Rocket Lab launched a rocket from a remote sheep and cattle farm in New Zealand
Happy Friday everyone, this is Anna getting you caught up on news before the weekend.
Disco danger - Astronomers have widely criticised a privately owned, New Zealand-based space company after it secretly put a satellite similar to a giant disco ball into orbit. Last week startup Rocket Lab launched a rocket from a remote sheep and cattle farm on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Some scientists have called the move ‘space graffiti’, arguing that it will cause light pollution.
Trump to apologise - Donald Trump is prepared to apologise for retweeting videos by the far-right group Britain First, he told Piers Morgan in an interview. Trump said he did not know anything about Britain First when he shared the posts by the group’s deputy leader, Jayda Fransen. ‘If you are telling me they’re horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you’d like me to do that,’ he told Morgan.
Blaze in South Korea - At least 41 people have been killed in a fire at a hospital in South Korea, with dozens more injured, in a ferocious blaze. The six-storey structure houses a nursing home, as well. A spokesman for the national fire agency said more than 70 other people had been injured, 13 of them critically.
Oscars absence - Casey Affleck has decided not to present the Oscar for best actress at this year’s ceremony. According to a representative from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the actor has notified the organization that he will not be attending the event. The star is understood not to want to distract from the #MeToo movement given previous allegations against him for sexual harassment on the set of the mockumentary I’m Still Here.
No Van Gogh - The Guggenheim Museum has reportedly rejected a White House request to borrow a Van Gogh painting, and has instead offered the Trump administration use of a golden toilet. The White House had asked New York’s Guggenheim to borrow Landscape With Snow, but the Guggenheim’s chief curator, Nancy Spector, turned down the request, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Instead she said the White House could loan an 18-carat toilet – an installation by artist Maurizio Cattelan.
Battle of the shoppers - A discount on Nutella has led to violent clashes in a chain of French supermarkets, as customers battles it out to pick up a bargain on the chocolate spread. Intermarché supermarkets offered a 70% discount on Nutella, bringing the price down from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40. But police were called when people began fighting and pushing one another, with some coming away bloodied and bruised.