The US space agency has announced that the countdown to blast-off is underway as humans prepare to return to the Moon for the first time since 1972.
22:51, 30 March 2026 Updated 22:55, 30 March 2026
Artemis II – NASA’s mission to the Moon
NASA has announced that the countdown for the launch of the Artemis 2 Moon mission has begun.
Shortly after 10pm (GMT), Artemis 2’s launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, said, “I’m thrilled to say that our countdown clock started a little while ago and started counting down.”
The US space agency is targeting a launch window that will begin on April 1 and run through April 6. Speaking at a press conference, Ms. Blackwell-Thompson said, “Our team has worked very hard to get to this moment, and I’m very proud of the work they’ve done.”
NASA will target the April 1 date, which was announced on Monday, as the countdown to liftoff begins, with associate administrator Amit Kshatriya saying, “The team has concluded that everything is looking good, and at this point, there are no issues preventing us from proceeding.”
NASA’s Artemis 2 Moon mission is preparing to launch in two days (Image: AP)
The mission has been beset with setbacks, but it now looks like Artemis 2 is on target to launch in just two days’ time, on Wednesday, April 1.
Mr Kshatriya thanked NASA employees, saying, ‘You are all instrumental.’ The lifeblood of the agency comes from your skills, the decisions you have made, and your knowledge.
“This mission is going to take off on Wednesday because you’re here.”
This launch will be the first time since 1972 that astronauts will fly to the Moon. NASA’s Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, will soon set out on their 10-day mission to orbit the Moon for the first time in half a century.
Artemis 2 flight crew ready to make history (Image: Getty)
The mission was originally planned for February, but after problems during testing, the launch was pushed to a six-day launch window in April.
“The launch day and time should enable SLS to deliver Orion to that orbit,” NASA officials wrote in an Artemis 2 explainer last month. “Orion also needs to be in proper alignment with Earth and the Moon at the time of the trans-lunar injection burn,” he said.
The space agency said timing is critical for the mission to work properly. The trajectory on any given day must ensure that Orion is not in darkness for more than 90 minutes at a time, allowing the solar array wings to capture sunlight and convert it to electricity while maintaining an optimal temperature range. Mission planners eliminate potential launch dates that would send Orion into extended eclipses during flight.
Viable launch windows would also have to take into account Orion’s return to Earth, which would have to allow a specific entry profile.
You can watch the launch, which is currently scheduled for April 1, right here. Mirror is covering the countdown to the launch in our live blog.
It was on 29 March 2016 when then Scotland boss Gordon Strachan gave McGinn his full international debut in a 1–0 win over Denmark.
“It was a friendly match against a team that had qualified, but we had nothing to play for,” he recalls. “It may seem like a long time ago, but the growth we’ve experienced as a group of players has been significant.
McGinn states that the disparity between expectations in the past and present is significant.
“We are aware that we still have a lot to improve,” he says. “But we are a small country, fighting against bigger countries. We don’t have the same luxuries that they have. But we have grit and determination.
“Was it our best campaign? No, probably not in terms of performances. But we had one objective and that was to finish first in the group and make some history and we managed to do that.”
McGinn believes having an experienced group in the dressing room is helping both Villa and Scotland add strength in depth.
“We not only have me; we also have Robo [Andy Robertson], [Scott] McTominay, and [Ryan] Christie. We have players playing at a high level in important matches. We have had a lot of club captains and that continues.
“Still the same, Lewis Ferguson, Kenny McLean, me. Obviously Andy Robertson is the vice-captain at Liverpool; Grant Hanley [at the previous club Norwich] and Liam Cooper were the captains of Leeds.
McGinn now sees this World Cup as “a chance to turn it around” because “in the last few tournaments we haven’t done ourselves justice”.
“I never imagined I would ever play for Scotland,” he admits. “So 10 years ago, I’ll never forget reading my name on that piece of paper. The emotions, the butterflies, the nerves running through my body that day – it was mental.
“And 10 years later, preparing for the World Cup after two major tournaments, it’s surreal to even think about.”
When you buy a car on finance, you are effectively loaned money for the vehicle, which you repay in monthly instalments. These loans charge interest, which is organised by brokers (people who sell you finance plans).
These brokers earn money in the form of commission (which is a percentage of the interest payment).
Before January 2021, some car finance lenders had “discretionary commission arrangements” (DCA) with brokers.
