Despite his own isolationist musings, the first picks of President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration hail from a decidedly more traditionalist wing of the Republican Party.

A FEMA supervisor fired for instructing subordinates to skip over houses with Trump signs says her actions were consistent with agency guidance and were not isolated to her team alone.

This is a sponsored article brought to you by BESydney.

In July 2024, Sydney woman Katherine Bennell-Pegg made history as the first astronaut to graduate under the Australian flag and the first female astronaut in Australia. Her journey, marked by determination and discipline, showcases Australia’s growing prominence in space exploration and research.

From her academic achievements at the University of Sydney (USYD) to her rigorous training at the European Space Agency (ESA), Bennell-Pegg’s success has paved a path forward for aspiring space and aerospace professionals in Australia and globally.

A journey to the stars begins in Sydney

Katherine Bennell-Pegg was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and grew up in the Northern Beaches area. Her fascination with space began at an early age.

“I always dreamed of being an astronaut,” Bennell-Pegg shared in her “Insights from an Australian Astronaut” Space Forum Speech in July 2024. “When I was young, it was for the adventure, but after more than a decade working in space, it’s now because I know the role it plays in tackling real-world problems and developing new knowledge that can benefit our society, environment and science.”

Sydney: A Hub for Space Innovation

Sydney, the vibrant heart of the state of New South Wales (NSW), stands at the forefront of aerospace innovation in Australia. With its world-class research facilities, leading academic institutions and strategic geographic positioning, Sydney is not only Australia’s gateway to the Indo-Pacific but also a burgeoning hub for international aerospace endeavours.

NSW is home to more than 40 per cent of Australia’s aerospace industry. Substantial investments from both the state and federal governments support this concentration of capabilities, underpinning Sydney’s role as a leader in aerospace. From advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity to quantum technologies and space exploration, this progressive city is truly thriving.

Sydney’s appeal as a desirable location for hosting aerospace conferences and business events is bolstered by its comprehensive infrastructure, vibrant startup community and strategic position as a transport hub.

Sydney’s track record of successfully hosting events highlights the city’s ability to organise impactful international gatherings, including:

• Australian Space Summit
• New Horizons Summit
• CubeSatPlus2024 - NEW SPACE: Unbounded Skies

Sydney will also host the 76th International Astronautical Congress from 29 September to 3 October 2025 and the 34th Congress of the International Council for the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) to be held 13 to 17 September 2026. Both will take place at ICC Sydney, further solidifying Sydney’s status as a central hub for aerospace events.

Would you like to know more about Sydney’s credentials in Aerospace? Download our Aerospace eBook or visit besydney.com.au

Sydney proved to be the ideal location for Bennell-Pegg’s journey to begin. She studied at the University of Sydney, where she earned a Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) in Aeronautical Engineering (Space) and a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) in Physics.

Sydney’s universities are at the forefront of aerospace education and research. Institutions such as the University of Sydney (USYD), the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) attract students from around the world. UNSW Sydney, with its School of Aerospace, Mechanical, and Mechatronic Engineering, is renowned for its innovative research in space technology and satellite systems, while UTS provides cutting-edge programs in aerospace engineering and physics, emphasizing practical applications and industry partnerships. USYD excels in aeronautical engineering and space science, supported by advanced facilities and strong ties to major aerospace organisations. Together, these universities offer comprehensive programs that integrate theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience, preparing students for dynamic careers in the rapidly evolving aerospace and space sectors.

Having excelled in her studies at USYD, Bennell-Pegg was awarded the Charles Kuller Graduation Prize for her top-placed undergraduate thesis. Subsequently, her quest for knowledge took her to Europe, where she earned two Master of Science degrees: one in Astronautics and Space Engineering from Cranfield University and another in Space Technology from Luleå University of Technology.

Reflecting on her educational path, Bennell-Pegg stated, “With the encouragement of my parents, I researched what it would take to become an astronaut and worked hard at school, participating in everything from aerobatic flying lessons to amateur astronomy.”

Inside the rigorous training regimen of an astronaut

Bennell-Pegg’s professional career began with roles at Airbus UK, where she contributed to numerous space missions and concept studies, such as Martian in-situ resource utilisation and space debris removal. Her expertise led her to the Australian Space Agency, where she became the Director of Space Technology.

In 2021, Bennell-Pegg was invited by the European Space Agency (ESA) to undertake Basic Astronaut Training at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany. When the ESA application opened in 2021, it was the first opening in 15 years. Bennell-Pegg jumped at the opportunity to apply alongside over 22,000 others from 22 countries. She endured six knock-out rounds, including medical, psychometrics, psychology and technical tests and made it to the group of 25 who passed.

This historic invitation marked the first time an international astronaut candidate was offered training by the ESA.

“The training was demanding, but it was also an incredible opportunity to learn from some of the best minds in the field and to be part of a team that is pushing the boundaries of human exploration.”—Katherine Bennell-Pegg

Bennell-Pegg’s training regimen was intense, encompassing physical conditioning, complex simulations, and theoretical classes designed to prepare candidates for long-duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and beyond. This included:

• Studies in biology, astronomy, earth sciences, meteorology, materials, medical and fluids, both in theory and in labs.
• Radiation research – an area of expertise for Australia. This will increase as humans travel back to the Moon.
• Medical operations: Astronauts need to be able to perform medical procedures on themselves and others.
• Training for expeditions: This included honing team dynamics through behavioral training, ocean and winter survival training, rescue and firefighting.

Sharing her thoughts on this transformative experience, Bennell-Pegg said, “The training was demanding, but it was also an incredible opportunity to learn from some of the best minds in the field and to be part of a team that is pushing the boundaries of human exploration.”

In April 2024, Bennell-Pegg completed her training, graduating with her ESA classmates from “The Hoppers” group. Upon graduation, she became fully qualified for assignments on long-duration missions to the ISS, making her the first Australian female astronaut and the first person to train as an astronaut under the Australian flag.

“I want to use this experience to open doors for Australian scientists and engineers to utilize space for their discoveries,” Bennell-Pegg said. “I hope to inspire the pursuit of STEM careers and show all Australians that they too can reach for the stars.”

Elevating Australia’s role in space exploration

Katherine Bennell-Pegg’s achievements represent a significant milestone. Her journey from the University of Sydney to the rigorous training programs at the European Astronaut Centre showcases the potential of Australian talent in the global space community.

“Being the first astronaut trained under the Australian flag is an incredible honor,” Bennell-Pegg said. “I’m grateful for the support that has fueled me through intense training and opened doors for more Australians in space exploration. Whether I fly or not, there is much to accomplish here on Earth. I’m excited to leverage this experience to inspire future generations in STEM and elevate Australia’s presence in the global space community. Becoming an astronaut is just the beginning.”

Bennell-Pegg’s dream to become an Australian astronaut is more than just a personal triumph; it is a win for anyone who aspires to a career in space or aerospace. Sydney, with its world-class educational institutions, advanced manufacturing facilities scheduled for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis and expanding opportunities in aerospace and defence, is an ideal starting point for anyone looking to make their mark in these sectors.

Would you like to know more about Sydney’s credentials in Aerospace? Download our Aerospace eBook or visit besydney.com.au

In his latest book, The Blue on Fire: Hawaii, photographer Enzo Barracco hopes to inspire the world to protect the ocean.

It's not the reach of a fire that matters most; it's the speed. Understanding this can help society better prepare.

More blazes break out where wild land and urban areas overlap.

New studies suggest smoke from western megafires may be damaging bird health and leading to strange behavior

On Nov. 19, join Benj Edwards and Simon Willison's live YouTube chat about the "Great Bing Chat Fiasco of 2023."

Wildfires have been raging in New York and New Jersey. People in some areas have been asked to prepare for possible evacuations.

Toronto police say they have arrested 23 people after close to 100 shots were fired outside a recording studio in Toronto’s west end on Monday night – though no one was injured. 

On May 13, 1985, after a long standoff, Philadelphia municipal authorities dropped a bomb on the headquarters of the African-American radical group MOVE. In the documentary Let the Fire Burn, director Jason Osder uses archival footage to chronicle the years of tension that ended in tragedy.

1. Netflix's The Great Indian Kapil Show: Navjot Singh Sidhu is back after 5 years of exit, Archana Puran Singh says, 'He’s taken over my...'  Firstpost
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"More software has been played on Nintendo Switch than on any other Nintendo hardware."

