RUSSIA
Blogger jailed for photo
A blogger who criticized highway patrol officers was on Friday jailed for eight-and-a-half years in a “general regime colony,” after a court ruled he posted “fake news” about Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. Alexander Nozdrinov, 38, ran a small YouTube channel where he posted videos of highway patrol officers from his home region of Krasnodar allegedly breaking the law. He was detained in March last year after investigators accused him of posting a photograph of destroyed buildings on social media with the caption: “Ukrainian cities after the arrival of liberators.” His wife, Ekaterina, denied he had posted the image, in an interview with the SOTA media outlet, which said his arrest was orchestrated by local police as revenge for his videos.
ZIMBABWE
Six dead, 15 stuck in mine
Six miners died after a ground collapse at the Bay Horse mine in Chegutu, 100km west of the capital, Harare, state television reported on Friday. Six bodies had been retrieved from the mine by Friday night, while another 15 miners were still trapped underground and rescue efforts were under way, ZBC TV said. The mine collapsed at about 10am on Friday, trapping 34 miners underground. Although 13 managed to escape, 21 had remained trapped underground, ZBC reported.
UNITED STATES
Heavy rain swamps NY
One of New York’s wettest days in decades left the metropolitan area stunned and swamped on Friday after heavy rainfall knocked out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranded drivers on highways, flooded basements and shuttered a terminal at LaGuardia Airport for hours. About 21.97cm of rain had fallen at John F. Kennedy International Airport by nightfall on Friday, surpassing the record for any September day set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said. Parts of Brooklyn saw more than 18.41cm, with at least one spot recording 6cm in a single hour, weather and city officials said. More downpours were expected yesterday. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams declared states of emergency and urged people to stay put if possible, but schools were open.
UNITED STATES
Trump codefendant pleads
A codefendant of former president Donald Trump on Friday pleaded guilty in a case alleging a criminal conspiracy to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state of Georgia. Scott Hall, 59, was indicted in August along with Trump and 17 others by a Fulton County grand jury. Hall, a bail bondsman, is the first defendant charged in the sprawling racketeering case to plead guilty. He originally faced seven felony charges including racketeering, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to defraud the state. He pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties at a live-streamed hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. Hall was sentenced to five years of probation, a US$5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service. He also agreed to write a letter of apology to the citizens of Georgia and to testify at the upcoming trials of other codefendants in the case. Hall and several other codefendants were charged with tampering with voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, following the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home