THE ARCTIC
Warmest summer recorded
The Arctic had its warmest ever summer this year, the result of accelerating climate change that is pushing ecosystems and the people that depend on them into uncharted territory, an official report said on Tuesday. The average summer surface air temperature from July to September was 6.4°C, the highest since records began in 1900. The Arctic is warming roughly four times faster than the rest of the planet, primarily as a result of a cycle of sea ice loss in a phenomenon called Arctic Amplification.
UNITED KINGDOM
Sunak wins Rwanda vote
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday faced down rebels in his ruling Conservative Party by winning a knife-edge parliamentary vote on his latest plans to send migrants to Rwanda. Sunak has staked his political future on cutting record levels of regular and irregular migration, and the issue is likely to feature prominently in the next election. In a tense vote after an afternoon of debate, he saw off a Conservative rebellion, winning the first substantive hearing of the so-called Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill by 313 votes to 269. Human Rights Watch UK director Yasmine Ahmed called the result “a defeat for human decency.”
POLAND
Legislator douses menorah
A far-right lawmaker in parliament on Tuesday grabbed a red fire extinguisher and put out candles on a menorah that were lit for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, creating disruption and scandal as a new pro-EU government was beginning its work. All major political forces quickly denounced the unprecedented incident by Grzegorz Braun, one of the most controversial lawmakers in parliament, and said there would be no tolerance for anti-semitic and xenophobic behavior in the parliament. Braun, a pro-Russian member of the Confederation Liberty and Independence party, has in the past falsely claimed that there is a plot to turn Poland into a “Jewish state.”
UNITED STATES
Russian flies with no ticket
A Russian man who last month flew on a plane from Denmark to Los Angeles without a passport or ticket told US authorities he had not slept in three days and did not remember how he got through security in Europe, a federal complaint filed by the FBI said. Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 4 via Scandinavian Airlines flight 931 from Copenhagen. A trial has been scheduled for Dec. 26. The flight crew told investigators that during the flight’s departure, Ochigava was in a seat that was supposed to be unoccupied. After departure, he kept wandering around the plane, switching seats and trying to talk to other passengers, who ignored him, the complaint said. He also ate “two meals during each meal service, and at one point attempted to eat the chocolate that belonged to members of the cabin crew,” the complaint said.
UNITED STATES
Andre Braugher dies at 61
Andre Braugher, the Emmy-winning actor who would master gritty drama for seven seasons on Homicide: Life on The Street and modern comedy for eight on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, died on Monday at the age of 61. Braugher died after a brief illness, his publicist Jennifer Allen said. No further details were given. “Can’t believe you’re gone so soon,” Braugher’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine costar Terry Crews wrote on Instagram. “I’m honored to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared 8 glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent. ”
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