UKRAINE
Russia bombards nation
A wave of Russian missiles on Tuesday hit Kyiv and other cities, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 100, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed a forceful response. Rescue workers in Kharkiv — the country’s second-largest city, near Russia’s border — hauled survivors from shouldering piles of rubble as apartment blocks were set ablaze and toppled by the strikes, journalists reported. “Ordinary life is what Russia sees as a threat to itself. The state is a typical terrorist,” a somber Zelenskiy said in his evening address to the nation, adding that 130 people had been injured in the attacks. “The Russian war will inevitably be brought back home, back to where this evil came from, where it must be quelled,” Zelenskiy said.
AUSTRALIA
Storm gains strength
A tropical low slowly moving toward the country’s northeast yesterday reached cyclone strength and was expected to bring flooding into Queensland into the weekend. Tropical Cyclone Kirrily was moving west at 8kph and forecast to make landfall overnight. “After the cyclone crosses the coast, it’s likely to weaken to a tropical low, but have very high levels of rainfall associated with it,” Queensland Premier Steven Miles told a news conference in Brisbane. “And so depending on its path, that rainfall is likely to cause flooding in parts of the state.”
SINGAPORE
Thousands ensnared in scam
More than 6,300 people fell prey to “fake friend” scams last year and collectively lost an equivalent of nearly US$16 million, police said. Such scams involved contacting victims, pretending to be someone they know and asking for financial assistance. Police on Tuesday said in a statement that the scams had cost victims S$21.1 million (US$15.8 million) in losses from January to November last year. In the latest case, five Malaysians were extradited on Tuesday to Singapore over “fake friend” scam calls involving more than US$1 million in lost funds, police said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Nose wheel falls off plane
The nose wheel of a Boeing 757 passenger jet operated by Delta Air Lines popped off and rolled away as the plane was lining up for takeoff over the weekend from Atlanta’s international airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. A preliminary notice filed on Monday by the agency said that none of the 184 passengers or six crew members aboard was hurt in the incident at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The aircraft was lining up and waiting for takeoff when the “nose wheel came off and rolled down the hill,” it said.
FRANCE
Coal use falling: IEA
Renewables are set to displace coal as the top source of energy for electricity production globally next year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday. In its annual report on the electricity market, it said that renewables — in particular from solar panels — should see their share of total electricity production surpass one-third of the total, passing from 30 percent last year to 37 percent in 2026. If nuclear power, which the IEA sees hitting a record next year, is included, almost half of the world’s electricity would be generated by low-emissions sources by 2026, up from a share of just less than 40 percent last year.
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