NASA is serious about making its next moonshot a joint public-private project. The space agency is granting a total of $45.5 million to 11 U.S. companies, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to help them develop spacecraft that can get astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA aims to achieve this goal by 2024, as part of its ambitious Artemis program. The money will be awarded via NASA's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program. Each company must contribute at least 20% of its total project costs, agency officials said.

American band Pink Martini, known for its multilingual lyrics and cross-genre forays, will tour six Turkish cities this month. Singing favorites, from Samurai love songs to 1930s Cuban music, French chansons to Brazilian Street songs; the band will perform for fans in the northwestern province of Bursa on May 14, Istanbul on May 16, İzmir on May 17, the southern province of Adana on May 18, Ankara on May 20 and the central province of Konya on May 21. In a delightful surprise for Turkish fans, the band recorded the famous Turkish song, “Aşkım Bahardı,” on their 2016 album “Je Dis Qui.”

By Mihir Zaveri - New York Times - With Ramadan underway, the Diyanet Mosque of New Haven was a daily gathering place for Muslims to be among friends and family as they broke their fast. But on Sunday, worshipers received devastating news: A fire had broken out just before 4 p.m., rendering the mosque uninhabitable. And on Monday, New Haven officials delivered another blow: They announced that they believed that the fire had been set intentionally “We’re just kind of shocked,” said Haydar Elevli, the president of the Connecticut branch of the Turkish-American Religious Foundation, which owns the mosque. “Everybody’s sad right now.”

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has elected Emre Arolat, founder of Emre Arolat Architecture (EAA) as a 2019 Honorary Fellow. Honouring internaitonal architects for their "exceptional work and significant contributions" to the built environment and its impact on society, the programme has also recognised Sandra Barclay, Alberto Campo Baeza, Hane Duncan and Esa Mohamed, among others.