India’s First Astronaut in 41 Years, NATO is Increasing Defense Budgets, and More F*ckin’ News

June 25, 2025

🇮🇳 India Sends Its First Astronaut to Space in 41 Years

• Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force launched on a joint mission to the International Space Station earlier today in a SpaceX Dragon, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

• The crew consists of four astronauts: Peggy Whitson (USA, mission commander), Slawosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski (Poland, mission specialist), Tibor Kapu (Hungary, mission specialist), and Shubhanshu Shukla (pilot for India).

• You can watch them take off here:

• This mission marks the first time that India has sent an astronaut into space since Rakesh Sharma’s mission in 1984.

• Group Captain Shukla will spend approximately 14 days aboard the International Space Station, conducting scientific experiments.

• The mission is a collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organisation and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency.

---

🇨🇴 Colombia Frees 57 Soldiers in Brief Hostage Crisis

• Fifty-seven Colombian soldiers were taken captive during a security operation in the Cauca region, an area known for the presence of armed groups and drug production.

• The first group of approximately thirty-one soldiers was seized on Saturday, and a second group of around twenty-six soldiers was surrounded and detained on Sunday by civilians under pressure from dissidents of the FARC faction led by Carlos Patiño, also known as “Mordisco”.

• The Colombian Army and National Police carried out a joint operation dubbed Operation Justice, successfully freeing all 57 soldiers without any reported injuries. 20 people were arrested.

• The shortest video with the most footage is here: