UNITED STATES
Rocket motors arrive in LA
Two giant rocket motors required to display the retired NASA space shuttle Endeavour as if it is about to blast off arrived at a Los Angeles museum on Wednesday, completing their long journey from the Mojave Desert. The 35.3m motors, which are giant white cylinders, were trucked for two days from the Mojave Air and Space Port to Exposition Park, where the California Science Center’s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is being built to display the Endeavour. Donated by Northrop Grumman, the motors are the largest components of the two solid rocket boosters that would be attached to a space shuttle’s external tank to help the main engines lift the orbiter off the launch pad. Schoolchildren were among several hundred people who watched the move — the latest spectacle in the yearslong process of preparing to put Endeavour on permanent display vertically as if it was about to blast off.
UNITED STATES
Officer loses finger to bite
A New York City police officer lost his left ring finger up to the first knuckle when a reckless driving suspect bit him, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Lenni Rodriguez Cruz, 28, faces 25 years in prison for leading police on a car chase, crashing into several vehicles and biting a sergeant who was trying to put him in a holding cell, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. On Sept. 20, an officer patrolling in the Jamaica section of Queens spotted Rodriguez Cruz driving a car with license plates that were not registered to the vehicle, Katz said in a news release. The officer tried to pull Rodriguez Cruz over, but he sped off, mounted a sidewalk and drove through a park, scattering parkgoers as they ran to safety, Katz said. Rodriguez Cruz kept driving and hit four vehicles, including an unmarked police car that was part of a barricade set up to stop him, Katz said. When officers pulled Rodriguez Cruz out of his crashed car, his breath smelled of alcohol, his speech was slurred and there was a cup containing an alcoholic beverage inside the car, Katz said. Officers took Rodriguez Cruz to the local police station, where he spit on the sergeant and bit the sergeant’s finger tip off, Katz said.
UNITED STATES
Man gives back cash
A Connecticut man who found a bag containing nearly US$5,000 in cash outside a bank had a criminal charge against him dropped on Wednesday after he gave the money back. Robert Withington, 57, went to Bridgeport Superior Court for a court hearing, but a state prosecutor informed Withington’s lawyer the charge was being dropped. Withington found the bag with US$4,761 on May 30 outside a bank in his hometown of Trumbull. It belonged to the Trumbull tax collector’s office, and a town employee had dropped the bag while walking to the bank to deposit the money, police said. A police officer had escorted the town employee to the bank, but neither noticed the bag being dropped, police said. Withington, a dog trainer, picked up the bag and drove off, police said. He was identified through surveillance video and arrested on Aug. 25. Before Wednesday’s court appearance, Withington had given the town a check in the amount of the missing money. Withington said that he did not do anything wrong. “They dropped the money. Someone from the town should be fired for being so irresponsible, but I did nothing wrong,” Withington said in a telephone interview. “I just found a money bag. It was just a big joke. They wasted my time. They slandered my name. It was very upsetting.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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