AUSTRALIA
Pilots making errors: memo
Some Qantas pilots are making mistakes as they return from long breaks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an internal memo reported yesterday by Australian media said. Among the errors listed in Qantas pilot reports were starting takeoff with the parking brake on and misreading the altitude as airspeed, a report by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age said. It also cited switches in cockpit panels being in the wrong position, and crew looking back at an event and “not realizing that they were overloaded or had lost situational awareness.” The memo by Qantas’ fleet operations chiefs reportedly said that the COVID-19 related disruption to flights meant pilots had less recent flight experience, a requirement known as “recency.” As a result, the memo is quoted as saying, expert pilots “experienced a subsequent reduction in cognitive capacity.”
PERU
President faces prosecution
Prosecutors on Tuesday said that they would investigate President Pedro Castillo when his term ends for the alleged crimes of influence peddling, collusion and illegal sponsorship. Attorney general Zoraida Avalos Rivera “opened a preliminary investigation” into the president “for allegedly committing the crimes” of aggravated influence peddling, as perpetrator, and collusion, as participant, the agency said in a statement. The proceedings will be suspended until Castillo’s five-year term ends in 2026, as the president has “absolute immunity that transcends the scope of criminal proceedings.”
UNITED STATES
Twins split by new year
In years to come, Aylin and Alfredo Trujillo, who were born over New Year’s, might feel that they stand out in a crowd because they are twins. They will certainly have a tale to tell about their birthdays, which fall on different days, months and years. “It was a surprise,” their mother, Fatima Madrigal, 28, told reporters on Tuesday in an interview from Greenfield, California. At 11.45pm on New Year’s Eve on Friday, Fatima Madrigal gave birth to a son Alfredo Antonio Trujillo in Salinas, California. Fifteen minutes later, as the clock struck midnight and hospital staff rang in the new year, his sister Aylin arrived. The twins were more than two weeks early, as Madrigal’s due date was Jan. 16. Madrigal said her partner, Robert Trujillo, and their other three children, aged 11, three and one, were over the moon with the new arrivals. “I was kind of shocked because twins don’t run in my family, nor in my partner’s family,” she said. “So we were really surprised that we got blessed with two babies, and it’s a boy and a girl, so we’re complete.” For now, the twins will celebrate their birthdays on the same day, Madrigal said.
UNITED STATES
Dog leads police to crash
First thought to be a lost dog, a German shepherd named Tinsley successfully led New Hampshire law enforcement to the site of its owner’s late-night rollover crash. Both of the truck’s occupants were seriously hurt, but thanks to Tinsley’s efforts, they quickly received medical assistance once police found the vehicle, WMUR-TV reported on Tuesday. “They could tell the dog was trying to show them something,” Lieutenant Daniel Baldassarre of the New Hampshire State Police said. “He kept trying to get away from them, but didn’t run away totally. It was kind of: ‘Follow me. Follow me.’ And they did that and you know, to their surprise to see the guardrail damaged and to look down to where the dog is looking at, it’s just, they were almost in disbelief.”
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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