NewsBytes

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched his fiancée Lauren Sanchez to space with an all-female celebrity crew that included Katy Perry and Gayle King. It was the latest wave in space tourism, where more of the rich and famous than ever before — or lucky and well-connected — can enter the zero-gravity realm traditionally dominated by professional astronauts. The New Shepard rocket blasted off on the quick up-and-down trip from West Texas. The fringes of space beckoned some 105 km up, promising a few precious minutes of weightlessness. It was the 11th human spaceflight for the Washington state-based company, founded by Bezos in 2000 after making a fortune with Amazon. Bezos strapped in for Blue Origin's first space tourist flight in 2021 and accompanied the latest crew to the pad.  The celebrity launch was the nation's first spaceflight where women filled each seat. The only other all-female crew in 64 years of human spaceflight was back in 1963. That's when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched by herself, becoming the first woman in space. Tereshkova spent three days off the planet.

China slapped visa restrictions against US personnel who have acted “egregiously” on Tibet-related issues in retaliation to additional visa curbs imposed by Washington on Chinese officials. Tibet affairs are purely China's internal affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. “In accordance with the Law on Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China and the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law of the People's Republic of China, China decided to impose visa restrictions on US personnel who have acted egregiously on the Xizang (Tibet) -related issues,” Lin told a media briefing. China refers to Tibet as Xizang. The restrictions were in response to similar restrictions imposed by Washington on Chinese officials.

The German parliament plans to meet on May 6 to elect Friedrich Merz as the country's next leader, if all the parties in his proposed government approve a coalition agreement reached last week. Parliament's lower house, the Bundestag, said Speaker Julia Klöckner is preparing to call the session early next month. Merz will need a majority of all members of the house to be elected as post-World War II Germany's 10th chancellor, succeeding Olaf Scholz. The proposed coalition of his centre-right Christian Democratic Union; its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union; and Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats has a relatively modest majority, with 328 of the 630 seats. Since no party wants to work with the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which finished second in Germany's election in February, no other plausible combination of governing parties has a parliamentary majority.