Day: May 3, 2024

“Law enforcement officials have revealed that drug cartels from North America have surpassed their rivals in Southeast Asia to become the primary suppliers of methamphetamine to Australia. Police issued a warning, cautioning that Mexican gangs are intensifying their efforts to target the country’s drug market.”

“The Australian Federal Police, in collaboration with overseas authorities, intercepted a staggering 23.6 tons of methamphetamine produced in North America, intended for shipment to Australia during the 2022-23 financial year. This significant seizure was announced by the AFP in a statement released last week.”

“Police estimates indicate that product originating from Mexico, the United States, and Canada collectively constitutes at least 70% of the methamphetamine detected in Australia. In stark contrast, the proportion of Southeast Asian meth in drug seizures has plummeted to less than 15%. Methamphetamine, known for its highly addictive and potent stimulant properties, continues to pose a significant challenge for law enforcement efforts.”

Police did not specify the exact amount originating from Mexico but warned “Mexican cartels (are) increasingly targeting Australia.”

Australia remains “an enticing market for organized crime groups who exploit our people to derive large profits,” police commander Jared Taggart said in the statement.

While cannabis remains the most common illegal drug consumed in the country by a large margin, the use of meth and amphetamine, another nerve stimulant, has risen among younger drug users, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a devastating incident unfolded as 2 Malaysian navy helicopters collided mid-air during a rehearsal for a naval parade. The collision occurred at 9:32 a.m. local time at the Lumut naval base in the state of Perak. All 10 crew members aboard the helicopters tragically lost their lives in the crash, as confirmed by the navy.

Local media has been circulating a video capturing the tragic incident, depicting several helicopters flying in formation during the rehearsal. The footage reveals the moment when the rotor of one helicopter clipped another, leading to a catastrophic mid-air collision, causing both aircraft to plummet to the ground. Confirming the authenticity of the video, local police have acknowledged its accuracy in portraying the sequence of events.

The navy has announced its intention to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collision, aiming to ascertain the cause of the tragic incident.

Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin disclosed that the involved aircraft were a maritime operations helicopter and a Fennec military chopper. These helicopters were engaged in a rehearsal for a parade commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Royal Malaysian Navy, slated to occur on Saturday.

Efforts are currently underway to verify the identities of the crew members who tragically lost their lives in the collision. According to statements made by officials to reporters, all of the deceased crew members were below the age of 40.

“Authorities in Canada and the US have announced the arrest of six individuals linked to last year’s high-profile gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. The multimillion-dollar theft, which shocked the public, involved a coordinated effort that spanned international borders.”

“Additionally, police have issued arrest warrants for three more individuals implicated in what authorities describe as an ‘inside job.’ The total number of suspects now stands at nine, all facing charges on over 19 counts related to the gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.”

“On April 17, 2023, authorities report that an air cargo container containing over 22 million Canadian dollars’ worth of gold bars and foreign currency was stolen from a secure storage facility. The theft occurred using fraudulent paperwork, shortly after the valuable cargo had arrived on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland.”

“Police allege that at least two former Air Canada employees were involved in the audacious theft. One suspect is currently in custody, while an arrest warrant has been issued for the other individual.”

“Detective Sgt. Mike Mavity of Peel Regional Police stated, ‘They needed people inside Air Canada to facilitate this theft,’ emphasizing his belief that this was an ‘inside job’.”

Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesperson for Air Canada, expressed gratitude to the police for their thorough investigation. He stated, “As this matter is now before the courts, we are limited in our ability to comment further. However, we can confirm, as stated by police, that two of the individuals identified did work for Air Canada in the cargo division at the time of the incident. One left the company prior to the arrests announced today and the second has been suspended.” The investigation, dubbed “Project 24Karat,” involved the Pennsylvania division of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF says a Canadian man arrested in Pennsylvania on traffic violations in September 2023 was the driver of the truck that stole the cargo container. The man was in the US illegally and fled on foot during a traffic stop after a state trooper found firearms in his rental car, it said.

