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October 26: Europe’s Astronaut Plan and Serbia’s Election Upset
Europe’s space ambitions
Europe is considering a ten-billion-euro plan to launch its own astronauts, seeking a larger role in space and less technological dependence on other countries. A European Space Agency summit in Rome on December fifteenth will help shape decisions on astronaut launches, cargo and investment.
An experimental infection treatment
Radical Numerics says a patient received an AI-designed phage treatment through a compassionate-use pathway authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Reports say the patient had an E. coli infection resistant to antibiotics and available natural phages. The patient’s outcome remains unknown.
A Texas father’s deportation
A Texas father who spent nearly half his life in the United States says he was sent to Mali after Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Ghana. A judge had ruled that he could face persecution if returned to his home country.
In the Middle East
Jordanian authorities say they arrested three men early Monday in connection with Friday’s deadly attack on Christian mourners at a funeral in Karak Governorate. Authorities say security forces wounded the suspects after they refused to surrender and attacked the forces.
In the West Bank, nearly two thousand Palestinians have been displaced as Israeli forces take over homes in Hebron. The displacement follows a Friday attack on an Israeli military checkpoint that killed two soldiers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made televised visits after the attack, ahead of Tuesday’s Israeli election.
England’s apprenticeship funding
Ministers plan to raise businesses’ cost of training apprentices over twenty-five by twenty-five percent, according to the Guardian, aiming to encourage hiring and training younger people. Britain’s largest employers warn that making training more expensive for older workers risks undermining the government’s effort to address the youth jobs crisis.
Pilot fatigue in Europe
Nearly a quarter of European airline pilots surveyed say they routinely fly while too fatigued to work, according to a European Cockpit Association report. Three in four reported having taken microsleeps in the cockpit. The survey of almost seventy-two hundred pilots also recorded insufficient rest, pressure to extend working hours and fears of penalties for declaring themselves unfit to fly.
Serbia’s election
Serbia’s longtime leader, Aleksandar Vučić, has conceded election defeat to a student-led movement. Hundreds of thousands celebrated in Belgrade, filling streets previously marked by police beatings. Some revelers high-fived police officers.
Machado returns to Venezuela
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado says she has returned to Venezuela, almost a year after leaving to receive the prize. She announced her return Sunday on X, writing, “I’m here. With you.”
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