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The United States and China have settled into a stable economic situation, with the US able to access Chinese rare earth minerals and maintain substantial tariffs on Chinese goods. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated that the goal of the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is to maintain this stability.Greer emphasized that the US is not seeking massive confrontation with China, but rather a stable relationship that allows for continued access to critical minerals. The two countries have been discussing issues related to rare earths, including minerals that pass through third countries before reaching the US.The Trump-Xi summit, postponed from March to mid-May due to the US-Israel war on Iran, will also address the formation of a board of trade mechanism to determine sustainable trade between the two countries. Additionally, there have been discussions about a possible board of investment to address discrete issues related to investments.The US is also working on plurilateral agreements to boost alternative supplies of critical minerals, but these need price floor mechanisms to protect production from potential future predatory price cuts by China. Greer noted that the US and China are working to resolve the rare earths issue at the ministerial and staff levels, hoping to avoid bringing it up at the leaders' meeting.

The recent Artemis II mission, which sent astronauts to the far side of the moon, has sparked reflection on the dual implications of space travel. US astronaut Christina Koch encapsulated the profound appreciation for Earth that comes from experiencing it from space, echoing sentiments expressed by earlier space travellers.The Earthrise photograph from the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 is often credited with galvanizing the environmental movement. Similarly, journeys like Artemis II are hoped to foster global cooperation and a deeper appreciation for life. However, the current landscape of space exploration is complicated by the involvement of tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and the emerging post-terrestrial geopolitical battle between the US and China.There is a growing concern that the £100bn Artemis programme could divert attention and resources away from solving pressing environmental issues on Earth. This concern is particularly pertinent given that the US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement in the same year as the mission. The pursuit of space exploration must be balanced with the imperative to address ecological limits and protect the planet we currently inhabit.Despite these challenges, the unquenchable human curiosity and scientific value of space travel should not be dismissed. The Artemis II launch was made possible by a rare display of bipartisan support for NASA in Congress. The achievements of the scientists, astronauts, and support teams are a testament to the positive aspects of space exploration.The mission to the moon's dark side, while not a solution to the world's problems, represents a significant scientific and exploratory milestone. The crew has seen more of the moon and travelled further from Earth than anyone before them. As the world watches their return and landing in the Pacific Ocean, it's clear that space exploration continues to captivate and inspire, even as it poses complex questions about our priorities and responsibilities.

The Artemis II crew, fresh from a record‑breaking lunar flyby, received an unexpected call from former President Donald Trump on Monday night. Facilitated by NASA administrator and Trump ally Jared Isaacman, the 12‑minute conversation was punctuated by long silences, anecdotes about Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, and the president’s claim that he had "saved NASA" from closure. Trump’s assertion sparked eyebrows among the astronauts, who had just set a new milestone as the farthest‑traveled humans from Earth. The president recounted a decision he allegedly faced in his first term: whether to revive or shut down the agency. "We’ve spent what we had to do," he said, implying the agency’s survival rested on his judgment. While Trump has publicly championed the Artemis program, his administration has repeatedly pursued deep cuts to NASA’s overall budget. In early 2025, the White House proposed a 24% reduction—bringing the budget down to $18.8 billion, the lowest level in a decade. Experts warned such cuts would constitute "extinction‑level" reductions to critical science programs. Congress, in a rare bipartisan move, rejected the proposed slashing and approved a near‑full budget of $24.4 billion in January. Yet, on 3 April 2026—just two days after Artemis II launched on the first crewed mission beyond low‑Earth orbit in over 50 years—Trump unveiled his FY 2027 budget request, again proposing a steep cut of 23% to NASA’s funding. Democratic leaders denounced the proposal as "morally bankrupt," while Isaacman issued a statement supporting the president’s fiscal stance, urging NASA staff to "leave the politics for the politicians and remain focused on the mission." During the call, Trump praised the crew’s "incredible journey into the stars" and claimed their mission had "inspired the entire world." He reiterated America’s ambition to lead space exploration, promising a permanent lunar base and eventual crewed missions to Mars. The conversation also featured a brief exchange with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who highlighted the United States’ "intentional decision" to lead by example and collaborate with allies like Canada. Trump responded by recalling conversations with Gretzky, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and other Canadian friends, emphasizing national pride. After a minute of awkward silence, Isaacman returned for a "comm‑check," and Trump reiterated his stories about Canadian contacts. The Artemis II commander, Reid Wiseman, acknowledged the president’s remarks with a polite, "Yes, Mr. President, we heard that." Trump concluded by extending an invitation to the four astronauts for an Oval Office reception following their scheduled splashdown in the Pacific on Friday. "I’ll ask Jared to bring you over, and I’ll ask for your autograph, because you deserve that," he said, adding he would "find the time" to salute the crew on behalf of the American people. Pilot Victor Glover responded enthusiastically, "When you want us, we will be there," and thanked the president for what he called a "really special" call. He highlighted the mission’s significance, noting it was made possible by both the American and Canadian peoples.

NASA's Artemis II astronauts have described the powerful emotions they felt while soaring over the moon, capturing breathtaking images of impact craters, cracks, and ridges. The crew, who worked in pairs at the Orion capsule windows, took photographs of the Earth rising from behind the moon, a solar eclipse, and parts of the 590-mile-wide Orientale impact basin. The astronauts, including Christina Koch, the first woman to fly around the moon, reported feeling overwhelmed by the lunar landscape. Koch said she had an intense emotional moment when observing the moon's surface, which she couldn't replicate. Fellow astronaut Victor Glover, the first black man to travel beyond low Earth orbit, also shared his moving experience, describing the terrain as 'amazing'. The Artemis II mission broke the record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth, reaching a distance of 252,756 miles. The crew came within 4,070 miles of the lunar surface at their closest approach. The mission's return leg is expected to end in a splashdown near the coast of San Diego on Friday evening. The Orion spacecraft will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere at over 20,000mph, causing its heat shield to reach temperatures above 1,600C. To minimize risks, the capsule will come in at a steeper angle, reducing the time the heat shield spends at critical temperatures.

The notion that space exploration is pointless is gaining traction, and for good reason. As the world grapples with pressing crises, the urgency to address them on our own planet grows. The idea of venturing into space, once driven by the possibility of encountering little green people, now seems less compelling.The "Where is everybody?" paradox, first posed by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950, remains a profound question. If intelligent life exists elsewhere, why has it not made contact? The author's conclusion is that there is no intelligent life out there, and that our planet is unique in its beauty.The latest moon mission has sparked renewed debate, with many people taking offense to the idea that space exploration is unnecessary. Some argue that it stifles innovation and modernity, while others point to the technological advancements that have come from space exploration. However, the author counters that many of these advancements have been used for military purposes, and that the focus on space exploration detracts from more pressing issues on Earth.The author, Zoe Williams, a columnist for The Guardian, emphasizes that her criticism is not directed at the astronauts themselves, but rather at the financial outlay and energy expenditure dedicated to space travel. She questions whether the United States, in particular, has bigger priorities to address, such as domestic issues.

James Gunn's early feature film Slither, initially released in 2006, is being re-released in cinemas ahead of its 20th anniversary. The film, a comedy horror with a heavy focus on body horror, was Gunn's first feature-length project. At the time, it was met with commercial disappointment but has since garnered attention due to Gunn's subsequent success with major franchises such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Superman.The film's plot revolves around an alien lifeform that crash-lands on Earth and takes over a small town in South Carolina. The alien larvae, resembling flaccid phallic worms, infect the townspeople through various orifices, turning them into evil minions or hideously swollen incubators. The movie features Michael Rooker, Elizabeth Banks, and Nathan Fillion in key roles.Despite its thinly conceived science fiction elements and reliance on rubbery practical effects and lame jokes, which align more closely with the style of Troma, a production company where Gunn got his start, the film does showcase Gunn's early experimentation with comic timing and musical cues. A notable scene features a killing spree set to Air Supply's 'Every Woman in the World', a technique Gunn would later refine in his Guardians of the Galaxy films.The cast, including Michael Rooker and Elizabeth Banks, appears to be enjoying the film's humor, bringing some bright spots of wit and amusement to the movie. Slither is set to re-release in UK cinemas on April 10 and will be available on digital platforms from May 1.

The Artemis II mission has achieved a remarkable feat, with the crew flying further from Earth than any human before them, reaching a distance of 406,778km (252,760 miles) from Earth. This historic moment broke a 56-year-old record set by the Apollo 13 mission.During their six-hour lunar flyby, the crew captured unprecedented views of the moon's far side, providing a human perspective on features previously only known through robotic photographs. The astronauts used high-powered Nikon cameras and their iPhones to document the lunar surface, with plans to return with thousands of pictures, including images of the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites.The mission also included an emotional moment when the crew honored the legacy of past astronauts. They began the day with a wake-up message from Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 commander, who recorded the message two months before his death. Lovell welcomed the crew to 'my old neighborhood' and encouraged them to enjoy the view.In a touching gesture, the astronauts named two fresh lunar craters. They proposed the names Integrity for their capsule and Carroll, in honor of Commander Reid Wiseman's late wife who passed away from cancer in 2020. Wiseman, a former fighter pilot, has been raising their two daughters on his own since then. The names will be passed along to the International Astronomical Union for official designation.The mission's free-return lunar trajectory took advantage of gravity from the Earth and moon, reducing the need for fuel. This figure-of-eight path will put the astronauts on course for home once they emerge from behind the moon. As they passed across the far side of the moon, the capsule experienced a 40-minute communications blackout, a routine occurrence during the Apollo missions.Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen challenged future generations to make sure the record broken by Artemis II is not long-lived. The crew's achievements and emotional moments highlight the significance of this mission in the history of space exploration.

