UNITED KINGDOM
Luton suspends flights
London Luton International Airport yesterday suspended all flights until the afternoon and asked passengers not to travel there after a “significant fire” caused the partial collapse of a parking structure. Flames leapt out of the third floor of a parking garage at Terminal 2 of the airport, as firefighters battled to bring the blaze under control. “Our priority remains supporting the emergency services and the safety of our passengers and staff,” the airport said in a statement, adding that it would suspend all flights until 3pm yesterday. Five people, including four firefighters and an airport employee, were admitted to hospital, the local ambulance service said.
UNITED STATES
More sub remains found
The Coast Guard has recovered the remaining debris, including presumed human remains, from a submersible that imploded on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five onboard, deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean’s surface, officials said on Tuesday. The recovery and transfer of remaining parts was completed on Wednesday last week, the Coast Guard said, and a photograph showed the intact aft titanium endcap of the 6.7m vessel. Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by US medical professionals, it said. The salvage mission was a follow-up to initial recovery operations on the ocean floor about 488m away from the Titanic, the Coast Guard said.
UNITED STATES
Voters weigh bears in poll
Alaskan voters were busy addressing weighty issues on Tuesday, casting their ballots for the overall champion of Katmai National Park’s annual Fat Bear Week. The final day of voting saw contestants “128 Grazer” and “32 Chunk” battling it out for the crown of biggest bruin in the park. The contest asks the public to compare before-and-after pictures of brown bears as they stuff themselves full of salmon in preparation for the lean months of hibernation. The champion is the bear who makes it through the series of head-to-head matchups. “Your vote decides who is the fattest of the fat,” organizers said. “128 Grazer’s powerful presence is as thunderous as her thick tree trunk thighs,” they added. “32 Chunk’s gargantuan gut has cast a shadow on his competition and has launched this leviathan to the last round. Can his pudginess propel him to the prize?” The aim is to raise awareness of brown bears and their habitat in Alaska, and the risks they face from human activity. “Fat bears are successful bears,” organizers said. The contest, which had appeared imperiled by the near-shutdown of the US government after a Washington standoff, was rocked last year by a ballot stuffing scandal.
FINLAND
‘Heavy force’ hit gas line
The damage to the Baltic Sea gas pipeline that burst on Sunday was caused by “quite heavy force,” Estonian Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur said yesterday, a day after Finland said it could have been a deliberate action. The Balticconnector subsea gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable connects Finland and Estonia. On Tuesday, Helsinki said the damage was likely caused by “outside activity” and that the cause was being investigated. “It can clearly be seen that these damages are caused by quite heavy force,” Pevkur said. Henri Vanhanen, research fellow at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, said the central issue would be how NATO reacts if evidence was gathered that a state actor was behind the pipeline damage.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages