CHINA
Astronauts arrive at station
Three astronauts, including the country’s only female spaceflight engineer, yesterday entered the Tiangong space station following an early-morning launch into orbit. The Shenzhou-19 mission took off with its trio of space explorers at 4:27am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Xinhua and China Central Television reported. Among the crew is Wang Haoze, 34, the nation’s only female spaceflight engineer, the China Manned Space Agency said. The crew arrived at 12:51pm and met with the astronauts from the previous Shenzhou-18 mission, “starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover,” Xinhua reported.
Photo: AFP
AUSTRALIA
Police recover stolen coins
Police yesterday said that they had recovered more than 40,000 stolen limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s animated series Bluey. The Bluey coins, with a face value of A$1 (US$0.65) each, were found on Tuesday afternoon in a storage business in the Sydney suburb of Wentworthville, a police statement said. Bluey is the name of a blue heeler puppy who lives with her cattle dog family in Brisbane, where the series is produced. The 40,061 recovered coins were still in the Royal Australian Mint plastic bags that they had been stolen in three months earlier, police said. Police were notified on July 12 that 63,000 of the yet-to-be-released series of coins produced by the national mint in Canberra had been stolen from a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park, not far from where the coins were recovered. Police formed Strike Force Bandit to investigate. Bandit is the name of Bluey’s father. Three people have been charged over the theft.
UNITED KINGDOM
Shipyard blaze hurts two
Two people have been hospitalized after a fire broke out at the shipyard that builds Britain’s nuclear-powered submarines, but there is “no nuclear risk,” police said yesterday. Cumbria Constabulary said that a “significant” fire broke out soon after midnight at the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, northwest England. Two people were taken to hospitals with suspected smoke inhalation and there were no other casualties, it said. It advised people living nearby to stay indoors, and keep doors and windows closed.
UNITED STATES
Jaywalking allowed in NY
Jaywalking — or crossing a street outside of the crosswalk or against traffic lights — is now legal in New York City. Legislation passed by the city council last month officially became law over the weekend after New York Mayor Eric Adams declined to take action — either by signing or vetoing it — after 30 days. Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, who sponsored the legislation, said that the new law ends racial disparities in enforcement, as more than 90 percent of the jaywalking tickets issued last year went to black or Latino people. “Let’s be real, every New Yorker jaywalks. People are simply trying to get where they need to go,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Laws that penalize common behaviors for everyday movement shouldn’t exist, especially when they unfairly impact communities of color.”
WAKE-UP CALL: Firms in the private sector were not taking basic precautions, despite the cyberthreats from China and Russia, a US cybersecurity official said A ninth US telecom firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and telephone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said on Friday. Officials from the administration of US President Joe Biden this month said that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. US Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger on Friday told reporters that a ninth victim
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
MISSING: Prosecutors urged the company to move workers out of poor living conditions to hotels, but residents said many workers had already left the town Brazil has stopped issuing temporary work visas for BYD, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, in the wake of accusations that some workers at a site owned by the Chinese electric vehicle producer had been victims of human trafficking. The announcement came days after labor authorities said they found 163 Chinese workers who had been brought to Brazil irregularly in “slavery-like” conditions at the BYD factory construction site in the northeastern state of Bahia. The workers were employed by contractor Jinjiang Group, which has denied any wrongdoing. Later, the authorities also said the workers were victims of human trafficking,
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