Under these arrangements, brokers earned more commission if buyers placed a higher interest rate – this gave sellers an incentive to maximise interest rates, which meant that many were unfairly charged too much.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned the practice in 2021, but many consumers complained that they were overcharged before the ban was implemented.
next legal action And in an investigation, the watchdog said car finance companies broke either the law or its rules by not properly informing customers about commissions paid by lenders.
Who will be eligible for compensation?
Car finance agreements entered into between April 6, 2007, and November 1, 2024, where commission was payable by the lender to the broker, will be considered for compensation.
But these will be divided into two separate schemes. One will include deals from April 6, 2007, to March 31, 2014, and the other will include deals from April 1, 2014, to November 1, 2024.
The FCA said around 12.1 million car finance deals would be eligible for compensation, with the average payout being £829.
People will only be considered for compensation if they were not told the details of at least one of three car-finance arrangements between their lender and their broker.
These three arrangements are:
1. A discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) – This type of arrangement would allow the broker to adjust the interest rate paid by the client in order to receive more commission.
2. A high commission arrangement – This includes any deal where the commission was at least 39% of the total cost of credit and equal to or greater than 10% of the loan.
3. Contractual Relationship – In these arrangements a lender will be given exclusivity or a right of first refusal.
This will apply except in cases where the lender can prove that there was a direct relationship with the manufacturer and the dealer.
However, there are some exceptions.
Matters will be considered fair if:
Commissions for agreements initiated before 1 April 2014 were £120 or less and from that date onwards, they were £150 or less.
No interest was charged to the borrower.
DCA was not used to earn discretionary commission.
The lender may, in some limited circumstances, prove that disclosing one of the above arrangements was unreasonable or harmed the consumer.
How will I be compensated?
If you had a car finance agreement between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024, it is worth lodging a complaint with your lender if you haven’t already done so.
Consumer champion Martin Lewis told BBC Radio 4 that many people “won’t even know” if their car financing has been mis-sold until it happens.
The FCA advises that people lodge a complaint with their lender using a template letter on the website.
It says there is no need to use a claims management company or law firm, warning that doing so could mean you lose more than 30% of the money received.
‘Extremely disappointed’ with solicitor scheme
Those who have already complained, or those who complain by August 31, are likely to get compensation first.
Lenders will also contact eligible customers, even if they don’t file a complaint.
How long will lenders have to tell drivers how much they owe?
To give companies time to prepare, the FCA has imposed a “short implementation period”.
This means they will not have to take action before June 30 for loans taken after April 1, 2014, or before August 31 for loans taken before.
Lenders will have three months from these dates to inform drivers about their compensation eligibility and the amount.
Customers who have enquired about their car loan should be told whether they qualify and how much they can receive by the end of this year.
The companies have until the end of 2026 to contact people with car loans affected since April 1, 2014, who have not made any complaints.
For those with old loan agreements, they will have until the end of February 2027 to complete it.
Lenders will contact only people who have not complained if they are likely to owe money.
If consumers want to join the respective schemes, then they will have to respond within six months of these dates.
Anyone who has not been contacted has until August 31, 2027, to make a claim.
When will the compensation be given?
The FCA said millions of people should get compensation this year.
Lenders should aim to hand over payments by January 2027 to those who have already complained or who complain before the end of the implementation period.
This group of people will be the first to receive payments.
image: Nikhil Rathi. File photo: Reuters
FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi said that lenders can start making payments tomorrow if they want because the rules of the resolution scheme have now come out.
But he warned that such an outcome was very unlikely.
“We would be glad if lenders could start moving rapidly, because consumers have been waiting a long time,” he said.
The FCA anticipates that most claims will reach a resolution by January 2028.
But consumers concerned that their lender is not following the scheme’s rules can file a complaint with their lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Tatum tells his disturbing story in a new podcast [stock image] (Image: Getty Images)
A woman trapped in a relationship with a self-proclaimed cannibal has told how she watched him try to eat pieces of her skin.
The woman, who identified herself as Tatum, claims that the man drugged her and chewed on a piece of flesh from her leg.
Tatum reveals that she first met her cannibalistic boyfriend in 2017 when she was 18 years old. He was 22 at the time and a friend of a friend: “I didn’t really know him personally, but I knew his face… Then one night I was walking around the city where I live, high as a kite, and I saw him sitting in his car.
“I just wobbled into his car and sat down and started talking and it just grew from there.”
