China ups the ante in the space race, Bangladesh’s exiled ex-leader eyes return, Wildfires ravage southern Spain

China nets a big win in the space race

In a scene straight out of Looney Tunes, China on Friday maneuvered a gigantic floating net out into the Pacific Ocean, and used it to catch a rocket booster as it gently descended from the sky after launching a satellite into space. The achievement is no cartoon: figuring out how to reuse massively expensive rockets, rather than building new ones for every mission and simply allowing them to crash to Earth or hurtle off into the cosmos, is a huge breakthrough in China’s quest to become a leading “space power” by 2030. To date, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the only other space racer to retrieve a rocket booster like this. China, which is keen to array its own satellite clusters to rival those of Musk’s Starlink in particular, says it will reuse the rocket for another mission by the end of the year.

Bangladesh’s exiled leader plans for return – despite her death sentence

Ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinatold Reuters last night that she plans to return to Bangladesh in December, even though the country’s war-crimes court sentenced her to death last November. A long-time leader of the Muslim-majority country of 175 million people, Hasina’s downfall began in 2024 after a brutal government crackdown against Gen Z-led protests killed as many as 1,400 people, per a UN report. A leaked recording last year suggested she personally authorized the crackdown. Students later stormed Hasina’s house, forcing her to flee to India. But does Bangladesh want her back? The government has urged New Delhi to extradite her, a request that has been a source of tension between the two South Asian neighbors. Inside Bangladesh, though, Hasina’s return could further inflame political tensions at a moment when the country is trying to stabilize its fragile landscape.

Wildfires devastate southern Spain

At least 12 people have been killed by wildfires tearing through southern Spain since Thursday, and 23 people have been identified as missing. The blaze has hit the province of Almería, in Andalusia, the hardest, with over 500 emergency responders working to put out the flames. While Spain is no stranger to wildfires – experiencing them almost annually — this year’s massive blaze is deadlier than any before. The disaster has also struck a renowned tourism hub, disrupting the plans of thousands of travelers and raising concerns about the longer-term risks to the tourism industry during the peak summer season. The blaze comes as Europe faces a summer of unprecedented heat, with a series of searing heatwaves exacerbating the risk of wildfires across the continent – all while it is warming faster than any other continent.