“A court-authorized search warrant for the vehicle led to the recovery of those firearms that were allegedly destined to be smuggled into Canada,” said Eric DeGree, an ATF special agent who spoke at the Peel Regional Police news conference, adding that 65 firearms were prevented from “being used in any number of violent crimes.”

Police allege the sophisticated organized crime ring planned to use most of the gold and cash to traffic firearms into Canada.

“We believe that they’ve melted down the gold and the profits they got from the gold they used to help finance the firearms, obviously purchasing the illegal firearms,” said Mavity, adding, “We believe that’s how the gold and money has now kind of worked into the firearms trafficking aspect of the investigation”.

Canadian and US officials say the investigation is ongoing and only a fraction of the stolen gold bars and cash has been recovered. Police say after executing a search warrant in Ontario, they found five crudely melted gold bangles worth about $90,000.

“This was the largest gold heist in Canadian history, reportedly, it’s the sixth largest in world crime history,” said Deputy Police Chief Nick Milinovich.

Staff and visitors have been left stranded and buildings submerged at Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara nature reserve, as the death toll in catastrophic flooding in the country’s southwest rose to at least 188 people.

Staff and visitors have been left stranded and buildings submerged at Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara nature reserve, as the death toll in catastrophic flooding in the country’s southwest rose to at least 188 people. Local authorities ordered some tourist facilities in the National Reserve to close after River Talek, one of the tributaries of the Mara River, burst its banks and swept through more than a dozen riverside tourist lodges and camps.

Videos on social media showed some buildings and vehicles fully submerged inside the popular park as tourists scrambled to leave affected areas.

Weeks of heavy rain and flash flooding has ravaged parts of Kenya for days, leaving dozens of people missing around the capital, Nairobi, and causing a devastating mudslide in the town of Mai Mahiu.

Two more bodies were retrieved from the site of the mudslide, bringing the total number of deaths there to 50, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said on Thursday, revising down the earlier figure of 71 reported due to an error.

But local administrators went even further in their warnings, threatening legal consequences for people still left behind, even accusing those who stay of attempting suicide.

“We will forcefully evacuate anybody left in any homes or lodges along the river. We will take action against them because that is considered attempted suicide,” Narok county commissioner Kipkech Lotiatia told reporters.

Authorities said they had deployed two helicopters to rescue stranded tourists and local staff around the national reserve after receiving distress calls. The flooding was caused by swollen rivers after several days of continuous rainfall, the county said on X. he was awoken by sounds of rushing water after 1 a.m. on Thursday. When he left his tent, flood waters rose to his waist and the entire Talek Bush Camp had been surrounded.

The Kenya Red Cross said it had rescued more than 90 people and at least 14 camps around River Talek had been closed. While parts of the Mara have flooded before in Kenya’s so-called long rains season, locals say the scale of this year’s deluge has been unprecedented.

The country has deployed “corps from the Paramilitary Academy” of its National Youth Service to Narok to “join the multi-agency team for search and rescue operations following the heavy downpour,” a statement on X said.

The Horn of Africa, a region of East Africa that includes Kenya, is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. Heavy rains have also affected Tanzania and Burundi.

Japan’s “Moon Sniper” lander has defied the odds for a third time, surviving yet another long, frigid lunar night despite not being designed to endure such harsh conditions, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Temperatures during the lunar night can plunge to minus 208 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 133 degrees Celsius), according to NASA. And Moon Sniper wasn’t expected to withstand even one lunar night, which is a period of darkness on the moon lasting about two weeks.

The robotic vehicle, also known as SLIM, or the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, initially touched down on the lunar surface on January 19. The historic feat made Japan the third country this century, and the fifth ever, to land on the moon. The spacecraft touched down near the Shioli Crater, located about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the Sea of Tranquility, a region near the lunar equator, where Apollo 11 first landed humans on the moon.

During descent, the spacecraft experienced an anomaly and landed on its nose, which meant its solar panels were facing west rather than upright and not receiving necessary sunlight to generate power. The lander had just enough energy to send back a mosaic of images before shutting down. The mission’s team in Japan remained hopeful that once sunlight could reach the solar panels again, the spacecraft might reawaken.