Monday, 6 April 2026 marks the most consequential day for human spaceflight in over half a century, as NASA’s Artemis II mission prepares to eclipse the Apollo 13 distance record.At 13:56 EDT (17:56 GMT) the Orion spacecraft will pass the 400,171 km (248,655 mi) mark set by Apollo 13, and by 19:07 EDT (23:07 GMT) it is slated to reach a maximum of 406,773 km (252,760 mi) from Earth – roughly 6,600 km farther than any human has ever traveled.The Artemis programme is NASA’s multi‑decade effort to return people to the Moon, establish a sustainable presence there, and use the lunar foothold as a springboard to Mars. The initiative currently comprises five missions (Artemis I‑V).Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight launched on 16 November 2022, spent 25 days orbiting Earth and validating Orion’s performance, paving the way for the crewed flight.Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy Space Centre on 1 April 2026 at 18:35 EDT (22:35 GMT) with a four‑astronaut crew for a ten‑day deep‑space test.Crew members:Reid Wiseman (50), commander – veteran ISS commander and test pilot.Victor Glover (49), pilot – first Black astronaut assigned to a lunar mission; previously flew on SpaceX Crew‑1.Christina Koch (47), mission specialist – holds the record for longest single women’s spaceflight (328 days) and has extensive EVA experience.Jeremy Hansen (50), mission specialist – Canada’s first astronaut to travel to the Moon, former fighter pilot.The crew will manually pilot Orion at key phases, verify life‑support, propulsion, power, thermal control, navigation and proximity‑operations systems, and rehearse critical procedures such as course corrections, long‑range communications, re‑entry and splashdown.Scientific work will include lunar observations, human‑health experiments, and extensive photography. On 2 April, Commander Wiseman captured a striking “Hello, World” image of Earth from Orion, showing upside‑down continents, vivid auroras, city lights across Africa, Europe and South America, and a faint zodiacal glow.Nutrition for the ten‑day flight comes from a fixed menu of 189 shelf‑stable items – tortillas, nuts, beef brisket, macaroni‑and‑cheese, cookies, chocolate, and rehydratable drinks – all prepared without a refrigerator, using a water dispenser and a small heater to keep crumbs from floating in microgravity.NASA plans the splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at about 20:07 EDT on 10 April 2026. Recovery helicopters will retrieve the crew for medical checks aboard the USS John P Murtha before they return to Johnson Space Center in Houston.The Moon lies an average 384,400 km (238,855 mi) from Earth – roughly ten Earth‑equator circumferences. Its diameter is about one‑third that of Earth; if Earth were a basketball, the Moon would be a tennis ball. Surface temperatures swing from –173 °C (–180 °F) at night to 127 °C (260 °F) in daylight, and gravity is only one‑sixth of Earth’s, so a 60 kg person would feel the weight of a 10 kg mass.Between 1961 and 1972 NASA’s Apollo programme conducted 33 missions (11 crewed, 22 uncrewed), achieving six successful lunar landings. The last humans to walk on the Moon were Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on 14 December 1972 (Apollo 17).Other nations have also left their mark: the Soviet Luna 9 (1966) delivered the first soft‑landing images, China’s Chang’e 4 (2019) explored the far side, and India’s Chandrayaan‑3 (2023) achieved the first soft landing near the lunar south pole – a region rich in permanently shadowed craters that may hold water ice.Looking ahead, Artemis III (targeted for 2027) will test integrated operations in low Earth orbit with commercial landers, Artemis IV (early 2028) aims for the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 at the south pole, and Artemis V (late 2028) will begin construction of a lunar base.

NASA's Artemis II mission has made history by breaking the record for the farthest human travel from Earth. The four astronauts on board the Orion spacecraft surpassed the previous record of 400,171km (248,655 miles) on Monday at 15:58 GMT, a feat previously achieved by Apollo 13 in April 1970.The mission, which is currently travelling around the far side of the moon, is expected to reach its maximum distance of roughly 406,788km (252,760 miles) from Earth at 23:07 GMT. During this journey, the crew will spend more than six hours analysing and documenting lunar surface features.The astronauts began their landmark day with a message from the late Jim Lovell, who took part in the Apollo 8 and 13 missions. Lovell recorded the message shortly before his death, saying, “It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view. Welcome to my old neighbourhood. I’m proud to pass that torch on to you as you swing around the moon.”Travelling around the moon's far side, the astronauts will witness previously hidden lunar territory, including the Orientale basin, a massive crater that had only been viewed by orbiting cameras on uncrewed missions. Kelsey Young, the lead scientist for the Artemis II mission, highlighted the importance of human observation, stating, “The human eye is basically the best camera that could ever or will ever exist.”The Artemis II crew includes several firsts: Victor Glover will be the first person of colour to fly around the moon, Christina Koch will be the first woman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen will be the first non-American. The mission is a crucial step towards preparing for subsequent missions like Artemis III in 2027 and a lunar landing as part of the Artemis IV mission in 2028.