“Multiple gunshots were heard near the presidential palace in Chad’s capital Wednesday evening, residents said, while the African country’s foreign minister said soldiers were defending the president and the situation was under control. The gunshots rang out for several minutes near the presidential compound in N’Djamena, said Zakaria Daoud, a resident who lives in the area. The gunshots raised fears about the country’s security in a region where coups are rampant. It wasn’t clear where the gunfire was coming from. Videos that appear to be from the area showed military vehicles and heavily armed soldiers on the streets and within the presidential palace. ‘The situation is completely under control, there is no fear,’ Foreign Affairs Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said while surrounded by soldiers in a Facebook live broadcast shot inside what appeared to be a quiet presidential palace. ‘We are here to defend our president,’ Koulamallah added.” (01/08/25)
“NASA announced Tuesday it may turn to Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin to help reduce the soaring costs of returning Martian rocks collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth. Originally planned to deliver 30 sample tubes to Earth by the 2030s, the Mars Sample Return mission has faced rising expenses and delays, prompting the US space agency to explore more streamlined solutions. The pivot comes as China progresses towards a simpler “grab-and-go” sample return mission to the Red Planet ‘around 2028,’ according to state media, potentially making it the first nation to achieve the feat.” (01/08/25)
“US President Joe Biden has said he thinks he would have defeated Donald Trump and won re-election in November. Speaking to USA Today in an exclusive interview, Biden did, however, add that he was unsure if he would have had the stamina for another four-year term. ‘So far, so good,’ the 82-year-old said. ‘But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?’ In the wide-ranging interview with Susan Page, Biden also said he was still considering pre-emptive pardons for foes of Donald Trump, including former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney and former senior health official Dr Anthony Fauci. In the interview published on Wednesday, Biden said he had been ‘very straightforward with Trump’ about the potential pardons during their Oval Office meeting shortly after the November election.” (01/08/25)
“Ukraine on Wednesday said that its forces had hit a Russian oil depot that services Moscow’s air force hundreds of kilometres from the warring countries’ shared border. The apparent attack is the latest in a series of escalating cross border strikes by Moscow and Kyiv targeting energy and military facilities, almost three years after the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine. … The governor of the region, Roman Busargin, said that an emergency response team had been dispatched to an indistrial facility where a fire had broken out after a Ukrainian drone attack, without elaborating on the type of facility hit.” (01/08/25)
“President-elect Donald Trump blamed California’s Gavin Newsom for the ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires ravaging the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles — claiming he chose to save an extinct tiny fish species, instead of sending more water to southern California. Trump raged that the Democratic governor blocked an order that would have diverted more water from the much wetter north to the state’s parched regions ‘including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way’. ‘He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt … but didn’t care about the people of California,’ the incoming president ranted on his Truth Social Platform. ‘Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.'” (01/08/25)
“The United States has [stolen] two luxury Miami condos owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch. The [theft] was announced Tuesday by the Justice Department, which said the two properties were maintained, transferred and leased in violation of sanctions imposed against Viktor Perevalov. The two condos have a combined value of $1.8 million. … Perevalov was first sanctioned in 2018 following the Russian invasion of Crimea as his co-founded construction company was behind the construction of the Tavrida Highway in the Russian-occupied Crimea Region of Ukraine. He was then redesignated in December for operating in Russia’s construction sector.” (01/08/25)
“The drug use and disorder on SoMa’s Sixth Street has gotten so bad that one San Francisco politician is floating an idea that would have been unheard of in liberal San Francisco just a few years ago: locking up at least 100 people a day for using drugs. San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey sent a letter last week to five city departments asking them to explain if they can ‘maximize the use of large-scale arrests and involuntary holds’ to crack down on ‘drug-related lawlessness’ in the area. Disorder on Sixth Street has spiked in recent months, with drug use rampant and so many people in crisis that walking on the sidewalk can be tough. Local business owners say the chaos is worse than it’s ever been. Some public health advocates have long said there’s no evidence that using criminal penalties is successful in treating substance misuse, but Dorsey told SFGATE that he disagrees.” (01/08/25)
“Sudan’s military forces claim to have advanced into the country’s second-largest city Omdurman, taking some areas previously controlled by rival rebel group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Fighting was reported to be raging in the city, which sits directly across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum, for a second day on Wednesday. The army has now seized control of former RSF territories in Mansoura, Murabaat and Elfitihab, according to Hiba Morgan, Al Jazeera’s Sudan correspondent. … Sudan has been torn apart and pushed towards famine by the war that erupted 21 months ago, making the country the scene of the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.” (01/08/25)
“South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a new and potentially more robust attempt to arrest him for insurrection after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the impeached leader. Acting president Choi Sang-mok urged on Wednesday authorities to ‘do their best to prevent any injuries to citizens or physical conflict between government agencies’ while executing Yoon’s arrest warrant. … The Presidential Security Service (PSS) has been fortifying the compound this week with barbed wire and barricades using buses to block access to the residence, a hillside villa in an upscale district known as Korea’s Beverly Hills. Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his failed attempt to impose martial law on Dec. 3, a decision that stunned South Korea and prompted the first arrest warrant for a sitting president. He also faces an impeachment trial in the Constitutional Court.” (01/08/25)
“Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee parts of Los Angeles as strong winds drove the rapid growth of wildfires around the western United States city. More than 30,000 people were evacuated on Tuesday as high winds helped a brush fire surge into the coastal Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. Further blazes later saw other areas around southern California come under threat. Frightened residents abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the upscale Pacific Palisades area, fleeing on foot from the almost 3,000-acre (1,200-hectare) blaze engulfing an area packed with multimillion-dollar homes in the Santa Monica Mountains. Firefighters used bulldozers to push dozens of vehicles to one side, leaving many crumpled with their alarms blaring, to make way for emergency vehicles.” (01/08/25)
