Briefly

UNITED STATES

Judge reinstates ban on late-term abortions

A federal judge on Wednesday reinstated a decades-old North Carolina ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks of gestation, citing the US Supreme Court's recent decision allowing states to freely regulate procedures to terminate the pregnancy. US District Judge William Osteen in Greensboro lifted an injunction he had imposed in May 2019 barring enforcement of the 20-week cutoff as a violation of the Supreme Court's 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade opinion.

RUSSIA

Spacesuit disrupts astronauts' spacewalk

Two Russian astronauts ended their spacewalk earlier than planned on Wednesday as one of them had a battery issue with his spacesuit, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said. Oleg Artemiev and Denis Matveev, members of the 67th long-term expedition to the International Space Station, completed their spacewalk that lasted 4 hours and 1 minute. According to the plan, work overboard the ISS should last 6 hours and 44 minutes.

GERMANY

Regulator sees gas target as tall order

Germany would almost certainly fail to meet its gas reserve targets in the face of a Russian supply squeeze, said Klaus Mueller, president of the Federal Network Agency, on Thursday. Warning of looming shortages, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck outlined a series of targets last month for gas stocks to reach 95 percent by Nov 1 ahead of the cold German winter. But the next benchmark－85 percent capacity by Oct 1－"is not impossible but certainly very ambitious", Mueller said.

ALGERIA

Forest blazes claim at least 38 lives

Algerian firefighters were battling a string of blazes on Thursday, fanned by drought and a blistering heat wave, that have killed at least 38 people and left destruction in their wake. The victims were mostly in the El Tarf region near Algeria's eastern border with Tunisia. At least 200 more people have suffered burns or respiratory problems from the smoke, according to local media.

Agencies - Xinhua