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Over a million evacuated as Cyclone Fani makes landfall in eastern India
Cyclone Fani has made landfall in the Indian state of Orissa, where over a million people have been evacuated from their homes (BBC News). Disaster response teams are at the ready to tackle anticipated flooding and destruction in the low-lying coastal region. It's reported to be only the fourth of storm of this magnitude to hit India's cyclone-prone east coast in the past three decades.
SpaceX Crew Dragon was destroyed just before SuperDraco thruster activation
SpaceX has revealed that its Crew Dragon spacecraft was destroyed in a test pad anomaly approximately half a second before the firing of its SuperDraco thrusters (WIRED). Vice president of mission assurance Hans Koenigsmann says the company does believe the problem lies with the thrusters themselves, but a joint Nasa and SpaceX investigation is ongoing and the failure is set to delay the first crewed Dragon mission to the ISS.
Julian Assange will fight extradition to the US
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, currently in prison for breaching his bail conditions, will not accept extradition to the US (The Register). He will be charged with the illegal publication of classified US military documents leaked to him by Chelsea Manning, who has herself been imprisoned in the US since March, when she refused to testify before a secretive Grand Jury.
The next hearing in relation to Assange's extradition is scheduled for May 30. A Swedish rape case against him was closed in 2017 as it was not possible to extradite him from the Ecuadorian embassy.
Big tech is trying to fight climate change
Last year, Amazon and Google both claimed to have switched entirely to renewable energy sources for their global operations including data centres (WIRED). But exactly what they mean by renewable energy is complicated. The energy comes from two sources: directly purchased and from the grid, and renewable energy credits are a convoluted business.
Sonic the Hedgehog director promises character design changes
Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler has promised to redesign his film's frankly inexplicable take on the iconic video game character before the movie comes to cinemas in November (Ars Technica). His statement follows widespread public criticism of the character's design, but exactly what's going to be changed isn't clear and the timeframe is likely to put intense pressure on the film's 3D animation and post-production teams.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
