Top News Stories –

China says it has successfully landed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first ever such attempt and landing.

At 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT), the un-crewed Chang’e-4 (Chinese: 嫦娥四号; pinyin: Cháng’é Sìhào; literally: ‘Chang’e No. 4′) probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, state media said.

It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region’s geology, as well to conduct biological experiments.

The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration.

There have been numerous missions to the Moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972. [BBC

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Manned moon landings:

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian state media say that a U.S.-led coalition aerial attack killed 11 civilians in Deir ez-Zor Governorate. (EFE via La Vanguardia) (SANA)

Business and economy

• Corporate acquisitions and mergers
  • Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb proposes the takeover of cancer drug company Celgene for US$95 billion, including debt, the biggest biopharma deal ever. (Reuters)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 660 points following a warning from Apple on weak demand and trade relations between the United States and China. (TheStreet)

Disasters and accidents

• 2018 Magnitogorsk building collapse
  • The death toll of an explosion caused by a gas leak that devastated a block of flats in Magnitogorsk, Russia, rises to 39. Rescuers end their search efforts at the collapse site as there are no more missing people. (The Moscow Times)
• European migrant crisis
  • The mayor of Naples offers to berth a NGO-operated ship with 32 migrants who were rescued on 22 December off the coast of Libya. (Reuters)
• The Dutch Coast Guard says 270 containers fell off MSC Zoe in heavy seas near the German island of Borkum and floated towards the Netherlands. Treasure hunters revel on the West Frisian islands of Terschelling and Vlieland. Three containers containing hazardous materials are still missing and ships are warned for floating containers. (Reuters via NDTV) (World Maritime News)
• Seven people are killed after a crash and diesel fuel spill sparked a massive fire on Interstate 75 in Gainesville, Florida, United States. (AOL News)
• 14th Street Tunnel shutdown
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that a complete shutdown of the 14th Street Tunnel in New York City, proposed to allow for subway repairs caused by damage from Hurricane Sandy, has been halted. Cuomo says that engineers will use a new technology from Europe to make critical repairs to the tunnel without having to close it entirely. The complete shutdown would have closed the tunnel, which is used by nearly 225,000 people each weekday, for an expected 15 months. (New York Times)

International relations

• Somalia expels Nicholas Haysom, the most senior United Nations diplomat in the country, after accusing him of “acting like the country’s ruler”. (BBC)
• Afghan President Ashraf Ghani demands clarification after U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that the Soviet Union was “right to be there”, referring to the 1979–1989 Soviet–Afghan War. (The Washington Post)
• Mexico-United States barrier
  • The Department of Homeland Security requests more American troops be deployed to the Mexico-United States border in order to add 160 miles of concertina wire alongside existing border fencing. (Jerusalem Post)

Law and crime

• China executes serial killer Gao Chengyong, who murdered eleven girls and women between 1988 and 2002. (BBC)
• The Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika says that France today extradited Alexei Viktorovich Kuznetsov [ru], a former Finance Minister of the Moscow Region who is accused of fraud and embezzlement amounting to 14 billion Russian rubles (US$200 million). (TASS)
• A man shoots three children to death and wounds a woman in Texas City, Texas, United States. The suspect has not been apprehended. (USA Today)

Politics and elections

• Iran’s health minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi resigns in protest against a medical budget. His resignation was accepted by President Hassan Rouhani. (PressTV)
• The 116th United States Congress, which contains a record number of women and minorities, is sworn in at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second time, the first being from 2007–2011. (CBS News)
• United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019
  • The newly sworn U.S. House of Representatives passes a major spending bill to fund most shuttered departments and agencies through September 30 and a stop-gap measure to restart the Department of Homeland Security. The proposals will now move on to the Senate which has indicated they will not take up any spending bills that aren’t supported by President Trump. (The New York Times)

Science and technology

• Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
  • China National Space Administration‘s robotic lander Chang’e 4 successfully lands at the Von Kármán lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. (BBC)

Sports

• Oman–United Arab Emirates relations
  • Saoud al-Mohannadi, vice president of the Asian Football Confederation, is banned from traveling to the United Arab Emirates from Oman. (The New York Times)
• In women’s college basketball, Baylor defeats top-ranked Connecticut 68–57, handing the Huskies their first regular-season loss since November 2014 and ending their NCAA-record regular-season winning streak at 126 games. (AP via ESPN)

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