She says he was not initially sexually adventurous: ‘I was the one who wanted to try new kinks, or try new things… but he was very neutral.’ He didn’t really want to spice things up.
Tatum’s boyfriend took a bite out of her thigh [stock image] (Image: Getty Images)
Read more: Sick cannibalistic killer murders and eats children – and their mother lures them away
Read more: Cannibalistic killer eats little girls’ hands before sending sick souvenir
For a long time, the relationship was fairly normal. Tatum said, “Everything about our relationship was normal,” she recalled. “We lived together, you know; we spent every day together. He went to work, I did other things, you know; we watched TV at night and went on dates.”
But Tatum says everything changed on June 8, 2022. The night started like any other: “We were sitting on the bed watching a TV show and I was drinking a Pepsi… I think she laced it with drugs so she freaked me out. After about half an hour I started feeling really dizzy and exhausted.”
She says, ‘At that time, she did not realise anything was wrong and just started sleeping.’ But in the middle of the night, her boyfriend did something, which was really disturbing.
“When I passed out, he put a black garbage bag under my leg and then put a towel over it,” she said. Tatum describes how her boyfriend took a razor blade and cut a clean section of skin from her thigh, approximately 6 inches by 3 inches.
Tatum says she lives in fear that her boyfriend will one day return (Image: Getty Images)
Tatum was unconscious from the sedative he gave her, but she can still remember the experience of removing a section of skin from her leg: “It was mainly just the top layer of skin… But while he was doing that, he had a number of paper towels and he was taking his time with each little cut. Each section he removed and peeled back, he kept patting the area so it wouldn’t bleed too much.
“I don’t know if he thought I would wake up and be okay… but he made sure there wasn’t too much bleeding.”
Tatum gradually regained consciousness as her boyfriend was sitting next to her on the bed while he was “trying to chew” on a piece of her flesh. “He was just sitting there with a piece of my skin in his hand and was just chewing on it, and watching me sleep.
“He was able to chew and swallow a few bites, but when I came to him, he still had some left. I don’t remember exactly at what time [it was], but I remember that as I was regaining consciousness, I was still really dizzy, I felt sick, and then I felt pain, and it was going back and forth between a dull ache and a really sharp stabbing pain.
When the cannibal was arrested he still had a piece of Tatum’s flesh [stock image] (Image: Getty Images)
For a while, Tatum thought she might be experiencing a particularly terrible nightmare, but as soon as she arrived, her boyfriend simply stood up and, without saying anything, left the apartment.
Realising she was badly injured, Tatum took herself to the hospital, where shocked doctors called the police: “The police found her walking down a street in the area and they picked her up. She didn’t quite get the piece off my leg, so she put the rest of it in her pocket.”
The reason for the incident has not been completely clear. In court, the defence team argued that the large scar on Tatum’s thigh was the result of self-harm, but they failed to convince the jury, and her cannibalistic ex was jailed. However, she says she now lives with the fear that one day he will be released and “potentially do it again.”
Manchester City have rebuilt their squad over the past 18 months and the decisions now rest on four senior players
Rodri, Pep Guardiola, and Phil Foden’s long-term futures at Manchester City remain uncertain and potentially interconnected.
The evolution of Manchester City’s squad accelerated last weekend as the Blues won their first trophy since the 2024 Premier League title when they beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final.
While the absence of silverware was less than two years old, the Wembley win confirmed the path this squad is on after a trophyless 2024-25 campaign.
The city has a core of experience alongside an abundance of emerging talent and while questions remain over Pep Guardiola’s future after the summer, the playing squad is in good shape.
This summer will likely see the departure of two long-serving City players in John Stones and Bernardo Silva when their contracts expire. Captain Bernardo said at the start of the campaign that he already knew what the future held and there was little suggestion he would pen new terms at the Etihad, although Guardiola would happily hand a new contract to a player he highly values.
For Stones, it’s the injuries that look set to end City’s new deal. The defender has struggled with fitness problems this term and was ruled out of the England squad this week with a groin problem. Guardiola has spoken about how a decision on Stones will need to take into account what he has shown over the past two years, and, sadly for the centerback, injury has prevented him from showing much.
The departures of Stones and Silva will bring a lot of experience out of the building, but City is in a position to cope with both exits. A summer transfer move for a new midfielder, with Elliott Anderson’s interest in Nottingham Forest, will certainly help cover Silva’s departure, while Abdukodeir Khasanov, Josko Guardiola, and Ruben Dias will ease the loss for Stones.
