Four Indian cosmonauts resume training in Russia for Gaganyaan mission

Four Indian cosmonauts resume training in Russia for Gaganyaan mission

Bengaluru: The four Indian cosmonauts shortlisted for Gaganyaan mission, India’s first manned space mission, have resumed their training in Russia, after it was put on hold due to COVID-19 scare.

Russian space corporation, Roscosmos in a statement said, “Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) on May 12 resumed training of the Indian cosmonauts under the contract between Glavkosmos, JSC (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) and the Human Spaceflight Center of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).”

All four Indian cosmonauts were in good health.

“GCTC continues to observe anti-epidemic regulations according to which sanitary and hygienic measures are carried out at all the GCTC facilities, social distancing measures are applied and the presence of unauthorized persons is restricted; all employees and cosmonauts must wear medical masks and gloves,” it added.

US tightens restrictions on technology exports to China, Russia and Venezuela

US tightens restrictions on technology exports to China, Russia and Venezuela

Washington: The Trump Administration announced new export control actions to prevent efforts by entities in China, Russia, and Venezuela to acquire American technology that could be used for the development of weapons, military aircraft, surveillance through civilian supply chains.

“It is important to consider the ramifications of doing business with countries that have histories of diverting goods purchased from US companies for military applications,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

“Certain entities in China, Russia, and Venezuela have sought to circumvent America’s export controls, and undermine American interests in general, and so we will remain vigilant to ensure U.S. technology does not get into the wrong hands,” Ross said.

Prominent among the rule changes include expansion of Military End-Use /User Controls (MEU), removal of license exception civil end-users (CIV) and elimination of license exception additional permissive reexport (APR) provisions.

The new rule expands MEU license requirements controls on China, Russia, and Venezuela to cover military end-users in all three countries, as well as items such as semiconductor equipment, sensors, and other technologies sought for military end-use or by military end-users in these countries.

It seeks to remove a license exception for exports, reexports, or transfers (in-country) to civilian end-users in countries of national security concern for National Security- (NS) controlled items.

The new rule also proposes to eliminate certain provisions of a license exception for partner countries involving the reexport of NS-controlled items to countries of national security concern to ensure consistent reviews of exports and reexports of US items.

“US Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and an outspoken China hawk, in a statement,” said that this was long due.

“This rule is grounded in two basic truths: Modern war is high tech and China’s so-called private sector’ is fake. Chairman Xi has erased any daylight between China’s businesses and the communist party’s military,” Sasse said.

“We didn’t win the Cold War by selling cruise missiles to the Soviets, and we’re not going to beat China by selling semiconductors to the People’s Liberation Army. These rules are long overdue,” he said.

Oil prices at 17-year lows as virus ravages world

Oil prices at 17-year lows as virus ravages world

Singapore: Oil prices extended losses in Asian trade Monday, March 30 and languished at 17-year lows, with the coronavirus crisis escalating around the world and no end in sight to a vicious price war.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 5.3 percent to trade at $20 a barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude was off 6.5 percent at $23.

The falls came after the death toll from the pandemic surged past 30,000 at the weekend as cases in hard-hit Europe and the United States showed no sign of letting up. Senior US scientist Anthony Fauci estimated the virus could possibly result in 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the United States, while President Donald Trump extended “social distancing” guidelines until April 30.

The president also said that he expected the country to be well on our way to recovery by June 1 dropping his previous target of mid-April.

The virus has infected more than 140,000 in the world’s top economy and left more than 2,400 dead.

Oil markets have been plunging for weeks as lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments worldwide to fight the virus strangle demand.

Even as demand falls, supply has increased dramatically after top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engage in a price war following a row about whether to cut output to support prices.

At the end of last week, Riyadh said it had not been in touch with Moscow about potential output cuts while Russia’s deputy energy minister said oil at $25 a barrel was not a catastrophe for the country’s producers signaling the two sides are still far apart.

“Demand concerns are critical but well known, what really took the market down were the signals we got from Saudi Arabia and Russia that they intend to continue their current path,” Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, told Bloomberg News.

“Market hopes of a deal have come undone.” There are fears the commodity could fall further as storage tanks around the globe approach full capacity.

“When the storage capacity is filled, we should probably expect a response from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other essential oil producers,” AxiCorp’s Stephen Innes said, though he warned “the longer their response takes, the higher the risk of another steep decline in oil prices”.

The retreat on oil markets comes after a bounce with equities last week that came after policymakers worldwide unleashed massive stimulus measures to prop up the virus-hit global economy.