While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 27

Moscow and Kyiv on Wednesday agreed at talks in Paris that all parties should observe a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine after more than eight hours of discussions which were hailed by a French diplomat as sending a “good signal”.

A Russian troop build-up close to the border with east of Ukraine has raised fears the Kremlin is planning military intervention in its pro-EU neighbour as Moscow presses demands over Nato’s presence in eastern Europe.

An aide to French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the Paris talks had been about resolving the separatist fighting in eastern Ukraine since 2014, not the threat of a Russian invasion.

But “the question was whether the Russians wanted to signal a thaw”, he said, adding that the “difficult” discussions had ultimately resulted in something positive.

US government scientists said on Wednesday they have taken an important step in the long trek towards making nuclear fusion - the very process that powers stars - a viable energy source for humankind.

Using the world's largest laser, the researchers coaxed fusion fuel for the first time to heat itself beyond the heat they zapped into it, achieving a phenomenon called a burning plasma that marked a stride towards self-sustaining fusion energy.

The energy produced was modest - about the equivalent of nine nine-volt batteries of the kind that power smoke detectors and other small devices. But the experiments  represented a milestone in the decades-long quest to harness fusion energy, even as the researchers cautioned that years of more work are needed.

More than a third of airline pilots are still not flying as the pandemic continues to take its toll on aviation globally, according to a new survey, though the situation has improved from a year earlier when the majority were grounded.

A poll of more than 1,700 pilots, released on Wednesday, found 62 per cent globally were employed and currently flying, up from 43 per cent a year earlier.

The proportion of unemployed pilots fell from 30 per cent to 20 per cent. But in the Asia-Pacific region, the worst-hit globally by a drop in international travel due to tough border restrictions, the proportion of those unemployed rose from 23 per cent to 25 per cent. The region also had the lowest number that were employed flying at 53 per cent.

A chunk of a SpaceX rocket that blasted off seven years ago and was abandoned in space after completing its mission will crash into the Moon in March, experts say.

The rocket was deployed in 2015 to put into orbit a Nasa satellite called the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

Since then, the second stage of the rocket, or booster, has been floating in what mathematicians call a chaotic orbit, astronomer Bill Gray told AFP on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signalled it is likely to raise US interest rates in March and reaffirmed plans to end its bond purchases that month as well before launching what was characterised as a significant reduction in its asset holdings.

The combined moves will complete the Fed’s pivot away from the loose monetary policy that has defined the coronavirus pandemic era and towards a more urgent fight against inflation.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell, speaking in a news conference after the end of a two-day policy meeting, said the US central bank will be open-minded as it adjusts monetary policy to keep persistently high inflation from becoming entrenched.