A private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with just another month to go before it attempts a touchdown. Tokyo-based ispace said Wednesday morning its Resilience lander entered lunar orbit. “The countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun,” the company said in a statement. SpaceX launched Resilience with U.S-based Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander in January. Firefly got there first in March, becoming the first private outfit to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Another American company, Intuitive Machines, landed a spacecraft on the moon a few days later, but it ended up sideways in a crater. Now it’s ispace’s turn. It’s targeting the first week of June for Resilience’s touchdown. The company’s first lander crashed into the moon in 2023. The lander holds a mini rover equipped with a scoop to gather lunar dirt for analysis as well as other experiments.

Pakistan’s military has vowed that India will “pay dearly” after its airstrikes on Wednesday left at least 31 people dead in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, raising fears of an all-out war between the nuclear-armed neighbors. India says at least 16 Indian civilians, including three women and five children, have also been killed since Pakistan began shelling Wednesday across the two South Asian countries’ de facto border in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Exchange of live fire across the border also surged overnight. Even as hostilities spilled into Thursday, both India and Pakistan emphasized that they had acted with restraint, and there are reports that security officials in both countries have started to open lines of communication. But in order to de-escalate, the two countries need international mediation and a way for both of them to declare victory, experts said. New Delhi launched the strikes in response to an April 22 terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in which 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, were killed by militants India says were backed by Pakistan. Pakistan, which denies involvement in the attack, has claimed partial victory in the Indian assault, saying it shot down five Indian fighter jets as well as 25 Indian drones. India has not confirmed those reports. “Indian drones continue to be sent into Pakistan airspace,” military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Thursday, adding that India “will continue to pay dearly for this naked aggression.” U.S. Consulate personnel in the Pakistani city of Lahore were told to shelter in place Thursday due to reports of drone explosions, downed drones and possible airspace incursions in the area. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said New Delhi has no intention to escalate the situation further, but that if Pakistan launches retaliatory strikes, they will be met with a “very, very firm” response. President Donald Trump, who has yet to nominate a U.S. ambassador to either India or Pakistan, said Wednesday that he wanted to “see them work it out.” “They’ve gone tit for tat, so hopefully they can stop now,” he said. Experts say whether the conflict between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan spirals into the latest of several wars since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 depends on whether Pakistan can cast its response so far as sufficient and find a political off-ramp.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — India launched missiles at neighbor and rival Pakistan on Wednesday, dramatically escalating tensions between the nuclear powers two weeks after a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 people. Calling them an “act of war,” Pakistan said the strikes, which according to India hit nine locations across the Pakistani province of Punjab and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killed 26 people and injured 46 others. Among the dead were six people killed at two mosques and two teenagers who were killed elsewhere, Pakistani officials said. India said the strikes hit only “terror camps” and no civilian or military targets. It said it had exercised “considerable restraint” in its target selection. “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” the Indian defense ministry said in a statement. Several buildings were on fire after the strikes, which caused power outages in various locations, videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed. Some of the injured were being taken to hospital in ambulances, and in another video, a loud hissing sound can be heard before a blast hits a few feet away from a crowd of bicyclists. India blames Pakistan for the massacre last month of 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in the Indian part of Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region that both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety. Pakistan, which India has long accused of supporting cross-border terrorism, denies involvement and has called for a “neutral” investigation into the April 22 attack, the deadliest against Indian civilians in almost two decades. “It was expected that Pakistan would take action against terrorists and the infrastructure that supports them,” the Indian Embassy in Washington said in a statement. “Instead, during the fortnight that has gone by, Pakistan has indulged in denial and made allegations of false flag operations against India.”

Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones for a third day on Wednesday forcing most of the Russian capital’s airports to close just as Chinese President Xi Jinping was due to arrive to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian air defense units destroyed at least 14 Ukrainian drones from 10 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) on Tuesday until Wednesday morning. Moscow’s key airports remained out of operation for most of the night, and Russian national carrier Aeroflot said it was reordering timetables to cope with the disruption. Twenty-nine world leaders, including Xi, are expected to attend World War Two Victory Day commemorations in Moscow in the coming days, according to the Kremlin. Military units from 13 countries, including China, will take part in the parade. Xi is due to start a four-day visit to Russia on Wednesday, giving President Vladimir Putin an important diplomatic boost at a time when the Russian leader is keen to show his country is not isolated on the world stage. Xi, whose country is locked in a tariff war with the United States, is expected to sign numerous agreements to deepen the already tight “no limits” strategic partnership with Moscow, which has consistently seen China crowned Russia’s biggest trading partner. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II, including many millions in Ukraine, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945. For Russians — and for many of the peoples of the former Soviet Union — May 9 is the most sacred date in the calendar, and Putin, angry at what he says are attempts by the West to belittle the Soviet victory, has sought to use memories of WWII to unite Russian society.

HONG KONG — Sotheby’s has postponed the auction of a collection of ancient gems linked to the Buddha’s remains after the Indian government threatened legal action and demanded their repatriation. The auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha has been postponed “with the agreement of the consignors,” three descendants of the British colonial landowner who excavated them, Sotheby’s said in a statement Wednesday. “This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate,” the auction house said. India had slammed the planned auction of the gems, which William Claxton Peppé dug up on his northern Indian estate in 1898, as offensive to the world’s 500 million Buddhists and a violation of Indian and international law and United Nations conventions. The Piprahwa gemstones, part of a dazzling cache of more than 1,800 artifacts that are now mostly housed at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, are named after the town in what is now the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where they were buried in a stupa, or funerary monument, around 200 to 240 B.C. The gems were said to be enshrined on top of the existing cremated remains of Buddha, who died around 200 years earlier, and many Buddhists believe they are imbued with his presence. The 334 gems had been scheduled to go on sale Wednesday in Hong Kong, where Sotheby’s put them on display in a public exhibition. They were expected to sell for about 100 million Hong Kong dollars ($12.9 million). Secured in three glass cases and surrounded by a trove of other Buddhist artifacts, the display included shimmering penny-sized silver and gold-leaf stars embossed with symbols, along with pearls, beads and flowers cut from precious stones, including amethyst, topaz, garnet, coral and crystal. “Nothing of comparable importance in early Buddhism has ever appeared at auction,” Sotheby’s said on its website, which was no longer promoting the sale Wednesday. In a letter dated Monday and shared online, the Indian Culture Ministry said the gems were sacred relics that were “not separable from the remains they accompany,” according to Buddhist theology and archaeological standards. “To separate and sell them violates religious doctrine and international ethical norms for handling sacred remains,” the letter said. Buddhist scholars and religious leaders also condemned the sale. At the time of the discovery, the British Crown claimed the find under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act, giving the bones and ashes to Buddhist King Chulalongkorn of Thailand. But the Peppé family was allowed to keep a fifth of the relics, and they have been passed down for generations. “I hope they will go to someone who really values them,” Chris Peppé, Peppé’s great-grandson, wrote in a February piece for Sotheby’s accompanying the auction catalogue. The Indian government said that Peppé, a TV director and film editor based in Los Angeles, lacked authority to sell the gems and that by facilitating the sale, Sotheby’s was “participating in continued colonial exploitation.” It said that if Peppé no longer wished to have custody of the gems, they should be offered first to India. Peppé did not respond to a request for comment. He told the BBC that his family had explored the possibility of donating the relics but had run into obstacles and that an auction seemed to be the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists.”

