Beshara: A victory 'for all humanity'

I’ve spent the best part of two decades in newsrooms and I can tell you there are very few breaking news stories that elicit a round of applause. Ours resounded with claps and cheers the moment India’s Vikram lander softly touched down on the Moon’s surface.

I am biased, of course, but bar the control room itself, there is no better place to watch history being made than with a room full of journalists. That palpable tension, eyes transfixed on screens and fingers ready to fire off one of two pre-prepared headlines. A Schrödinger state of anticipation – loss and win aligned side by side.

They did it: India becomes first country to land on Moon's south pole.

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, it was a victory that “belongs to all of humanity”. The achievement is a giant leap – to choose an apt phrase – for space exploration and could open up countless possibilities and knowledge as Sarwat Nasir explains – and you can follow her here.

Over the border in Pakistan, the nation came together in awe of a heroic feat of a different kind.

Volunteers and rescue workers risked life and limb in a treacherous mountain valley to save all eight people, most of them children, from a cable car dangling hundreds of metres above ground. The utter relief and shock on these faces says it all.

So with this week’s Beshara, I’m reminded of Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran’s On Joy and Sorrow:

– Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

May your scales – now or soon – be tipping with joy.

Nicola Leech

Do you have beshara to share? Email me: NicolaLeech@TheNationalNews.com

An example to Earth

As UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi’s six months on the ISS draw to a close, among his final tasks in space this week have been harvesting plants from his nursery, demonstrating how honey forms in space (strangely mesmerising) and answering questions from top broadcaster Steve Harvey, UAE ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba and a group of US students.

His stand-out response: “I can't think of a better place where people can live in peace and harmony than here in the International Space Station. If this is applicable in space, I think it is definitely applicable on Earth.”

And there are lessons in leadership – and certainly patience – to be learnt from his ISS crewmate Frank Rubio, who has been praised for "setting an example" following his unplanned extended stay on the space station alongside two Russian cosmonauts.

QUOTED

“We dreamt of getting to this level and I’m just happy we were able to get here all together. It’s been a childhood dream for all of us and we’re just super excited to get started”

– Lebanon basketball player Wael ‘Al Raheeb’ Arakji ('The Fearsome') on his team’s hopes of making their country proud at this week's global finals

Learning to fight all odds

Once a national boxing champion, Omidulla Alizadah now faces the daily battle of surviving life in one of the world’s largest refugee camps, Kakuma in Kenya.

After winning several titles in his native Afghanistan, he said he faced persecution for belonging to the marginalised Hazara community.

Now, he uses his fighting spirit training boys in the camp in north-west Kenya.

“Boxing gives them hope. They are learning to fight all odds to learn a new skill,” he said. Read his story here.

SNAPSHOT

See more of this week's best pictures

IMPACT ON INSTAGRAM

HIGHLIGHTS