UNITED STATES
Plane lands on highway
The pilot of a small plane that on Wednesday made an emergency landing on a Minnesota interstate highway has been identified as an award-winning member of an aerobatics flying team. The single-engine Bellanca Viking landed and hit a vehicle, temporarily closing part of the highway in the St Paul suburb of Arden Hills, officials said. The pilot was identified as 52-year-old Craig Gifford, a Minneapolis resident and competitive aerobatic pilot, a sport that involves flying aircraft in a series of maneuvers. Experimental Aircraft Association spokesman Dick Knapinski said that Gifford represented the US in international competition on the Unlimited Aerobatic Team, which took home the bronze medal at the World Aerobatic Championships in South Africa in 2017.
UNITED STATES
James Bond handgun sold
A handgun used by the late actor Sean Connery in the first James Bond film sold for US$256,000 at an auction in Beverly Hills on Thursday, topping earlier estimates for the piece of Hollywood history, Julien’s Auctions said. The deactivated semi-automatic Walther PP pistol, which along with its smaller model, the PPK, became one of the film franchise’s best-known images, was used by Connery in the movie Dr. No in 1962. Connery, the first James Bond in the franchise, died on Oct. 31 at the age of 90. The auction house had previously estimated that the gun would fetch between U$150,000 and U$200,000.
UNITED STATES
Bill defies Trump’s plans
US lawmakers on Thursday unveiled the final version of a annual defense policy bill that defies President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw troops from Germany and keep the names of Confederate generals on military bases, setting the stage for a veto fight in the last weeks before he leaves office. The US$740 billion, 4500-page draft National Defense Authorization Act expresses support for the continued presence of US forces in Germany and limits the ability of the US Department of Defense to reduce the number of active-duty service members there below 34,500 without an assessment of its impact. This defies the department’s announcement plan to withdraw about 12,000 of the 36,000 troops from Germany, a fallout from Trump’s feud with Berlin over military spending.
BRAZIL
Pig-feeding robot sales soar
Orders for a Brazilian pig-feeding robot, which plays classical music while dispensing meals, soared this year as farmers strove to cut costs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Roboagro, the privately owned company that sells the robot, said in a statement on Thursday that orders rose by an average of 400 percent to 60 units per month. The machine uses linear feeders allowing the animals, which are divided in pens, to receive the exact amount of feed needed for each meal. As it works, it plays classical music, which the company claims mitigates animal stress.
ECUADOR
Rare turtle’s nest found
Conservationists have found a nest of endangered leatherback sea turtles, a species that can weigh up to a tonne and be 3m long. Also known as the lute turtle, it is the world’s largest species of sea turtle. The Ministry of Environment said that the nest was found in Manabi province, but did not say how many eggs were in it. The turtles should hatch in about 60 days, it said. This is the third time a nest of these creatures has since 2015 been found on the coast of Ecuador.
PHILIPPINES
Militants open fire on army
Dozens of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, militants aligned with the Islamic State group, opened fire on an army detachment and burned a police vehicle in the southern town of Datu Piang, but withdrew after troops returned fire, officials said yesterday. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but Thursday night’s brief attack sparked panic among residents and rekindled fears of a repeat of the 2017 militant siege of Marawi, which lasted for five months before being quelled by government forces. “We are on top of the situation,” regional military commander Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan Jr said in a statement. Security officials gave differing statements on the motive of the 30 to 50 gunmen. Some said that the militants targeted the police chief over a feud, but others said that the attack was a show of force. When reinforcements in armored carriers arrived and opened fire, the militants fled, military officials said.
CHINA
Moon probe returns to Earth
The Chang’e 5 space probe lifted off on Thursday from the surface of the moon to return to Earth, the National Space Administration said. The spacecraft, named after the mythical moon goddess, is a bid to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades. Beijing is looking to catch up with the US and Russia after taking decades to match its rivals’ achievements and has poured billions into its military-run space program. A module carrying lunar rocks and soil was launched into orbit by a powerful thrust engine, officials said. The module must undergo the delicate operation of linking up with the part of the spacecraft that is to bring the specimens back to Earth, Xinhua news agency reported.
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RELATIONS: Cultural spats, such as China’s claims over the origins of kimchi, have soured public opinion in South Korea against Beijing over the past few years Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday met South Korean counterpart Lee Jae-myung, after taking center stage at an Asian summit in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s departure. The talks on the sidelines of the APEC gathering came the final day of Xi’s first trip to South Korea in more than a decade, and a day after his meeting with the Canadian prime minister that was a reset of the nations’ damaged ties. Trump had flown to South Korea for the summit, but promptly jetted home on Thursday after sealing a trade war pause with Xi, with the two
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