UNITED STATES
‘Starliner’ launch date set
Boeing’s Starliner capsule finally has a launch date for its first test flight to the International Space Station. After an intensive review on Thursday, NASA and Boeing managers agreed to a liftoff on Friday next week. “Hopefully, we should all be getting an early Christmas present this year,” NASA commercial spaceflight development director Phil McAlister said. Just a few technical issues remain to be completed, he added. No one is to be aboard, just a mannequin named Rosie. Three astronauts are to be onboard for the second test flight of a Starliner some time next year. SpaceX also plans to launch astronauts for NASA next year. The company conducted a test flight without a crew in March. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket is to provide the Starliner’s lift from Cape Canaveral, a little before sunrise. The capsule is due to parachute back to New Mexico on Dec. 28.
CHILE
Human remains recovered
Searchers combing Antarctic seas have recovered parts of a military transport plane and human remains belonging to some of the 38 people aboard, officials said on Thursday. Air Force General Arturo Merino said at a news conference that based on the condition of the remains, he believed it would be “practically impossible” that any survivors would be pulled from the water alive. An international team of searchers continued the hunt, while officials on shore said that they would use DNA analysis to identify the crash victims. Among the recovered items, searchers have found a landing wheel, sponge-like material from the fuel tanks and part of the plane’s inside wall. Personal items include a backpack and a shoe, officials said. “Remains of human beings that are most likely the passengers have been found among several pieces of the plane,” Merino said. “I feel immense pain for this loss of lives.”
BRAZIL
Test impostor arrested
On her fourth attempt at the driving test, Maria Schiave — an elderly woman in the small town of Novo Mutum Parana in the Brazilian Amazon — arrived two hours late. The other candidates had already completed their attempts at parallel parking and examiners were about to take them out on the road when Maria finally appeared, but something was wrong. “I sensed a certain nervousness from the school’s owner,” driving test examiner Aline Mendonca said. “He said: ‘We have a problem.’” Test examiner Mendonca could not believe what she saw. “It was a guy with a long outfit, heavily made-up. It did not look like a woman,” she said. The man was carrying a handbag and wore a long skirt, a floral top, earrings and a stuffed bra. He had even painted his nails. “I couldn’t believe it,” Mendonca said. “It was surreal.” Mendonca, a driving test examiner for 12 years, kept her cool. She told a colleague to tell the police, asked “Maria” for her ID and let the impostor start the parking test. When the police arrived, “Maria” got out of the vehicle and walked away, but police soon caught up. Under the makeup was Maria Schiave’s son, Heitor Marcio Schiave, 43, a mechanic. He was arrested for fraudulent misrepresentation, the officer who arrested him said. “He said he was doing the driving test for his mother — and his mother did not know,” the officer said. “We got a lot of criticism: ‘Oh, the son did it for the love of the mother,’ but what if there was an accident or someone died?” Mendonca said. “You have to earn your pass — the driving test is serious.”
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump