Three MiG-31 jets flew over Vaindloo Island and stayed there for nearly 12 minutes.
NATO allies scrambled Italian F-35s to repel the planes – which had their transponders turned off.
Security expert Will Geddes told The Sun: “What we’re increasingly seeing is incursions into NATO country airspace, whether that be Poland, quite recently on September 10, with drones, whether it be Romania, or now Estonia.
“This is becoming increasingly concerning, as NATO has a joint agreement in terms of protecting their airspace.”
He added: “I think what it really comes down to is the fact that Russia is testing NATO countries, and testing their aerial defence measures.”
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One of the Russian mig-31 fighter jets that flew into Estonian airspaceCredit: Reuters
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Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a meeting with leaders of the political parties represented in the State DumaCredit: AP
The Chinese tech titan is about to collect several billion dollars it can deploy for various purposes.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group(BABA 2.24%) was standing tall on the stock market Wednesday. Fueled by a successful round of capital-raising, the company’s U.S.-traded American depositary shares (ADSes) were rising by nearly 3% in late-session action. That was easily outpacing the S&P 500 index’s gain of 0.2% at that point.
Billions of dollars in fresh capital
Alibaba announced that it has completed a roughly $3.2 billion flotation of zero coupon convertible senior notes. The purchasers were “certain non-U.S. persons,” it did not identify.
Image source: Getty Images.
These securities can be converted into ADSes at an initial rate of nearly 5.18 per every $1,000 in principal amount of the notes. The notes mature in 2032 if not converted. Alibaba stressed that the conversion rate is subject to adjustment, under certain conditions.
At the initial rate, Alibaba wrote, the conversion price would be $193.15 per ADS. That’s a more than 31% premium to the price of the company’s Hong Kong-listed ordinary shares.
The company said it will use the amount it nets from the sales of the notes for “general corporate purposes.” The two specific uses it mentioned were a bolstering of its cloud infrastructure and international operations.
Dilution? What dilution?
Investors liked the idea of Alibaba raising capital in this way because the note issue won’t end up being too dilutive to existing shareholders, or present a huge additional burden to the balance sheet. The market cap of the ADSes currently tips the sales at almost $397 billion, while at the end of its latest-reported quarter its debt pile stood at 227 billion Hong Kong dollars ($32 billion).
A WOMAN has been charged after two children were killed in a horrific hit-and-run.
Roman Casselden, 16, and nine-year-old Darcie Casselden tragically died after a privately owned e-scooter they were riding on collided with a car in Pitsea, Essex, on February 1.
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Roman Casselden, 16, died after the shocking crashCredit: GoFundMe
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His sister Darcie, 9, also tragically died following the crash
Deimante Ziobryte, 21, appeared at Basildon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, August 28, charged with failing to stop at the scene of a collision.
Essex Police said Ms Ziobryte remains on bail in connection with other driving offences, with an investigation ongoing into these.
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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Shoppers were left stunned when the holidaymaker decided to mount the life-sized model bovine outside a popular Ale-Hop store in Playa Fañabé, Costa Adeje, causing consternation among locals
The tourist was spotted atop the cow(Image: DAILY MIRROR)
Anglo-Iberian relations have taken another dent after a British man rode a well-known cow in Tenerife.
Shoppers were left stunned when the holidaymaker decided to mount the life-sized model bovine outside a popular Ale-Hop store in Playa Fañabé, Costa Adeje.
The shop employees calmed the man, who had declared himself a “real cowboy”, according to Canarian Weekly. He gave up on his attempts to remove the cow after giving it one big tug on its horns.
The incident has caused ire among locals, who have been left unimpressed by the daytime antics.
“It’s called disrespect, but well, that’s already normalized, like so many things,” one wrote beneath a post online including the video. Another wrote: “That’s the kind of tourism they send to the Canary Islands. It’s like this everywhere, and then the British press is surprised by the protests that take place.”
The incident is not the first cow-related shock to cause alarm on the Canary island. Back in 2019, tourists visiting Tenerife were left baffled by the sight of dead cows floating in the sea and being washed up onto the beaches.
The animals were spotted in areas popular for Brits over a seven-day period. One cow was washed up on the tourist beach of Playa de La Jaquita near the coastal resort of El Médano. Council workers were called to dispose of the carcass.
The cow corpses came from freighters loaded with live cattle, which travelled from South America. Such boats are forbidden from mooring at some ports in Europe, including Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. If and when cows die during the crossing, they are tossed overboard.
When it comes to alcohol-related incidents that have caused strife between Spaniards and Brits, there are plenty. Late-night brawls that have spilled onto the streets of Playa de las Américas have been a regular occurrence, as have visitors leaping into hotel pools fully clothed.
A group of holidaymakers were fined for climbing onto a parked police car for photos back in 2023, around the same time that a stag party blocked traffic by staging an impromptu conga line over a busy roundabout in Costa Adeje.
One festivalgoer has taken his journey to Glastonbury to all new lengths as he’s been cycling 100km a day for almost a month in a bid to get to Worthy Farm from Madrid, Spain
Ollie White has been cycling from Madrid, Spain, to get Glastonbury Festival in Somerset (Image: Instagram/Ollie White )
The countdown to Glastonbury is fast approaching, with mere days to go before hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers pitch up their tents for five days of spectacular performances. While many will be travelling by car, train or coach, one man is so dedicated to the UK’s biggest festival that he’s riding a whopping 100km a day on his bike to get there!
Ollie White, 25, started his lengthy journey at the end of May from Madrid, Spain, where he lives and works as a content creator for La Liga, the Spanish football league. Over the course of almost a month, he has ventured across majestic mountains, the biggest sand dune in Europe, serene coastlines and desert-like landscapes with just a backpack, a tent and his bicycle.
In total, Ollie will travel over 1,600km, or 994 miles, to Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, racking up 62 miles a day.
With just a few days to go until the gates open at Glastonbury on Wednesday, 25 June, at 8 am, Ollie has almost completed his trek and has been documenting his journey on TikTok and Instagram every day.
The 25-year-old has been documenting his journey on social media (Image: Instagram/Ollie White)
In his most recent update on Sunday, 22 June, Ollie confirmed that he reached Plymouth before heading to Totnes, Devon, where he’d stay the night. He is hoping to reach Glastonbury by Tuesday, 24 June.
When asked by the BBC why he opted to ride from Madrid to Worthy Farm, he simply said: “I have a ticket for Glastonbury, so why not cycle?”
Speaking further about his experience, he also shared with the news outlet: “A lot of people think I’m crazy for doing this, but for me it doesn’t seem too crazy.
“It’s just a challenge I’ve set myself and, at the end of the day, once you’ve done all the preparation, you just have to get on the bike each day and do the kilometres.”
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Ollie would have travelled over 1,600km by the time he gets to Worthy Farm(Image: Instagram/Ollie White)
He described his adventure as “absolutely incredible” and that “everything has been really positive”. He’s spent time camping alone in secluded, yet beautiful spots across Europe and the UK, while taking in nature and the incredible scenery during each leg of his journey.
When he finally reaches his end location, Ollie has a list of performances lined up to watch during the weekend at Glastonbury, including Neil Young, Loyle Carner, Kneecap, Caribou, Scissor Sisters and Kaiser Chiefs.
He adds that Neil Young has been a particularly good soundtrack while riding through endless countries.
It’s easy to be seduced by the romance of train travel. Think of sleeper trains, boat trains, vintage steam railways, elegant dining cars. But it’s rare that an urban transport system can capture the imagination quite as much as the Wuppertal Schwebebahn in Germany caught mine, and that of anyone else who’s clapped eyes on the world’s oldest suspended railway.
In October it will be 125 years since Kaiser Wilhelm II took a test ride in the Schwebebahn, just a few months before the hanging railway officially opened for business in March 1901. It was an incredible feat of engineering then, and remains so today. Even with sleek modern carriages having long replaced the original ones, it looks like something imagined by Jules Verne, with carriages smoothly gliding under the overhead track. They have even preserved the first 1901 carriage, nicknamed Kaiserwagen, which can be hired for private occasions.
A childlike feeling of glee filled me as I sat in the rear of the long carriage and watched the city reveal itself as I floated anything from 8 to 9 metres (26ft to 29ft) above it. At the railway’s westernmost end, Vohwinkel is the first of only four stations whose carriages run above the street, between iron arches. The rest of the railway, which in total runs for just over eight miles, follows the route of the river Wupper. As the hanging train curves and sways above the serpentine river, it turns this commuter service into something like a fairground ride for its 80,000 daily passengers. My hitherto unknown train geek had been unleashed and was utterly delighted.
