Rock

• Several stocks, including Shiprocket, ONGC, Aster DM, RailTel Corp, and Hindustan Zinc, are expected to be in focus on Wednesday, August 19. • Xtranet Technologies, Lohia Corp, Spice Islands Industries, and Umiya Tubes are scheduled to release their earnings reports for the June 2026 quarter today. • This activity follows a Tuesday session where Indian equity benchmark indices settled lower due to rising bond yields and elevated crude oil prices.

• SpaceX set a new spaceflight record on Saturday, August 15, by launching two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart. • The missions were executed simultaneously from opposite coasts of the United States to achieve the rapid turnaround. • This milestone demonstrates SpaceX's increasing capability to manage high-frequency launch schedules and operational efficiency.

The Guardian travelled 100 miles along the EU’s longest river, where some residents are struggling to secure drinking waterFor centuries, the rock was seen as a warning. When it began to emerge from the Danube, beneath Gellért Hill in Budapest, it meant the river had fallen so low that floating mills could no longer operate, crops were probably failing, and hunger would almost certainly follow. That is why, in the Hungarian capital, where over time the boulder became little more than a legend, it was named Ínség-szikla – the Rock of Starvation.Today, amid record-low water levels on the Danube, the rock has not only emerged from the water, but surfaced almost in its entirety, along with the sandy riverbed on which it rests, astonishing geologists and government scientists sent to examine it. And, much as the rock was said to warn, Hungary is now facing an unprecedented energy crisis that has forced the country to shut down all but one of its Danube-cooled nuclear reactors for the first time in 44 years. Continue reading...

Opponents fear Elon Musk firm’s plan to develop 18-mile strip of Pecan Island will badly damage fragile ecosystemPlans by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build a vast rocket launch site on a stretch of Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline have stirred a backlash among some local opponents who fear it will badly damage the area’s fragile ecosystem.A deal for SpaceX to take control of 130,000 acres of coastal Vermilion parish is reported to be close to being finalized, allowing the company to escalate its number of launches, including of its new Starship mega rocket. SpaceX also has ambitions to deploy artificial intelligence datacenters in space, and while some experts have doubts about this, it has submitted regulatory filings to build a constellation of up to a million of them. Continue reading...

Drought and record heat have forced the Norfolk and Suffolk league to move kick-off to the end of August as the ground is deemed too dangerous to play onThis summer’s record drought has forced a football league to delay the start of its season because “rock hard” pitches are a danger to its players.The 2026/27 season in the Anglian Combination League of 85 amateur teams in Norfolk and Suffolk was due to start next weekend. Continue reading...

Ten months into her tenure as editor in chief, Weiss’ biggest – and riskiest – bet is getting closer to taking flightBari Weiss is 10 months into her tenure as editor-in-chief of CBS News, but her biggest test is right around the corner.The newest season of 60 Minutes is set to premiere next month after Weiss overhauled the show’s correspondent corps and production staff in the spring. Long considered the gold standard in television news, the show still generates a staggering nine million average viewers per night at a time when linear television’s core audience is either aging out or turning to digital alternatives. Continue reading...

• On August 6, 2012, NASA successfully landed the Curiosity rover on Mars using an innovative, rocket-powered "sky crane" maneuver. • The landing followed a high-stakes descent sequence known as the "7 minutes of terror," marking the first time this complex delivery method was attempted. • This mission was critical as it deployed a much larger, more sophisticated rover than previous missions to investigate Martian geology and climate.