It is what could happen to two more City Stuarts that will raise plenty of intrigue in the coming months and potentially affect the Blues’ summer transfer plans.
Rodri and Phil Foden both see their contracts expire in 2027 and it is difficult to predict with confidence whether either will make it past that date.
Rodri expressed his admiration for La Liga and Real Madrid this week, and after advising people to listen to the full interview before making any conclusions, the possibility of Real signing the midfielder is difficult to overlook.
The 29-year-old is getting back to his best after suffering a serious knee injury and some setbacks. Guardiola believes that his star player won’t be fully recovered until the World Cup this summer, but both City and Rodri must decide whether to offer a new deal sooner rather than later.
The city will not stand in the way of either player if they want to leave and will likely receive a fee for Rodry this summer on a free transfer in 18 months rather than risk losing him.
The same will be true of Foden, although his future is more likely to be at City. The 25-year-old has struggled for form in recent months but is a player capable of being among the best in the country and the Etihad hopes he can return to the peak of his powers.
The potential World Cup and uncertainty surrounding Guardiola’s future will influence any contract talks over the next few months, but the club and player are keen to come to an agreement to extend their union contract with the Blues.
The Baltic Sea looks weak, and experts fear it may still be unable to find its way back to the Atlantic.
There have been many attempts to save it this week.
A restricted zone of 500 meters (yards) was imposed around the whale to allow it to get some rest and hopefully free itself from where the giant cetacean was stuck, officials said at a news conference in the eastern German coastal city of Wismar on Sunday.
“If he regains his strength, he will be able to do so, and that’s why we have decided to leave him alone so he can actually move on and then successfully leave the area,” said Till Backhaus, environment minister for the state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania, where Wismar is located.
Backhaus said, “But we also have to recognise that he has become weak. And he is also sick.” He said humpback whales can suffer injuries due to contact with fishing nets.
Previous attempts to rescue 12–15 m (39–49 ft) whales from the sandbanks at Timmendorfer Strand beach and Wismar Bay enlisted the help of an excavator and boats, creating larger waves to help it swim freely. Earlier this week, Germans were captivated as the media sent news alerts about the updates and streamed live video from the scene.
The whale became a popular topic of conversation across the country, with people exchanging text messages about the rescue efforts.
But so far, hopes are fading that the whale is still strong enough to swim free and make its way back to the Atlantic via German and Danish waters.
“It is very noticeable that the animal is showing significantly less activity,” said Stefanie Groh of the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the Veterinary University of Hanover. “His respiratory rate has reduced significantly. The animal is not moving. He did not react even when we went closer to him.”
It’s not clear why the whale swam into the waters of the Baltic Sea. Some experts say the animal may have lost its way while swimming after a pile of herring or during migration, as it is likely a male.
marine mammals cannot survive. The Baltic Sea has been like this for a long time because the amount of salt in the water is not sufficient. He is already suffering from skin disease. Another issue is that it does not get the right kind of nutrition, although whales can go without food for several weeks.
If it is to survive, it must return to the Atlantic Ocean via the North Sea.
“When you consider how narrow the straits are and there are still about 500 kilometres (310 miles) to go, you realise that the journey is a real obstacle that you have to overcome, and naturally, the chances of success are relatively low,” said Burkard Baesch, director of the German Maritime Museum in Stralsund.
As the United States-Israel war over Iran enters its fourth week this weekend, oil and gas markets are under increasing pressure due to severe disruptions to shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as attacks on and around major energy facilities in the Gulf.
In peacetime, 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas is shipped from Gulf producers through the Strait of Hormuz – the only route to the open ocean – including 20 million barrels of oil per day.
To make up for the shortfall caused by its closure, countries in the Middle East are looking for alternative routes to export energy.
In this explainer, we look at three key pipelines in the Middle East that producers may be pinning their hopes on, and whether they can fill the gap.
What has happened in the Strait of Hormuz?
On March 2 – two days after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran – Ibrahim Jabari, a senior advisor to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced that the strait was “closed”. If any ships tried to pass through, the IRGC and the navy would “set fire to those ships”, he said. Since then, traffic through the strait has declined by more than 95 percent.
Iranian officials have recently said the strait is not completely closed – except to ships belonging to the US, Israel and those who cooperate with them – but they have also instituted new ground rules. Any ship must obtain Tehran’s approval to transit through the narrow waterway.
