Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The U.S. has expressed concern over China's ‘provocative’ actions after Taiwan reported a record 93 Chinese incursions into its air defence zone over the weekend, according to the BBC, citing Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
The spike in incursions began Friday daytime, with 18 J-16 twinjet, multirole fighters; four SU-30 twin-engine, supermaneuverable fighters; two H-6 twin-engine bombers and one Y-8 anti-submarine plane entering Taiwan’s southwest air defense zone.
A separate round of flights occurred on Friday night, involving 10 J-16s, two H-6s and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control plane, which took the total to 38, a record timed to coincide with celebrations of China’s national day.
Taiwan scrambled jets, issued radio warnings and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the activity, according to its Ministry of National Defense. However, the following day the incursions increased again, to 39 in total.
In the daytime on Saturday the ministry said 20 planes made incursions, including 14 J-16s, four SU-30s and two Y-8 anti-submarine planes.
On Saturday night, a further 19 incursions took place, involving 12 J-16s, six SU-30s and one KJ500 airborne early warning and control plane.
Sunday saw a slight reduction in numbers, with just 19 incursions.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The U.S. has expressed concern over China's ‘provocative’ actions after Taiwan reported a record 93 Chinese incursions into its air defence zone over the weekend, according to the BBC, citing Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
The spike in incursions began Friday daytime, with 18 J-16 twinjet, multirole fighters; four SU-30 twin-engine, supermaneuverable fighters; two H-6 twin-engine bombers and one Y-8 anti-submarine plane entering Taiwan’s southwest air defense zone.
A separate round of flights occurred on Friday night, involving 10 J-16s, two H-6s and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control plane, which took the total to 38, a record timed to coincide with celebrations of China’s national day.
Taiwan scrambled jets, issued radio warnings and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the activity, according to its Ministry of National Defense. However, the following day the incursions increased again, to 39 in total.
In the daytime on Saturday the ministry said 20 planes made incursions, including 14 J-16s, four SU-30s and two Y-8 anti-submarine planes.
On Saturday night, a further 19 incursions took place, involving 12 J-16s, six SU-30s and one KJ500 airborne early warning and control plane.
Sunday saw a slight reduction in numbers, with just 19 incursions.



![Antarctica’s ‘Glue’ Is Coming Unstuck.
ANTARCTICA — The 2017 calving of the A68 iceberg from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf was likely caused by thinning ice melange[d], the mix of windblown snow, iceberg debris and frozen seawater that normally acts to glue rifts together with larger blocks.
That’s according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which found the circulation of ocean water beneath ice shelves and radiative warming from above gradually deteriorates the ice melange.
Counterintuitively, if the ice shelves themselves thin, rifts tend to heal, with average annual widening rates dropping from 79 to 22 meters, or 259 to 72 feet. Additionally, if both the shelves and the melange thinned, this also slowed rift widening.
Only when the melange thinned separately to the ice shelf was rift widening found to increase, from an average annual rate of 76 to 112 meters, or 249 to 367 feet.
The reason for that is that the ice melange starts out much thinner than the ice shelf itself, so when it thins down to 10 or 15 meters thick, it becomes akin to water, allowing the ice shelf rifts to be released and start to crack.
The study’s lead author, Eric Larour, cited by SciTechDaily, says this idea explains why the A68 iceberg was able to break from the Larsen C ice shelf in the dead of the Antarctic winter, because even in winter, warmer ocean water can reach the melange from below.
Previously scientists had thought such large iceberg calving events in the Antarctic Peninsula were caused by hydrofracturing, according to Larour, whereby ‘melt pools on the surface allow water to seep down through cracks in the ice shelf, which expand when the water freezes again,’ but this would not be possible in the dead of winter, with no melt pools present.
The study, then, partially explains how ice shelves can start retreating and becoming unstable decades before hydrofracturing could act on them, and this, according to one of the study’s co-authors, means “we may need to rethink our estimates about the timing and extent of sea level rise from polar ice loss — i.e., it could come sooner and with a bigger bang than expected.” Antarctica’s ‘Glue’ Is Coming Unstuck.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rbVDd_H12es/mqdefault.jpg)


![MORE Bloodshed as U.S. Completes Withdrawal: Rockets Fired and U.S. Drone Attack Kills Civilians
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The Taliban have taken over Kabul airport following the departure of the final U.S. flight on Tuesday morning, according to the BBC, but only after a rocket attack on the airport on Monday.
As many as five rockets were fired according to U.S. Major General William Taylor at a Pentagon briefing, with three landing off the airfield with no effect, one intercepted by an anti-missile system and another landing inside with no danger to personnel.
In the hours after the attack, footage emerged showing the remains of a four-door sedan that appeared to have been used by the attackers.
IS-K, an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it fired at least six Katyusha [d]rockets, according to The Associated Press, which added that rockets also struck a neighborhood close to the airport.
The attack followed a suicide bomb last week which killed at least 95 people, according to the BBC, as well a deadly U.S. drone strike which blew up a vehicle carrying IS suicide bombers planning to attack the airport, according to The Associated Press.
However, relatives cited by The Associated Press said it also killed civilians who had nothing to do with the extremist group. MORE Bloodshed as U.S. Completes Withdrawal: Rockets Fired and U.S. Drone Attack Kills Civilians](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/s5sQEaQfLgw/mqdefault.jpg)



