Briefly

UNITED STATES

Young gamer beats 'unbeatable' Tetris

The falling-block video game Tetris has met its match in 13-year-old Willis Gibson, who has become the first player to officially "beat" the original Nintendo version of the game — by breaking it. Technically, Willis — also known as "blue scuti" in the gaming world — made it to what gamers call a "kill screen", a point where the Tetris code glitches, crashing the game. Willis managed on Dec 21 to trigger a kill screen on Level 157, which the gaming world takes as a victory over the game — something along the lines of pushing the software past its own limits.

EUROPE

Kyiv, Moscow swap hundreds of prisoners

Ukraine and Russia said on Wednesday they had exchanged over 200 captive soldiers each, in what officials have described as the biggest prisoner swap of the conflict so far. The two warring sides have carried out dozens of exchanges since Moscow launched the special military operation in February 2022. In near simultaneous statements, Russia and Ukraine announced they had received over 200 soldiers each following talk mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

Agencies Via Xinhua