Mark Carney has told Donald Trump that Canada "is not for sale" as the president raised the prospect of the country becoming the 51st US state while welcoming the prime minister to the White House. Carney won the election last month promising to "stand up" to Trump, who has imposed tariffs on some Canadian products and sometimes talks about annexing the country. The former central banker responded with a firm but measured tone after the president proposed a "wonderful marriage" of incorporating Canada into the US. Despite a strained relationship recently between the once-close neighbours, the two men also lavished praise on each other in what was a largely cordial Oval Office meeting. Trump has imposed general tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico and sector-specific import taxes on cars, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations. The US president, who accuses Canada of not doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl south, has levied similar duties on steel and aluminium. Tuesday's meeting was the first time the two had met since Carney won Canada's general election on 28 April, a victory many have credited to concerns in that country about Trump. But the two leaders began with warm words, with Trump describing Carney as "a very talented person". He also hailed his guest's election win as "one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, maybe even greater than mine". Carney said Trump was a "transformational president", with "a relentless focus on the American worker, securing your border, and securing the world" and said he had "revitalised" Nato. But friction arose when Trump again argued that Canada would be better off as part of the US. Carney came prepared with a carefully worded response. "As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale," he told property magnate Trump, likening Canada to the Oval Office itself and to Britain's Buckingham Palace. "Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign in the last several months, it's not for sale. Won't be for sale, ever." Trump replied: "Never say never." The US leader traced his own red line when a journalist in the Oval Office asked if Carney could say anything to persuade him to lift tariffs. "No," he replied. "It's just the way it is." "This was a very friendly conversation," he added. "But we want to make our own cars." Trump once again argued that the US was subsidising Canada's military and did not need Canadian goods such as aluminium and steel. He said he and Carney would discuss "tough points" at their meeting, but "regardless of anything, we're going to be friends with Canada". Trump also criticised his visitor's predecessor, Justin Trudeau, with whom he had an adversarial relationship. Still, he said the meeting with Carney was in stark contrast to another recent Oval Office "blow-up" - a reference to a disastrous visit from Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky in February. Notably, Trump also downplayed the prospect of trade deals, even though his administration has repeatedly pointed to the over 80 countries the White House says are hoping to negotiate as a sign of progress. "Everyone says, 'When, when, when are you going to sign deals?," Trump said. "We don't have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don't want a piece of their market." Carney said that he "pressed the case" to Trump on lifting tariffs, and found him to be "willing to have that negotiation". "I think that's the main thing. That doesn't presuppose the outcome of the negotiation," Carney added at a news conference at the Canadian embassy in Washington DC. "There'll be zigs and zags. Difficult aspects to it. But the prospect is there." Carney did not speculate on timing, saying only that both leaders and their teams would speak again in the coming weeks. Additionally, Carney said he again asked that Trump stopped calling for Canada to become a US state. He added that he believed it important to distinguish between "wish and reality". "He's the president. He's his own person," Carney said. "He understands that we're having a negotiation between sovereign nations." During Canada's election campaign, Carney argued he was the leader who could fight Trump's "betrayal", as well as push back against US threats to Canada's economy and sovereignty. In his victory speech, the Liberal leader went as far as to say that the formerly tight US-Canadian relationship was "over" and that Canadians must "fundamentally re-imagine our economy" in the Trump era. More than $760bn (£570bn) in goods flowed between Canada and the US last year. Canada is the US' second-largest individual tra

