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.”
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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