| Good morning, India's ambitious campaign to host the 2036 Olympics may have hit a snag. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has 'paused' the selection process for future hosts. The move came after IOC members criticised the current selection process, which involves a 'Future Host Commission', as being opaque and inconsistent. The IOC is expected to set up a working group to review the process. The timing couldn't be more delicate. The decision comes just days before an Indian delegation was to travel to Lausanne to make their pitch for the 2036 Games. While the meeting will proceed as planned, it's noteworthy that the number of countries interested in hosting the 2036 Olympics is in double digits. On that note, let’s get to today’s edition.
🚨Big Story A bit more humanity is now onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the permanent research laboratory in space. With a successful docking of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft yesterday, Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to reach the ISS. The Axiom-4 mission is the fourth private mission to the ISS, and its crew will remain onboard for the next two weeks, conducting experiments. Currently, the ISS is hosting 11 people. Shukla, now astronaut number 634 (he is the 634th individual to travel to space), spoke about his experience shortly after the docking process. He said he was "learning like a baby" to walk, control himself, and eat. “I was not feeling very great when we got shot into the vacuum. But since yesterday, I have been told that I have been sleeping a lot... that’s a great sign.” Zoom in: Docking in space, though a common occurrence now, is a complex procedure. It requires two spacecraft, travelling at speeds of thousands of kilometres per hour, to align their orbits, make contact and join together. Learn all about the process with our explainer.
⚡Only in Express In an ongoing Express series, we spotlight the cases of regime brutality and stories of resistance during the Emergency. One such story is of Rajan Warrier, an engineering student, who is believed to have been picked up by the police on March 1, 1976, over a suspected Naxal attack on a police station. Rajan was not seen again. It wasn’t until May 1977 that The Indian Express confirmed Rajan's death due to custodial torture. Thus began a father's fight to ensure Rajan's death wasn't lost in the darkness. We also revisit the 'mainstreaming' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as it became an indelible part of the Janata Parivar. RSS volunteers became the crucial boots on the ground for Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)'s anti-Emergency stir. JP once famously remarked, "If RSS is fascist, I am a fascist."
📰 From the Front Page ‘Double standards’: Defence Ministers of the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, who met in China, failed to issue a joint statement on Thursday after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh declined to sign the draft statement, which omitted a reference to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. As per sources, the document mentioned the Balochistan Liberation Army's hijacking of the Jaffar Express in Pakistan. Probe on: A multidisciplinary team is currently analysing data from the Air India AI171 flight's black box, which was recovered after the plane crashed on June 12, at a laboratory in Delhi. Extraction and analysis of the black box data are critical in helping investigators identify the cause of an aircraft accident. In harmony: Music conductor Maria Badstue grew up in a tiny Danish town with a Scandinavian name, but the mirror revealed a different story. She was a brown girl with brown eyes and dark hair — nothing like her White parents and those around her. Adopted from an orphanage in Maharashtra, Badstue has long navigated the politics of her identity, so intricately tied to language and belongingness. Read her story.
📌 Must Read Walking the tightrope: Conflicts across the world have reared their ugly heads, pointing to a challenge to international law. India stands much to lose with the ongoing crisis in West Asia as it has ties to balance with Iran, Israel and the Gulf states. Former diplomat Pankaj Saran underlines six takeaways from the war-torn West Asia and India's stakes. Who’s poor? Earlier this month, the World Bank stated that just 5.75% of Indians now live under abject poverty, significantly down from the 27% in 2011-12. This, however, does not provide a complete picture of India's poor. To begin with, the World Bank raised its poverty line in June to $3 a day. To calculate the Indian rupee equivalent with the market exchange rate would be faulty, as it does not take into account the purchasing power parity (PPP). So, how should one look at the poverty line? What does it say about India’s actual poor? I will let my colleague Udit Misra explain.
⏳ And Finally... India may have a crisis at hand, going into the second Test against England in Birmingham. The Playing XI will be without the X-factor, Jasprit Bumrah, India's chief wicket-taker. Though Bumrah is expected to return for the third Test in London, Team India now has the tough task of replacing him from a relatively inexperienced team. Who can lead India's pace attack? Read Sandeep Dwivedi's dispatch from England. 🎧 Before you go, tune into the latest '3 Things' podcast episode. Today's lineup: Iran’s nuclear programme, AI at Jagannath Rath Yatra and the Udaipur rape case. That’s all for today, folks! Happy weekend-ing! Sonal Gupta | 
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