For more than a decade, travelers at New Zealand’s Wellington Airport have been greeted by two Hobbit-themed sculptures of giant, hovering eagles, one of which carried wizard Gandalf. Suspended from the roof by cables, the two towering figures were unveiled in 2013 to promote director Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” and Hobbit films, which were filmed in New Zealand over 15 years. Each eagle weighs more than a ton and has a 50-foot wingspan, with a total of 1,000 feathers. The majestic birds originally served as rescuers and fighters in the fantasy adventure films, which are based on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. The pair will say their last goodbye to visitors Friday and “fly off into the sunset,” making space for a new display, the airport said Monday. The eagles’ departure will be “the end of an era,” Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke said. “It’s not unusual to see airborne departures from Wellington Airport,” Clarke said in a statement. “But in this case, it will be emotional for us.” Though the sculptures have been a “huge success,” admired by travelers from around the world, it’s the “right time for them to fly the nest,” he added. Some travelers said they were saddened by the birds’ departure. “It breaks my heart,” Verity Johnson told The Associated Press on Monday as she sat beneath a grasping eagle claw in the food court. “Please reconsider. Please bring them back, make them stay,” she said. Another passenger, Michael Parks, said taking the eagles away would be “un-New Zealand.” The eagles will be disassembled overnight Friday and placed into storage. The long-term plans for them are still to be decided. They were made by Wellington-based Wētā Workshop, which created tens of thousands of props for Jackson’s films, including armor, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry. One of them fell down when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand’s North Island in 2014, but no one was injured, according to The New Zealand Herald. The airport is working with Wētā Workshop on a “unique, locally themed replacement” for the eagles, Clarke said, to be revealed this year. The magnificent New Zealand scenery showcased in the movies has drawn millions of international tourists, with the airport’s eagle sculptures turning into an iconic feature. The films generated more than $770 million in international tourism revenue for New Zealand, contributing to a welfare gain of over $180 million for the country’s households, research found. Another sculpture of Smaug the Magnificent — the great dragon that torments Bilbo Baggins and his fellow travelers — will remain in the check-in area, where it was installed in 2014.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — An American mountaineer died on Mount Makalu in eastern Nepal during a climb to raise funds for a children’s cancer program, officials said Tuesday, the second death in the Himalayan nation’s climbing season that began in March. The world’s fifth-highest mountain, Makalu’s peak is 28,000 feet high — almost as tall as Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak at a height of 29,032 feet. Alexander Pancoe, 39, died Sunday while settling into his sleeping bag at the mountain’s second high camp, after returning from an acclimatization trip at the higher camp three, expedition organizer Madison Mountaineering said. “Alex suddenly became unresponsive,” the company said on its website. “Despite hours of resuscitation efforts ... they were unable to revive him.” Nepal’s tourism department said it was arranging to bring the body to Kathmandu, the capital. Pancoe, who survived a brain tumor when younger, had completed the Explorer’s Grand Slam — climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents and then skiing to both the North and South Poles. He had been battling chronic myeloid leukemia and was attempting to climb Makalu to raise funds for the pediatric blood cancer program of the Chicago-based Lurie Children’s Hospital, said expedition leader Garrett Madison. He had already raised $1 million to help fund clinical trials and other programs there, Madison added. In April, a Nepali sherpa died on Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest mountain. Wedged between India and China, landlocked Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and its economy is heavily reliant on climbing, trekking and tourism for foreign exchange.

MANILA, Philippines — A World War II-era Philippine navy ship to be used as a target in a combat exercise by American and Philippine forces accidentally sank Monday hours before the mock assault, prompting the drill to be canceled, U.S. and Philippine military officials said. The BRP Miguel Malvar, which was decommissioned by the Philippine navy in 2021, took on water while being towed in rough waters facing the disputed South China Sea and sank about 30 nautical miles off the western Philippine province of Zambales. Nobody was onboard when the ship listed and then sank, the Philippine military said. American and Philippine forces proceeded with other live-fire maneuvers off Zambales on Monday despite the premature sinking of the Malvar. The ship was built as a patrol vessel for the U.S. Navy in the 1940s and was transferred to Vietnam’s navy before the Philippine military acquired it, Philippine navy Capt. John Percie Alcos said. “It’s an 80-year-old dilapidated ship and it wasn’t able to withstand the rough seas,” Philippine Lt. Col. John Paul Salgado told The Associated Press. The ship-sinking exercise was planned in an offshore area facing the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal, which has been closely guarded by the Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships. The Philippines also claims the fishing atoll, which lies about 137 miles west of Zambales. Chinese and Philippine forces have had increasingly hostile confrontations in the waters and airspace of Scarborough in recent years. The canceled ship-sinking drill would have been the third to be staged by the treaty allies in recent years. It was supposed to be one of the highlights of large-scale annual military exercises by the United States and the Philippines from April 21 to May 9 with about 14,000 U.S. and Filipino troops