As a result, for the past fortnight, countries have been struggling to strike deals with Iran to ensure safe passage and some, mostly Indian, Pakistani and Chinese flagged tankers have been allowed to pass.
On Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim thanked Tehran for granting “prompt clearance” to Malaysian ships through the strait.
Meanwhile, about 2,000 ships flying flags of other countries are stranded on both sides of the strait.
(al Jazeera)
Which oil pipelines can serve as alternative routes?
The only option for shipping oil is to transport it by pipe across land or under the sea. Three oil pipelines may operate around the Strait of Hormuz, including:
Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline
The East-West Pipeline is also known as Petroline and is operated by Saudi oil giant Aramco. Aramco is one of the world’s largest companies, with a market capitalization of more than $1.7 trillion and annual revenues of $480bn. The oil giant controls 12 percent of global oil production with a capacity of more than 12 million bpd.
It is a 1,200 km (745 mi) long pipeline that runs from the Abqaiq oil processing center near the Gulf in Saudi Arabia to the Yanbu port on the Red Sea on the other side of the country.
However, the pipeline does not have the capacity to fully compensate for the Hormuz closure.
According to UN data, in 2024, about 20 million barrels per day (bpd) will pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil and condensate accounted for 14 million bpd, while petroleum accounted for the remaining 6 million bpd.
Since the US-Israeli war over Iran began in late February, Saudi Arabia has increased its oil flows through this pipeline. Flows through the pipeline averaged 770,000 bpd in January and February, according to data from data and analytics company Kpler. This rose to an average of 2.9 million bpd as of Tuesday this week.
However, there are still risks in using the Saudi pipeline.
The Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni armed group whose attacks on ships in the Red Sea caused global shipping chaos during Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza from 2023 to 2025, may target the Bab al-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean beyond.
An unidentified Houthi leader told Reuters news agency that the Houthis are ready to launch another attack in the Red Sea in solidarity with Tehran, the agency reported on Thursday.
The Houthi leader said, “We are fully prepared militarily with all options. As far as other details related to setting the zero hour are concerned, they have been left to the leadership and we are monitoring the developments and ascertaining when is the appropriate time to proceed.”
The Bab el-Mandeb is the southern outlet of the Red Sea, located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.
It is one of the world’s most important routes for global maritime commodity shipments, particularly for crude oil and fuel coming from the Gulf to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal or the SUMED pipeline on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, as well as commodities bound for Asia, including Russian oil.
The Bab el-Mandeb is 29 km (18 mi) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for incoming and outgoing shipments.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim said on Wednesday, citing an unnamed Iranian military source, that Iran could open a new front in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait if Iranian territory or its islands are attacked.
(al Jazeera)
Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline of the United Arab Emirates
The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline is also called ADCOP or Habshan-Fujairah Pipeline.
The 380 km pipeline runs from Habshan, an oil and gas field in the southwestern region of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.
The pipeline, which became operational in 2012, has a capacity of approximately 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd). It is unclear how much is now being transported through the pipeline.
However, oil exports from Fujairah rose last month despite the closure of the strait, averaging 1.62 million bpd in March compared with 1.17 million bpd in February, according to Kpler analyst Johannes Rauball who spoke to Reuters.
Iraq-Türkiye crude oil pipeline
The Iraq–Türkiye crude oil pipeline, also known as the Kirkuk–Ceyhan Pipeline, connects Iraq with Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
The pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.6 million bpd, is currently at about 200,000 bpd.
Iraq is one of the top five global producers of oil and the second largest within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with more than 4 million bpd.
Could these pipelines replace the Strait of Hormuz?
No. While these pipelines may take some capacity to the Strait of Hormuz, their combined capacity is only 9 million bpd, compared to about 20 million bpd for the Strait.
Additionally, these pipelines are land-based and within range of Iranian missiles and drones, making them as vulnerable to attacks and damage in the ongoing conflict as ships traveling through the strait. Throughout the war, energy infrastructure throughout the Gulf suffered strikes.
Are there other options?
Theoretically, oil could be transported on trucks, but this is expensive, slow and inefficient.
A standard truck can carry anywhere between 100 to 700 barrels per day depending on the number of trips. To meet the needs, hundreds of thousands of barrels would be required, thousands of trucks would be required, which could also be targeted in attacks.
