UNITED STATES
‘Hard landing’ kills marine
One marine was killed and 21 required hospital treatment after their MV-22 Osprey aircraft made a “hard landing” during training in Hawaii on Sunday, the military said. The incident is under investigation, a Marine Corps statement said. Residents told local media outlets that they saw thick, black smoke rising from the area around Bellows Air Force Station. “Twenty-two marines were aboard at the time and all other 21 have been transported to local hospitals for assessment and treatment,” the statement said. The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit departed San Diego on May 10 on a seven-month deployment.
RUSSIA
Space station orbit adjustedv
The national space agency yesterday said that it had managed to restart the engines of its Progress spacecraft and correct the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) after a failed first attempt. “On Sunday night, the orbit of the ISS was successfully corrected,” Roscosmos told news agencies after an initial attempt to switch on the spacecraft’s engines was unsuccessful. The operation by the Progress M-26M cargo vehicle, which is moored to the Russian module Zvezda, began just after 3:30am and took about half an hour. The space station is now at the right altitude for its three crew members to return to Earth early next month. The maneuver was first attempted on Friday, but the Russian team was unable to start the engines.
UNITED STATES
Officer cleared in proposal
A Guns N’ Roses guitarist said that a former Las Vegas, Nevada, police captain who helped him use the department’s helicopter for an elaborate wedding proposal did nothing wrong, adding that he is glad the officer was reinstated. Daren Jay “DJ” Ashba hailed a decision on Friday by a Nevada state board ordering the Las Vegas Police Department to reinstate David O’Leary to his job. O’Leary had been criticized for helping arrange a police helicopter ride for his friend so the rocker could propose to then-girlfriend Nathalia Henao in 2013. Ashba told KLAS-TV of Las Vegas that he felt “horrible” after O’Leary lost his job and the board’s decision confirms that he and O’Leary did nothing wrong. The local government employee-management relations board ruled that the participants signed the department’s necessary paperwork to allow civilians to ride along on the helicopter.
UNITED STATES
2 million hens to be culled
One of the largest US egg producers said that it would destroy 2 million egg-laying hens in the central state of Minnesota due to a deadly avian influenza virus. The development at the Minnesota chicken farm brings the total of affected birds to 35 million in 15 states, with Minnesota and Iowa poultry flocks hit the hardest. The chickens are to be destroyed within the next four weeks at Rembrandt Enterprises farm in Renville, the Star Tribune reported on Saturday. Rembrandt vice president of marketing Jonathan Spurway said one barn holding about 200,000 birds was infected, but the entire flock would be killed as a precaution. Before Saturday’s announcement, 88 Minnesota turkey and chicken farms had been affected by confirmed or presumed outbreaks of the H5N2 avian influenza virus, which had cost the state’s producers about 5.8 million birds. The Minnesota Board of Animal Health on Friday announced the cancelation of all exhibits featuring birds at the Minnesota State Fair this year to stem the spread of the virus.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion