RUSSIA
Astronauts return to Earth
Three astronauts yesterday returned to Earth after more than six months aboard the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz capsule with NASA’s Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and German Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) landed on the snow-covered steppes in Kazakhstan, about 140km southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan. They touched down a minute ahead of schedule at 11:02am. The crew radioed that they were feeling fine. Russian rescue teams in helicopters and all-terrain vehicles rushed to the landing site to extract the astronauts from the capsule charred by a fiery ride through the atmosphere. The trio had spent 197 days in space. It was the first mission for Aunon-Chancellor and Prokopyev, while Gerst flew his second to a total of 362 days in orbit, setting the ESA’s flight duration record.
UNITED KINGDOM
Drones halt Gatwick flights
Gatwick Airport in Britain was forced to ground flights after reports of drones flying over the airfield, the airport said yesterday. Flights into the airport, which is south of London, were diverted to other cities across the country, while passengers waiting to take off faced long delays just days ahead of Christmas, the UK’s Press Association news agency reported. “Following reports of two drones flying over the Gatwick Airport airfield, we have had to suspend flights while this is investigated,” Gatwick Airport said in a statement late on Wednesday night. “We apologize to any affected passengers for this inconvenience, but the safety of our passengers is our foremost priority.” The runway has since reopened, but passengers continue to face delays while airlines “catch up on the flight schedule,” the airport said yesterday morning. Sussex Police was investigating the incident, it added. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe.
UNITED STATES
Officers die in railway pursuit
Edward Brown of Chicago, 24, was on Wednesday charged with two felony weapons contraventions in connection with the deaths of two Chicago police officers who were hit and killed by a speeding commuter train earlier this week. Officers Eduardo Marmolejo, 37, and Conrad Gary, 31, were investigating a report of gunfire near railroad tracks on the city’s Far South Side on Monday when they were hit by a southbound train going at least 96.5kph, police said. The two officers, assigned to the Chicago Police Department’s Calumet District, were on foot and on the tracks during rush-hour while pursuing a suspect along the Metra railway line when they were killed, police said.
UNITED STATES
Obama visits kids as Santa
Former US president Barack Obama on Wednesday took on a new high-profile role as Father Christmas for a surprise visit to sick children in Washington. Sporting a festive Santa hat and armed with a sack of gifts, he delighted young patients at Children’s National hospital with gifts and hugs. “I just want to say thank you to all of you guys,” Obama told staff, who greeted him with rapturous cheers, in a video he shared on his Twitter account. “We’ve had the chance to talk to some of the wonderful kids and their families,” he said. “As the dad of two girls, I can only imagine in that situation to have nurses and staff and doctors and people who are caring for them, and looking after them ... that’s the most important thing there is.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing