NewsBytes

India's Shubhanshu Shukla became the 634th astronaut to travel to space as he entered the International Space Station on Thursday after a 28-hour journey. Shukla and three other astronauts were formally welcomed on the space station by the members of Expedition 73 with warm hugs and handshakes. Axiom mission commander Peggy Whitson handed out astronaut pins to Shukla, Polish astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Hungarian Tibor Kapu, who marked their maiden voyage to space. "I am astronaut 634. It is a privilege to be here," Shukla said in brief remarks at the formal welcome ceremony on the space station. Shukla said over the next 14 days, he and the other astronauts will conduct scientific experiments and interact with people on Earth.

Britain said it would not go ahead with a 25 billion pound ($34.39 billion) project to tap Moroccan renewable energy via what would have been the world's longest subsea power cable. "The government has concluded that it is not in the UK national interest at this time to continue further consideration of support for the Morocco-UK Power Project," energy department minister Michael Shanks said in a written statement to parliament. The Xlinks project aimed to supply power to 7 million British homes by 2030 using solar and wind energy from the Sahara. The plan involved building 3,800 kilometres (2,361 miles) of high-voltage direct current subsea cables from Morocco to southwest England. It had been designated by the previous Conservative government as a project of "national significance" but faced major funding and regulatory hurdles.

It was in the dusty streets and modest homes of this remote Alaska Native village that Olga Michael quietly lived her entire life as a midwife and a mother of 13. As the wife of an Orthodox Christian priest, she was a “matushka,” or spiritual mother to many more. The Yup'ik woman became known in church communities across Alaska for quiet generosity, piety and compassion — particularly as a consoler of women who had suffered from abuse, from miscarriage, from the most intimate of traumas. She could share from her own grief, having lost five children who didn't live to adulthood. Her renown spread to a widening circle of devotees after her death from cancer in 1979 at age 63 — through word of mouth and reports of her appearance in sacred dreams and visions, even among people far from Alaska. Now, after an elaborate ceremony in her village of about 800 people in southwestern Alaska, she is the first female Orthodox saint from North America, officially known as “St Olga of Kwethluk, Matushka of All Alaska.”

Having an autoimmune condition, in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and damages healthy tissues and organs, could be linked to a near doubling of risk of experiencing persistent mental health issues, a study has found. Researchers from The University of Edinburgh, UK, said that a persistent inflammation, which is a hallmark of autoimmune disorders, could explain the risks. Women were found to be at a higher mental health risk, compared to men having the same conditions, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Mental Health.  The study looked at six autoimmune disorders that included rheumatoid arthritis (affects joints), inflammatory bowel disease and lupus, which can damage kidneys and brain among other organs. The researchers said that inflammation is linked to mental ill-health. However, many studies have looked at small sample sizes, limiting their validity.