Arjun Sarja is set to direct ‘Seetha Payana’ starring daughter Aishwarya Arjun and Niranjan Sudhindra. The movie will release in multiple languages

The Hindu’s First Day First Show newsletter brings you news and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming

‘Singham Again’ had an ensemble cast which includes Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor and Jackie Shroff

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The former striker will depart the programme at the end of the 2024/25 season

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Sibert and Red Cloud, black-footed ferret siblings at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, are the first members of an endangered species born to a cloned animal.

Canadian political leaders are congratulating Donald Trump on winning back the U.S. presidency — a victory that raises questions about what Canada-U.S. relations will look like over the next four years.

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The province says the move comes "after years of AIMCo consistently failing to meet its mandated benchmark returns." For now, Finance Minister Nate Horner has been appointed the AIMCo board's sole director and chair. Senior public servant Ray Gilmour has been appointed interim CEO.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is advocating for enhanced fire safety measures and improved insurance coverage for employees working in pharmaceutical facilities.

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The FDA doesn’t care about the First Amendment rights of the companies it regulates. It cares even less about the “free speech” rights of those companies’ sales and marketing representatives. And why should the agency care? One of FDA’s primary missions is to protect the public health and safety of the American people from illegal, adulterated and misbranded products. Doing so involves restraining food, drug, device and cosmetics companies from committing fraudulent and deceptive acts that are not protected by companies’ commercial free speech rights. Nonetheless, FDA Matters envisions opportunities for FDA and industry to broaden permissible product communications. The key is understanding history, not constitutional law.

The government implied wholesalers had more personal protective equipment in stock than was the case during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Healthcare Distribution Association has said.

On this date 349 years ago, Samuel Pepys relates in his famous diary a remarkable story about an upcoming medical experiment. As far as I can tell, this is the first written description of a paid research subject.

According to his account, the man (who he describes as “a little frantic”) was to be paid to undergo a blood transfusion from a sheep. It was hypothesized that the blood of this calm and docile animal would help to calm the man.

Some interesting things to note about this experiment:

• Equipoise. There is explicit disagreement about what effect the experimental treatment will have: according to Pepys, "some think it may have a good effect upon him as a frantic man by cooling his blood, others that it will not have any effect at all".
• Results published. An account of the experiment was published just two weeks later in the journal Philosophical Transactions. 
• Medical Privacy. In this subsequent write-up, the research subject is identified as Arthur Coga, a former Cambridge divinity student. According to at least one account, being publicly identified had a bad effect on Coga, as people who had heard of him allegedly succeeded in getting him to spend his stipend on drink (though no sources are provided to confirm this story).
• Patient Reported Outcome. Coga was apparently chosen because, although mentally ill, he was still considered educated enough to give an accurate description of the treatment effect. 

Depending on your perspective, this may also be a very early account of the placebo effect, or a classic case of ignoring the patient’s experience. Because even though his report was positive, the clinicians remained skeptical. From the journal article:

The Man after this operation, as well as in it, found himself very well, and hath given in his own Narrative under his own hand, enlarging more upon the benefit, he thinks, he hath received by it, than we think fit to own as yet.

…and in fact, a subsequent diary entry from Pepys mentions meeting Coga, with similarly mixed impressions: “he finds himself much better since, and as a new man, but he is cracked a little in his head”.

The amount Coga was paid for his participation? Twenty shillings – at the time, that was exactly one Guinea.

[Image credit: Wellcome Images]

A person has tested positive in British Columbia, Canadian health officials said, though the results must be sent to another lab for confirmation.

HONG KONG — China's National Health Commission (NHC) published its first set of guidelines to standardise the diagnosis and treatment of obesity, with more than half of China's adults already overweight and obese, and the rate expected to keep rising.  The guidelines, made public on October 17, come as China experiences an upward morbidity trend of its overweight and obese population. The rate of overweight or obese people could reach 65.3 per cent by 2030, the NHC said.   "Obesity has become a major public health issue in China, ranking as the sixth leading risk factor for death and disability in the country," the guidelines said. China is facing a twin challenge that feeds its weight problem: In a modernising economy underpinned by technological innovation, more jobs have become static or desk-bound, while a prolonged slowdown in growth is forcing people to adopt cheaper, unhealthy diets.

