China to launch Chang'e-8 lunar mission around 2029, collaborating with international partners

11.01.2026, 18:10 7981

Chinese researchers develop "smart eyes" for grazing robots

Chinese scientists have successfully developed a lightweight model for beef cattle behavior recognition from quadruped robot video in grassland pastures, improving the efficiency of herd feeding and management, Xinhua reports.

The lightweight model MASM-YOLO was proposed by the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the relevant research was published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.

Accurate and rapid identification of typical cattle behaviors is fundamental to disease diagnosis, estrus monitoring, calving prediction, and health assessment.

MASM-YOLO enables precise multi-behavior detection under complex conditions, suitable for real-time execution on board a mobile robot.

By integrating the Multi-Scale Focus and Extraction Network, the Adaptive Decomposition and Alignment Head, and other technologies, MASM-YOLO addresses key challenges, including lighting variations, motion blur, and occlusions within cattle groups.

MASM-YOLO achieves rapid recognition of six typical behaviors of beef cattle, including feeding, resting, locomotion and licking. It strikes an optimal balance between recognition accuracy and computational efficiency.

This model provides key technical support for the full-scale development of grazing robots.

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10.01.2026, 19:36 14566

Wildfires have destroyed over 130 buildings in southeastern Australia

Images | Depositphotos

As a result of forest fires in Victoria, which is located in the south-east of Australia, more than 130 buildings and residential buildings were destroyed, and 38 thousand people were left without electricity, iz.ru cites the Reuters.

Those involved in extinguishing the flames, which have already destroyed 300,000 hectares, said that these fires were the largest in the state since the "Black Summer" of 2019-2020, when an area the size of Turkey was burned out on the continent, killing 33 people in the state.

My thoughts are with the Australians in these regional communities at this very difficult time," the words of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are quoted in the material.

Jacinta Allan, the prime minister of the state where wildfires are currently being recorded, said thousands of firefighters were trying to contain the fires and "bring them under control if possible."

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10.01.2026, 16:10 14256

An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 was recorded in Kamchatka

Images | Depositphotos

An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 occurred in Kamchatka, iz.ru cites the Kamchatka branch of the Federal Research Center (FIT) of the Unified Geophysical Service (USGS) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

Coordinates: 161.2486, 52.8566 (...) Magnitude (Ml): 5.8," the earthquake data is provided in the Telegram channel of the service.

According to operational data, the seismic event was registered on January 10 at 19:57 local time (10:57 Moscow time). The earthquake was centered at a depth of 25.8 km, and the distance from the epicenter to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was 178 km.

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08.01.2026, 13:10 29431

U.S. intercepts tanker in the Caribbean as Russia raises legal objection

U.S. authorities said they intercepted a tanker in the Caribbean during a pre-dawn operation, while Russia later said the vessel was legally registered under its flag and seized on the high seas, Qazinform News Agency reports.

U.S. Southern Command said the interdiction took place as part of Operation Southern Spear, describing the ship as a stateless, sanctioned tanker involved in illicit activity in international waters. According to the statement, the operation was carried out with the participation of the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard. The tanker, identified as M/T Sophia, is being escorted to the United States for what officials called final disposition.

ussian authorities offered a different account. The Russian Ministry of Transport said the vessel, which it referred to as Marinera, had received temporary permission on December 24, 2025 to sail under the Russian flag in line with national legislation and international law. The ministry said that at about 3 p.m. Moscow time, U.S. naval forces boarded the ship in open waters beyond any state’s territorial sea, after which contact with the vessel was lost.

In its statement, the ministry cited the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, noting that freedom of navigation applies on the high seas and that states are not entitled to use force against vessels properly registered under another jurisdiction.

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07.01.2026, 17:41 37906

China activates emergency response after quake hits NW China's Xinjiang

The China Earthquake Administration (CEA) initiated a Level-IV emergency service response after a 5.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Tajik Autonomous County of Taxkorgan in the Kashgar region in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region early on Wednesday, Xinhua reports.

The earthquake struck the county at 3:17 a.m., according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The epicenter was monitored at 37.58 degrees north latitude and 74.93 degrees east longitude. The earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km, the CENC said.

Following the quake, the administration instructed the CENC and the regional earthquake agency of Xinjiang to launch emergency response, urging joint consultations, strengthened seismic monitoring, post-earthquake situation assessment, and timely updates.

The average altitude within 10 km of the epicenter is around 4,545 meters, according to the CEA. No casualties have been reported so far.

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04.01.2026, 18:57 59326

Trump says US will "run" Venezuela after Nicolás Maduro captured and taken to New York

Images | depositphotos.com

The US attacked Venezuela and captured its long-serving president Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, with Donald Trump promising to put the country under American control for now, even as Venezuelan officials vowed defiance, The Guardianreports.

As part of a dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas, US Special Forces captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, Trump said.

With Maduro in US custody, "we will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition", the US president said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind."

Trump hailed the attack - in which the New York Times reported at least 40 people, including civilians and Venezuelan soldiers, died - as "an assault like people have not seen since world war two".

A plane carrying Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, landed in upstate New York on Saturday evening, multiple news outlets reported.

Maduro, in US custody hours after being seized from his Caracas compound in a US raid, landed at Stewart air national guard base after 4.30pm in a white Boeing 757. He was expected to be taken by helicopter to New York City, where he will be processed and transported to the Metropolitan Detention Center prison, officials told NBC News.

They said the Venezuela president was set to appear in court by Monday evening.

Video shared by an official White House account appears to show Maduro in handcuffs being escorted by agents at the US Drug Enforcement Administration offices in New York.

The dramatic intervention in Caracas was condemned by Democrats on Capitol Hill and several leaders around the world as the most dangerous example of US imperialism since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Trump, who campaigned for the presidency with a promise to end foreign wars, did nothing to quell those fears when he told reporters that the US would be temporarily seizing control of Venezuela and its oil infrastructure.

Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chávez to succeed him in 2013, has accused the US of seeking to take control of his nation’s oil reserves, the biggest in the world.

At his press conference, Trump said: "We’re going to have our very large US oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so."

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03.01.2026, 19:15 68381

Trump says Maduro, his wife, captured, taken out of Venezuela

Images | Xinhua

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday in a Truth Social post that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of Venezuela, Xinhua reports.

Trump confirmed that the United States launched "a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro."

There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago," Trump added.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on early Saturday morning barred U.S. aircraft from flying at any altitude within Venezuelan airspace following reports of explosions in Caracas, citing "safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity."

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03.01.2026, 09:41 68601

Explosions were heard in Venezuela

Images | AP Photo / Matias Delacroix

Early Saturday morning that low-flying aircraft were spotted, and clouds of smoke were seen following loud explosion sounds in the Venezuelan capital, Xinhua reports.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed smoke rising from multiple locations in the capital, with residents seen fleeing in the streets.

Reports said brief power outages occurred in some areas, including a military base in Caracas.

According to media reports, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had banned U.S. commercial flights from Venezuelan airspace due to "ongoing military activity" shortly before the explosions were reported.

Hours after the incident, CBS White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs said that U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered the strikes, citing U.S. officials. FOX News also reported that U.S. officials had confirmed the military action.

Following the attacks, Venezuela condemned the incident as "military aggression" by the United States. The Venezuelan government said that the military strike targeted civilian and military sites in at least four states of the country, including Caracas, as well as the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, adding that the U.S. action blatantly violated the United Nations Charter.

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China to launch Chang'e-8 lunar mission around 2029, collaborating with international partners

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