Briefly

UKRAINE

Kyiv, Moscow carry out largest prisoner swap

Ukraine announced on Wednesday the exchange of a record high 215 imprisoned soldiers with Russia, including fighters who led the defense of Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks that became an icon of the conflict. Russia received 55 prisoners including former Ukrainian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily address. The swap was the biggest exchange between the two sides since the start of the conflict in February. Ten prisoners from countries including the United States and Britain were earlier transferred to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as part of the exchange between Moscow and Kyiv.

UNITED KINGDOM

Catholics outnumber others in N. Ireland

Northern Ireland has more Catholics than Protestants for the first time, census results showed on Thursday, a historic shift that some see as likely to help drive support for the region to split from Britain and join a united Ireland. The shift comes a century after Northern Ireland was established with the aim of maintaining a pro-British, Protestant "unionist "majority as a counterweight to the newly independent, predominantly Catholic, Irish state to the south. Data from the 2021 census released on Thursday showed 45.7 percent of respondents now identified as Catholic or were brought up Catholic, compared with 43.5 percent identifying as Protestants.

UNITED STATES

Delayed moon rocket passes fueling test

NASA said on Wednesday it had successfully carried out the fueling process for its new rocket, after technical issues a few weeks ago halted two attempts to get the behemoth off the ground and head toward the moon. The unmanned mission hopes to test the new 30-story SLS rocket as well as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits atop it, in preparation for future moon-bound journeys with humans aboard. The last attempt in early September to launch NASA's most powerful rocket yet had to be aborted because of a leak.

Agencies via Xinhua