China launched the Shenzhou-19 manned spaceflight mission on Wednesday. Commander Cai Xuzhe, a veteran taikonaut who previously flew on the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022 leads the mission. Joining him are two astronauts making their first journey into space – Song Lingdong and female astronaut Wang Haoze.
The Shenzhou-19 team will undertake 86 science and technology experiments, covering everything from trying to grow plants in space to conducting genetics studies. Perhaps most intriguing is the "space farm": Cai may pick up his lettuce-growing project from two years ago, while Song plans to cultivate sweet potatoes, giving the mission a gardening touch.
The mission will also test how fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) – a common model in genetic research due to their short lifespan and high genetic similarity to humans – react to microgravity and low magnetic environments. About 75 percent of human disease genes exist in fruit flies, making them ideal for studying the biological impacts of space travel.
In an exciting sneak peek into the future, Shenzhou 19's crew will expose lunar soil bricks to the harsh elements of space. These soil bricks, replicas created from samples returned by the Chang'e 5 and 6 lunar missions, will face space radiation and extreme temperature fluctuations. The ultimate goal is to someday build structures on the moon from locally sourced materials.
The Malaysian High Court ruled that Najib Razak (right) had admitted to having full control and authority over transactions in his AmBank account. As reported by New Straits Times on October 30.
Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said neither fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, former 1MDB director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, nor Najib's former principal private secretary, the late Azlin Alias, had any control over Najib's account. He said according to the accused's statement, he had the knowledge as to the transactions that took place and the purposes for which it was intended.
"The accused stated pursuant to an event dubbed as "peristiwa 916" (on Sept 16, 2008), there was a need for him to find political funding to avoid any members of parliament from Barisan Nasional (BN) from jumping ship to another party and thus causing him to lose political power. This admission by the accused lent credence to the evidence of (former chief secretary to the government) Sidek Hassan who testified that 1MDB was initiated as a political fund for BN.
Najib's former aide Amhari Efendi Nazarudin's evidence also reiterated the fact that 1MDB was used as a fund for the accused's political purposes. The evidence has shown that the accused could not have obtained the funds were it not for his positive action with regard to 1MDB in which he had vested interests", he said in his judgment at the end of the prosecution case on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Sequerah noted that the accused's actions brought no benefits to the government, nor did they result in any interest or advantage accruing to it.
"This court therefore finds that a prima facie case has been made out against the accused in respect of all the four abuse of power charges and calls upon the accused to make his defence", he said.
Najib faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount. He was charged under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, which provides for imprisonment of up to 20 years and a fine of up to five times the amount or value of the bribe, or RM10,000, whichever is higher, if found guilty.
For the 21 charges of money laundering, Najib is accused of committing the offences between March 22, 2013, and August 30, 2013. All these charges are under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing, and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act, which carries a maximum fine of RM5 million and imprisonment of up to five years, or both, upon conviction.
