A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has hit the ⁠Northern Molucca Sea off the coast of the city of ⁠Ternate, in Indonesia, killing at least one person and triggering a tsunami warning that was subsequently lifted.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said Thursday’s quake, which was initially recorded at a magnitude of 7.8, struck at a depth of 35km (22 miles), greater than the early figure of 10km (six miles). There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The epicentre of the ⁠earthquake was about ⁠120km (75 miles) from Ternate, in Indonesia’s North Maluku ‌province.

Local authorities in some cities, such as Ternate and Tidore, were urged to prepare citizens for evacuation, while news channel Metro TV broadcast images of damaged buildings.

One person was killed when a building collapsed in the city of Manado in North Sulawesi province, a local search and rescue official told AFP news agency.

“The quake was felt strongly and around Manado … one person died and one person had a leg injury,” George Leo Mercy Randang told AFP by telephone. The victim was “buried under the rubble” of a collapsed building, he said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) initially said hazardous tsunami waves were possible within 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) of the epicentre along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Within half an hour of the quake, waves up to 75 centimetres were recorded in North Minahasa and 20 centimetres in Bitung, both in the north of Sulawesi island, according to Indonesia’s BMKG geological agency.

Thirty-centimetre waves were also logged in North Maluku province.

The PTWC lifted its warning just over two hours after the tremor, saying the tsunami threat “has now passed”.

Indonesia straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity where tectonic plates ‌meet ‌and earthquakes are frequent.

[Aljazeera]

The Artemis II space mission has blasted off from the US state of Florida, sending four astronauts on a historic journey around the moon and marking the first time humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years.

The mission, which launched on Wednesday, is a major step in the United States space agency NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars.

The 32-storey rocket rose from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where tens of thousands gathered to witness the liftoff.

The Artemis II crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – are set for a nearly 10-day journey around the moon and back, taking them farther into space than humans have travelled in decades.

“On this historic mission, you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director. “Good luck, Godspeed Artemis II. Let’s go.”

Five minutes into the flight, Wiseman, the commander, saw the team’s target: “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it,” he said from the capsule.

Tensions were high in the hours leading up to the launch as hydrogen fuel began flowing into the rocket, a critical phase that had caused a dangerous leak during a countdown test earlier this year and forced a lengthy delay.

To NASA’s relief, no significant hydrogen leaks were detected this time. The launch team successfully loaded more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million litres) of fuel into the Space Launch System rocket on the pad, a smooth operation that set the stage for the Artemis II crew to board.

NASA also had to resolve several technical issues ahead of liftoff, but was able to clear them without delaying the launch. One issue involved commands not getting through to the rocket’s flight-termination system, which is designed to send a self-destruct signal if the rocket veers off course and threatens populated areas.

That issue was quickly resolved, according to NASA. Engineers also troubleshot a battery in the Orion capsule’s launch-abort system after its temperature readings fell outside the expected range, but the problem was fixed and did not prevent the launch from going ahead.

The astronauts will spend the first one to two days in high Earth orbit carrying out extensive systems checks, including testing Orion’s life-support, propulsion, navigation and communications systems to make sure the spacecraft is ready for deep space.

Once those checks are complete, Orion will perform a critical engine burn known as translunar injection, which will send the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and onto a trajectory towards the moon.

The journey will take several days, during which the crew will continue monitoring spacecraft systems as they travel farther from Earth.

Orion will then fly behind the moon on a free-return trajectory, a path that naturally swings the spacecraft back towards Earth using the gravity of both the moon and Earth, with minimal fuel required. During this phase, the spacecraft will reach its greatest distance from Earth.

After the lunar flyby, the crew will spend several days travelling back to Earth while carrying out additional deep-space tests on power systems, thermal controls and crew operations.

As Orion approaches Earth, the capsule will re-enter the atmosphere at speeds of about 40,233km per hour (25,000 miles per hour), before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew.

With half the world’s population not yet born when NASA’s Apollo astronauts last walked on the moon, Artemis is being presented as a new generation’s moon mission.

“There are a lot of people who don’t remember Apollo. There are generations who weren’t alive when Apollo launched. This is their Apollo,” NASA science mission chief Nicky Fox said earlier this week.

[Aljazeera]

An unbeaten 70 from Sameer Rizvi proved decisive in a low-scoring contest in Lucknow, where Delhi Capitals (DC) became the first away team to win a match in IPL 2026.  Coming in as Impact Player, Rizvi joined forces with Tristan Stubbs to haul DC out of trouble, after Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) had reduced them to 26 for 4 in a chase of 142.

That target proved far too small in the end, but for a while, it looked imposing as LSG’s fast bowlers swung the ball for an unusually extended length of time for a T20 contest. A red-soil surface, which seemed to quicken up in the second innings, offered seam movement too. Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav and Mohsin Khan kept tying DC’s batters in knots.

But the seamers couldn’t keep bowling forever, and the introduction of spin turned the match decisively. LSG bowled only 2.1 overs of spin, but they went for 35 runs, with Rizvi hitting four fours and two sixes in them. That included the winning hit off the first ball of the 18th over.

DC’s other heroes on the night were their bowlers, who kept LSG to a sub-par total on a surface that played differently in the two halves of the match. If it was quick and skiddy during the second innings, it was two-paced and grippy in the first. DC’s bowlers made excellent, collective use of it. The highlight of their performance was a dipping slower ball from  Lungi Ngidi,, which comprehensively bowled the dangerous Nicholas Pooran: that moment alone may have been shaved 20 or 30 runs off the target DC eventually chased.