Chinese Probe Lands on Moon | No Progress in US Shutdown

In a major step for Beijing’s space program — and for all human space exploration — the Chang’e 4 today completed the first-ever landing on the dark side of the moon. The spacecraft will probe the terrain around the South Pole-Aitken Basin, part of the largely unexplored lunar surface facing away from Earth. While the far side poses a communications challenge, scientists say its noise-free environment is ideal for pursuing radio astronomy. China hopes to send a follow-up probe next year that will return lunar samples to Earth.

Yesterday’s White House meeting, the first in 22 days, did little to break the impasse between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders over his demand for $5 billion to fund a border wall. Sen. Chuck Schumer urged Trump to accept the Democrats’ proposal to reopen the government while continuing to discuss border security. “I would look foolish if I did that,” the president reportedly responded. In a chaotic Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, Trump also slammed ex-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and dismissed a highly critical op-ed by Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.

For the first time in more than 15 years, the company cut its quarterly revenue forecast yesterday, thanks largely to a downturn in Chinese iPhone sales. CEO Tim Cook told investors Apple “did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration” in emerging markets, particularly in China — the world’s largest smartphone market, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of Apple’s sales. While the announcement could heighten concerns over the increasingly strained Chinese economy, it’s bad news for Apple too: Last year was the company’s worst since the financial crisis.

South Korea’s spy agency has reportedly told lawmakers that Pyongyang’s acting ambassador to Italy went into hiding with his wife in November, shortly before his term was due to end. One report claims Jo Song Gil sought asylum in an unspecified Western country. If confirmed, the defection would represent a major embarrassment to the North Korean regime, especially after its deputy ambassador to the U.K. abandoned his post in 2016. Jo, who had been in Rome since October 2017, is reportedly related to a high-ranking official in Pyongyang.

Know This: The death toll in Wednesday’s deadly train crash in Denmark has risen to eight. Two women who defied a centuries-old ban by entering a Hindu temple in southern India yesterday have sparked widespread protests. And U.S. officials in Russia have been granted access to the American citizen charged with espionage.

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After a 14-year-old driver and his two teen passengers enraged a Houston motorist by egging his car, the target of the ill-fated prank allegedly flashed his handgun and chased them. Running a red light, the teen crashed into a pickup driven by Silvia Zavala, 45, who was found dead at the scene. Prosecutors described her as “the only person who was doing nothing wrong.” The teen driver has been booked into a juvenile detention center, and the man involved in the chase is reportedly cooperating with police.

Although abolished in 2013, China’s laogai system of re-education though forced labor — primarily for political dissidents — seems to be making a comeback. Experts point to “striking” similarities between Maoist gulags and the regime’s current mass detention of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities that are deemed a threat to Beijing’s rule. The government says these “vocational education centers” aim to weed out extremism and help integrate minority groups into Chinese society. But relatives of those detained say their loved ones toil for little or no pay in daunting conditions.

Patrolling the solar system’s icy outskirts some 4.1 billion miles away, the New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back an image of 2014 MU69, two frozen space rocks that have fused together to resemble a snowman. On the probe’s New Year’s Day flyby it came within 2,200 miles of the 21-mile-wide object’s surface, gathering valuable data with its instruments. Scientists hope that data — which could take two years to fully download — could provide insight into the distant Kuiper Belt and the frozen planetary building blocks it may hold.

They didn’t see this coming. The streaming service’s dystopian thriller starring Sandra Bullock has gone viral in a dangerous way. Inspired by the film’s blindfolded characters, challenge participants are testing their abilities to complete day-to-day tasks while blindfolded. But Netflix is concerned, urging viewers not to “end up in the hospital due to memes.” Plenty of footage with the #BirdBoxChallenge hashtag already features people hurting themselves while failing in their attempts. Bird Box, seen by 45 million users in its first week, is Netflix’s best-ever debut.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has renewed its calls for live mascots to be banned from college sports after Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl, when Texas’ iconic longhorn steer, Bevo, charged into a crowd surrounding Georgia’s bulldog mascot, Uga. No one was injured in the incident — after which Texas topped Georgia 28-21 — but PETA lamented in a statement that the dog or anyone standing nearby “could easily have been trampled and killed.” The group implored fans to encourage their favorite college teams “to use willing human participants instead.”