China has made great strides in exploring space in recent years, rocketing astronauts to its own space station and bringing back rocks from the moon. Now it wants to turn those feats into scientific advances. The nation’s leading scientific institute laid out an ambitious plan Tuesday to become a global leader in space science by 2050. It listed a wide range of research areas including black holes, Mars and Jupiter, and the search for habitable planets and signs of extraterrestrial life. “Our country’s space science research in general is still in an initial stage,” Ding Chibiao, a vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a news conference.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a broad description of his five-point “victory plan” to Ukraine’s lawmakers on Wednesday, describing the first step as an immediate and unconditional NATO invitation and the last being an offer to replace U.S. troops in Europe with Ukrainian units after the war – suggestions sure to incense the Kremlin, which has long used the threat of NATO justify its invasion.
The plan has already been shared with Ukraine’s allies but there has been limited public comment about it, making it unclear if Zelensky’s recommendations have been accepted.

The Biden administration sanction 10 individuals and entities in Lebanon and Syria that it says help fund the Hezbollah terror organization, including in the illegal trade of the drug Captagon.
“Today’s action underscores Hezbollah’s destabilizing influence within Lebanon and on the wider region, as the group, its affiliates and its supporters continue to finance their operations through covert involvement in commercial trade and the illicit trafficking of Captagon,” stated Bradley Smith, U.S. acting under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
“Treasury will continue to expose and disrupt the illicit schemes that underpin Hezbollah’s ability to continue its violent attacks,” Smith stated.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi cautioned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran is poised to launch a “decisive and regretful” retaliation if Israel strikes in response to the barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles fired at Israel on October 1.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated last week that Israel “will soon respond” to the missile assault, assuring that the response would be “precise and deadly.”
On Wednesday, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for Iran’s atomic energy agency, downplayed the likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, but added that any damage caused would be “quickly compensated,” according to the Nournews agency.

A U.S. court has given two top associates of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman until early November to start turning over any evidence in a lawsuit from a former senior Saudi intelligence official who says he survived a plot by the kingdom to silence him. The order is among a spate of recent rulings suggesting U.S. courts are becoming more open to lawsuits seeking to hold foreign powers accountable for rights abuses, legal experts and advocates say. That is after a couple of decades in which American judges tended to toss those cases. The long-running lawsuit by former Saudi intelligence official Saad al-Jabri accuses Saudi Arabia of trying to assassinate him in October 2018. The kingdom calls the allegation groundless. That’s the same month the U.S., U.N.

OMAHA, Neb.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The annex where the young Jew

A significant number of surveillance cameras monitoring the southern U.S. border are reportedly malfunctioning, raising concerns about the true extent of migrant “gotaways” who avoid detection. Approximately 30% of the cameras are currently out of service, which sources fear may mean that the actual number of individuals slipping through undetected is far higher than official reports suggest.
NBC News, citing an internal Border Patrol memo, revealed that around 150 of the 500 cameras are nonfunctional due to various technical issues. The memo, addressed to Border Patrol agents, stressed that “The nationwide issue is having significant impacts on [Border Patrol] operations.”

Pringles, the brand famously known for its distinct saddle-shaped chips inside a cylindrical can, has introduced a new snack after a long absence from the bagged chip market. For the first time in over 15 years, Pringles has launched a product in a bag.
The new snack, called Pringles Mingles, comes in a bag and features a bow-tie shape that’s air-puffed. This new design gives the chips a lighter, fluffier texture compared to the traditional Pringles that fans know and enjoy.
These puffed chips are marketed with the idea that they “melt in your mouth,” providing a satisfying combination of crispiness on the outside and an airy softness on the inside.