participating. Called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, the combat drills have increasingly focused on the defense of Philippine sovereignty in the face of China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. Mock battle scenes that have been staged so far, including the retaking of an island from hostile forces, have reflected assurances by the Trump administration, including by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that the U.S. would abide by its treaty commitment to defend the Philippines in case Filipino forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea. On Sunday, U.S., Australian and Philippine forces practiced retaking an island from hostile forces in the coastal town of Balabac in western Palawan province, which faces the South China Sea. Japanese forces and British marines joined as observers of the combat exercise, which “showcased the growing interoperability and cohesion among partner nations in maintaining regional security,” Salgado said. “What we have seen since Trump returned to the White House is a remarkable level of continuity in the U.S.-Philippines alliance not only in joint military drills, but also on American statements that the alliance is ‘ironclad,’” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation. “The Trump administration is trying to keep the pressure on China through its support to the Philippines,” Grossman said. But he added that it is unclear “just how sustainable this commitment will be given that the Trump administration seems less hawkish on China than its predecessors.” China has vehemently opposed such exercises involving U.S. forces in or near the South China Sea or Taiwan, the island democracy, which Beijing claims as a province and has threatened to annex by force if necessary. U.S. and Philippine military officials, however, have insisted that the combat exercises were not designed with China in mind but serve as a deterrence to acts of aggression in the region.

Six strikes targeted Yemen’s Hodeidah port, Houthi-affiliated TV reported. The Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes against Yemen’s Hodeidah Port on Monday, a day after the Iran-aligned Houthis fired a missile that struck near Israel’s main airport. The strikes injured at least 21 people, the Houthi-run health ministry spokesman Anees al-Asbahi said. The Houthis shut down the area around the port and cement factory following the strikes, three sources said. They said the extent of the damage at the port was unknown, yet the intensity of the strikes and fire caused severe damage to the containers’ berth. Two other sources estimated the damage at 70% of the port’s five docks, warehouses and customs area. The strikes occurred as two ships were unloading their cargo, with traffic at the port at a complete standstill, a worker at the port said. The port is the second-largest in the Red Sea after Aden and is the entry point for about 80% of Yemen’s food imports. More than 10 strikes targeted Hodeidah Port and the Al Salakhanah and Al Hawak neighborhoods in the city of Hodeidah, five residents told Reuters. Four strikes also targeted a cement factory east of Hodeidah. “The attack was carried out in response to repeated attacks carried out by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel in which surface-to-surface missiles and unmanned aircraft were launched at the territory of the state and its citizens,” the Israeli military said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate for Sunday’s missile attack, which was the first known to have escaped interception by Israel’s air defenses in a series of attacks since March. Houthi official Abdul Qader al-Mortada said in an X post commenting on the attack that Israel should wait for the “unimaginable”. The Yemeni group resumed its attacks on Israel and shipping lanes following a brief suspension after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza ended. The Houthis, who control Yemen, have been firing at Israel and shipping in the Red Sea since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said that U.S. forces were not actively involved in Monday’s strikes, but there is general coordination between the two allies, the official said. Meanwhile, an oil company operated by the Houthis announced it has begun operating an emergency system for supplying cars with fuel, owing to difficulties in unloading cargo at the oil port of Ras Isa. The company, in a statement, attributed the decision to U.S. strikes on the country, including the port. U.S. President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis. The strikes have killed hundreds of people in Yemen while Israel has largely limited its strikes on Yemen since December last year. Earlier on Monday, Israel approved a plan that may include seizing the Gaza Strip and controlling aid to the Palestinian enclave. The war in Gaza started after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials have said, and destroyed much of the enclave. Netanyahu said in a video message the operation would be “intensive” and would see more Palestinians in Gaza moved “for their own safety. He said Israeli troops would not follow previous tactics based on short raids by forces based outside Gaza. “The intention is the opposite,” he said, echoing comments from other officials who have said the country would hold on to the ground it has seized. Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones, but the new plan would go further.