SPACE
SpaceX launches ISS rescue
SpaceX launched a two-person crew to the International Space Station (ISS), the start of a mission to bring home two NASA astronauts stuck in orbit after flying on Boeing Co’s Starliner spacecraft. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov took off inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, just after 1pm on Saturday. The Crew-9 capsule was scheduled to dock with the ISS yesterday after press time. The pair would have two empty seats next to them that NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams would fill when the spacecraft returns next year. The Crew-9 flight was meant to have a four-person crew, but NASA removed two crew members to make room for the Starliner duo after technical failures with Boeing’s spacecraft. Astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson relinquished their seats so their colleagues could return to Earth. Wilmore and Williams have been on the ISS since June 6, when they arrived on Starliner. During their docking, the spacecraft experienced a number of helium leaks and failures of its thrusters — tiny engines the vehicle uses to maneuver through space. After months of analysis and testing, NASA decided it was too risky to bring them home on the Boeing capsule. The agency and Boeing instead returned the spacecraft uncrewed on Sept. 6, with the spacecraft landing under parachutes in New Mexico.
MOLDOVA
Poll interference suspected
Moldova’s state-owned broadcaster on Saturday said that vandals had poured paint across an entrance to its building in the capital, Chisinau, a day after police blamed similar incidents on a group trained in Moscow to destabilize upcoming elections. Paint was also poured on the Moldovan Supreme Court building overnight, police said. Moldovan authorities have linked such incidents to a group trained in Moscow to provoke instability ahead of a presidential poll next month, in which pro-European incumbent, President Maia Sandu, is favored to beat a field of 10 challengers. Sandu’s opponents are led by Alexander Stoianoglo, who was dismissed from his position as prosecutor general and is backed by pro-Russian opposition parties, and Renato Usatii, who favours good links with both the West and Moscow.
CRIME
‘Sunflowers’ vandalized
A pair of paintings by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh at London’s National Gallery were vandalized on Friday when a group of climate activists splattered what appeared to be tomato soup on them, shortly after two other activists were sentenced over a similar attack two years ago. The paintings from Van Gogh’s Sunflowers series, which the artist painted in Arles in the south of France, were not damaged thanks to protective glass coverings. The gallery identified the two as its own Sunflowers (1888) and Sunflowers (1889) on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The three activists from the Just Stop Oil environmental group involved in the attack were arrested while the paintings were removed, examined, and then returned to their location. The exhibition reopened later on Friday, the gallery said. The action was apparently in protests against the sentencing earlier Friday of two other activists from the group, Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22. Plummer was sentenced to two years while Holland received a 20-month sentence for their October 2022 attack on a Sunflowers painting.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
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
‘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
TIGHTENING: Zhu Hengpeng, who worked for an influential think tank, has reportedly not been seen in public since making disparaging remarks on WeChat A leading Chinese economist at a government think tank has reportedly disappeared after being disciplined for criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a private chat group. Zhu Hengpeng (朱恆鵬), 55, is believed to have made disparaging remarks about China’s economy, and potentially about the Chinese leader specifically, in a private WeChat group. Zhu was subsequently detained in April and put under investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zhu worked for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for more than 20 years, most recently as the Institute of Economics deputy director and director of the Public Policy Research Center. He