an animal welfare group that is fighting Nigeria's illegal wildlife trade. He rescues animals, nurses them to health and releases them back into the wild.

Germany has finished withdrawing its last contingent of around 570 soldiers from Afghanistan as the security situation deteriorates. The move marks the end of a nearly 20-year mission.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says that the United States has "failed" in its mission in Afghanistan, as Taliban insurgents make lightning gains and foreign forces pull their remaining troops from the country.