OTTAWA - Canada has detected its first presumptive case of H5 bird flu in a person, a teenager in the western province of British Columbia, health officials said on Saturday (Nov 9). The teenager likely caught the virus from a bird or animal and was receiving care at a children's hospital, the province said in a statement. The province said it was investigating the source of exposure and identifying the teenager's contacts. The risk to the public remains low, Canada's Health Minister Mark Holland said in posting on X. "This is a rare event," British Columbia Health Officer Bonnie Henry said in a statement. "We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of exposure here in B.C." H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and US dairy cows, with several recent human cases in US dairy and poultry workers. There has been no evidence of person-to-person spread so far. But if that were to happen, a pandemic could unfold, scientists have said.

Megan Fox is pregnant. The 38-year-old actress — who has Noah, 12, Bodhi, ten, and Journey, eight, with her ex-husband Brian Austin Green — has confirmed via social media that she's expecting her first child with Machine Gun Kelly.

The quest for realism in Thai drama The Empress of Ayodhaya went too far when a cat was reportedly drugged in a poisoning scene. In episode five of the show, the character Indravedi (Fern Nopjira Lerkkajornnamkul) suspects her drink has been drugged, so she asks nanny Thongdee (Ja Molywon Phantara) to test it out on the black feline. The cat can be seen convulsing and retching, and the camera moves to show Indravedi looking concerned, while Thongdee declares that it is dead. The scene caused public outrage with fears that the cat had actually been killed, and calls to ban the period drama were trending on X. On Nov 7, a now-deleted X account reportedly belonging to Ja posted: "The cat didn't actually die. We put it under anaesthesia, but while filming, the cat retched and seized." She and Fern initially thought the cat had actually died while filming and their faces "turned pale", she added.

Denzel Washington has confirmed he will star in Black Panther 3 before his retirement. The 69-year-old actor is the first to talk about the existence of a third film in the blockbuster Marvel franchise — which will follow the 2018 original and 2022 sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — and has also revealed the film will be among a handful of roles he will take on before he bows out of acting after a career spanning four decades. Confirming director Ryan Coogler has written a role just for the Oscar-winner for the third instalment, Denzel told Australia's Today show: "At this point in my career, I'm only interested in working with the best, I don't know how many more films I will make, probably not that many. I want to do things that I haven't done." Sharing the roles he has lined up before he bids farewell to his Hollywood career, he said: "I played Othello at 22, I'm now going to play it at 70. After that, I'm playing Hannibal. After that, I've been talking with Steve McQueen about a film. After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next Black Panther.

TORONTO — A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children's hospital, sick with Canada's first presumptive human case of avian influenza. "This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions," said provincial health officer Bonnie Henry in a news conference on Tuesday (Nov 12). "It just reminds us that in young people this is a virus that can progress and cause quite severe illness and the deterioration that I mentioned was quite rapid." British Columbia health officials said on Saturday the province had detected Canada's first human case of H5 bird flu in a teenager.

Apr 15, 2024

Stephen Walt argues that the tragic irony is that the individuals and organizations in the United States that have been the most ardent in shielding Israel from criticism and pushing one administration after another to back Israel, no matter what it does, have in fact done enormous damage to the country that they were trying to help.

Mar 14, 2024

David Kearn argues that the idea that the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945 would be by the United States in the defense of Taiwan against a conventional Chinese invasion would have significant, negative, and long-lasting, diplomatic ramifications. It is difficult to fathom the myriad potential consequences, but U.S. nuclear weapon use would almost certainly shatter the non-proliferation regime as a functioning entity, incentivize states (including China) to acquire or improve their existing nuclear arsenal, and damage America's standing globally.

Jun 4, 2024

Would the world be safer if the United States pledged to never use nuclear weapons first? Supporters say a credible pledge would strengthen crisis stability, decrease hostility, and bolster nonproliferation and arms control. But reactions to no-first-use pledges by the Soviet Union, China, and India suggest that adversaries perceive pledges as credible only when the political relationship between a state and its adversary is already relatively benign, or when the state’s military has no ability to engage in nuclear first use against the adversary. 

The �Design Smart, Live Beautifully� Home Tour coincides with the launch of the 2014 model of Blu�s award-winning�Breezehouse, which is�packed with luxurious features and an even more spacious floor plan

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