Axios

Four astronauts are back on Earth after a nearly six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

Why it matters: This marks the end of SpaceX's fifth crewed mission to the ISS for NASA.

Pvt. Vasquez, the fictional Latina member of the U.S. Colonial Marine Corps in the 1986 hit sci-fi movie "Aliens," is getting a backstory in a new novel.

The big picture: The November U.S. release of "Aliens: Vasquez" by Violet Castro comes as writers and artists of color increasingly reimagine minor characters of color from popular sci-fi films.

Wildlife populations around the world have plummeted by 69% since the 1970s primarily from human-caused environmental degradation and, to a lesser extent, climate change, according to a new report published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Why it matters: The extensive report is a grim indicator of the effects of rampant agriculture, fishing, hunting, logging, invasive species and pollution on nature over roughly 50 years.

Heavy rains in southeastern Australia left thousands of homes without power and emergency services conducted multiple flood-related rescues across the region on Thursday.

Threat level: Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Jonathan How warned more heavy rainfall that could lead to "life-threatening flash-flooding" was "on the way" as evacuations orders and warnings were issued across Victoria, New South Wales and the island state of Tasmania.