So far, Moon Sniper, which gained its nickname for the precision technology that allowed it to land about 55 meters (180 feet) from its target, keeps pleasantly surprising the team by waking up after each lunar night, taking new photos and transmitting them back before it goes back to sleep. The vehicle’s resilience in the face of lunar extremes is unique among missions that have landed on the moon in the past year, and experts have a couple ideas as to why that might be.

The mission team communicated with Moon Sniper on April 23 after the lander rode out its third lunar night. The spacecraft was able to transmit more images of its landing site.

“SLIM has maintained main functionality even after 3 nights on the Moon, which was not anticipated in the design!” the team shared on x formerly known as Twitter. In addition to surviving the extreme cold of the lunar night, Moon Sniper has also endured the searing temperatures of the lunar day, which can reach 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius), according to NASA.

The team shared that it’s closely monitoring SLIM’s condition in order to identify what components of the spacecraft could deteriorate over time as it experiences more of the lunar day and night environment.

JAXA engineers have been careful about how they communicate with SLIM when it first wakes up since the spacecraft is operating in such high temperatures, which could heat up the cameras and damage them. As a result, the mission team usually waits about a day after SLIM wakes up before commanding it to send back images.

So far, one of SLIM’s navigation cameras and the spacecraft’s Star Tracker have provided images from Moon Sniper’s experience on the lunar surface. The Star Tracker isn’t a true camera and instead was used to measure the direction of the spacecraft by tracking the alignment of the stars as the lander traveled to the moon. But the team has taken clever measures to make the most of Moon Sniper’s wonky landing.

“It was not originally planned to be used on the lunar surface, but in principle it can take pictures just like a camera, which led to its operation through ‘secret commands,’” the agency shared on X.

The spacecraft has two navigation cameras mounted in different directions. Given how Moon Sniper landed, one of those cameras is facing into space, but the other has a view of the landing site from the spacecraft’s perspective.

“In a significant milestone for its space exploration endeavors, China is poised to launch a groundbreaking mission on Friday from Wenchang, aiming to retrieve samples from the previously unexplored far side of the Moon. This pioneering effort marks a world first and underscores Beijing’s commitment to its ambitious space program, which includes plans for a crewed lunar mission by the year 2030.”
“A rocket is primed to lift off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center located in the southern province of Hainan, China, shortly before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT) on Friday. Laden with the Chang’e-6 lunar probe, this mission represents a significant leap forward in China’s space exploration agenda. The launch site, chosen for its strategic advantages, is set to witness the historic departure of the rocket as it embarks on a journey to explore and gather samples from the enigmatic far side of the Moon.”

“This latest achievement underscores China’s ongoing commitment to its ambitious space program, representing a notable advancement in its quest for scientific exploration beyond Earth’s bounds. However, amidst China’s strides in space, Washington has voiced concerns, cautioning that Beijing may be leveraging its space initiatives to conceal military intentions and assert dominance beyond our planet’s confines. This juxtaposition of scientific progress and geopolitical scrutiny adds a layer of complexity to China’s space endeavors, as it navigates both the frontiers of exploration and the realms of international relations.”

The Chang’e-6 aims to collect around two kilograms of lunar samples from the far side of the Moon and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

It is a technically complex 53-day mission that will also see it attempt an unprecedented launch from the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

“Chang’e-6 will collect samples from the far side of the Moon for the first time,” Ge Ping, vice director of China’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told journalists.

The probe is set to land in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system. Once there, it will scoop up lunar soil and rocks, and carry out other experiments in the landing zone.

It must then lift off from the Moon’s surface and retrace its steps back home.Plans for China’s “space dream” have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping. Beijing has ploughed huge resources into its space programme over the last decade, targeting a string of ambitious undertakings in an effort to close the gap with the two traditional space powers — the United States and Russia.

The country has notched several notable achievements, including building a space station called Tiangong, or “heavenly palace”, to which it sent a fresh crew of three astronauts last month.

Beijing has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, making China only the third country to put humans in orbit independently.

China aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.

The United States is also planning to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission. The rapid advance of China’s space programme has raised alarm bells in Washington, with the head of NASA warning last month that the US was now in a “race” against Beijing.

“We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.