The Schwebebahn railway follows the route of the River Wupper. Photograph: Hackenberg-Photo-Cologne/Alamy
The Schwebebahn came about almost by accident. The Wupper valley, about 15 miles east of Düsseldorf, was a major textile production base when Germany was undergoing its own Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. As workers flooded to the growing cities of Barmen and Elberfeld – which merged in 1929 and were renamed Wuppertal in 1930 – the authorities realised a public transport system was needed. Other cities were going underground, but Wuppertal’s rocky soil and narrow, steep valley made any sort of U-Bahn impossible, forcing the Schwebebahn’s inventor, Eugen Langen, to look up instead.
At Schwebodrom, the railway museum that opened in late 2023 near Werther Brücke station at the line’s eastern end, the rich history of the Schwebebahn is laid out in three galleries, revealing one fascinating detail after another. One gallery tells the story of Tuffi, a young circus elephant loaded into the Schwebebahn for a publicity stunt in 1950. Poor Tuffi was so spooked by jostling journalists that she bolted through a window and tumbled into the river. Luckily she was only lightly bruised and lived for another 49 years, her landing spot in the Wupper now marked by an elephant statue between Alter Markt and Adler Brücke stations. You can’t move in Wuppertal without seeing Tuffi on some souvenir or another – even on milk cartons.
Among the museum’s films and displays, the highlight for me was the reproduction of an original carriage, where I sat glued to my VR headset and found myself in 1920s Wuppertal. After riding the rails in real life, I was able to go back in time to see what had changed. Much of Wuppertal had to be rebuilt after heavy allied bombing in the second world war, and the railway itself has been completely reconstructed – including its art nouveau stations – while keeping the original steampunk-style design in the iron girders.
But there is a Wuppertal beyond the Schwebebahn, and this city of about 350,000 people was as full of pleasant surprises as its railway. Local guide Heike Fragemann took me to the tree-lined streets around Laurentiusplatz, a square dominated by the austere-looking 19th-century basilica of St Lawrence, dedicated to Wuppertal’s patron saint. Popular with many of the 23,000 students at the University of Wuppertal as well as people of all ages, the cosmopolitan streets hummed with cafes, delis, boutiques, bars and restaurants run by some of the many nationalities that have settled here over the decades – Italian, Turkish, Greek, Indian, Vietnamese and Spanish among them. In fact, the range of restaurants throughout the city was huge, and also included Lebanese, Chinese, Croatian and traditional German fare.
Pointing out an example of Wuppertal’s distinctive style of architecture – slate cladding, green shutters and white window frames – Heike led me along the narrow streets behind Laurentiusplatz as we steadily walked uphill. Not only was Wuppertal Germany’s Manchester because of its industry, Heike told me, but it was also compared to San Francisco thanks to its steepness. “We are the city of steps,” she said as we came to yet another one. “We have 500 staircases, more than 12,000 steps within the city. This is the most famous one.” She pointed to a sign with the captivating name of Tippen-Tappen-Tönchen, in honour of those 19th-century workmen clopping in their wooden clogs towards the riverside factories – hence the tipping-tapping sound. One to add to my list of adorable street names.
The Botanical Garden, one of many public gardens in Wuppertal, a city shaped by wealthy 19th-century industrialists. Photograph: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy
It was the wealthy 19th-century industrialists who shaped the city, not just with their comfortable hillside villas, but also with Wuppertal’s cultural institutions. The Von der Heydt Museum, named after an art-collecting banking family, houses its impressive collection of 19th- and early 20th-century art in what had been the neoclassical town hall. The entrance is flanked by two large sculptures by the Liverpool-born Turner prize-winner Tony Cragg, who made Wuppertal his home in 1977. The Historische Stadthalle concert hall, marking its 125th anniversary this year, had Richard Strauss as one of its first conductors and Sir Simon Rattle rated its acoustics among the best in the world. Public gardens fill many of the gaps in the city, including the vast hilly Botanical Garden.
As I sat in the warm, bookish surroundings of Café Engel in Laurentiusplatz, I was reminded of Friedrich Engels, the son of a wealthy Wuppertal textile manufacturer, who turned his back on his bourgeois background to co-author The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx after seeing the appalling working conditions in mid-19th-century Manchester. Engels died in London six years before the Schwebebahn opened, and it was many years earlier that the city’s industrialists had already implemented social reforms for working-class residents that were ahead of their time. The Schwebebahn, too, looks like something from the future, but its story is purely of Wuppertal’s unique past. Here, in Germany’s old industrial heartland, the high life is yours from €3.60 a ticket.
