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U.S. Navy aircraft carrier collides with merchant ship off Egypt

WASHINGTON (NYT) — A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier collided with a merchant vessel in the Mediterranean Sea shortly before midnight Wednesday near a port in Egypt, Navy officials said.

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The USS Harry S. Truman, a Nimitz-class carrier, had been operating in the Red Sea while deployed under U.S. Central Command since Dec. 14, helping to launch attacks in Yemen against Houthi militias there that have been attacking civilian ships and vessels tied to Israel.

There were no reports of flooding or injuries aboard the Truman, and the Navy said in a statement Thursday that the ship’s propulsion systems, powered by two onboard nuclear reactors, were “unaffected and in a safe and stable condition.”

Protests in Brussels halt over 400 flights and snarl public transit

(NYT) — Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators filled the streets of Brussels on Thursday during a nationwide strike to protest proposed cuts to public services, halting air traffic and causing other travel delays.

Brussels Airport said there would be no departing or arriving flights because of the strike, which included air traffic controllers, external security service workers and baggage handlers. More than 400 flights and 60,000 passengers were affected, the airport said, warning that it was likely to be very busy Friday as travelers rebooked later flights.

The Brussels police said that about 60,000 protesters took to the streets Thursday. The strike also disrupted public transit.

During the protest, a small group of people threw items, including plastic traffic barriers and metal bolts, at police officers.

Australia iron ore ports close to brace for category 5 cyclone

SYDNEY (Reuters) — Australia’s iron ore export hub, the world’s largest, braced on Friday for a powerful tropical cyclone, forcing the closure of all of the major commodity ports in the country’s northwest as residents rushed to stock up on essential supplies.

Cyclone Zelia, located in the Indian Ocean about 80 km (50 miles) north of Port Hedland, has been upgraded to a category five storm, the highest rating on the scale, Australia’s weather bureau said in its latest warning note.

The system is expected to make landfall on Friday evening near Port Hedland in the Pilbara region, packing wind gusts of up to 320 kph (200 mph) and bringing heavy rains across a 550 km sparsely populated stretch, the weather bureau said.

Dozens injured as driver crashes car into Munich protest

MUNICH (NYT) — An asylum-seeker from Afghanistan crashed a Mini Cooper into a union demonstration in Munich on Thursday, injuring more than two dozen people and adding to growing tensions around immigration before Germany’s chancellor election next week.

Authorities believe the 10:30 a.m. crash was a deliberate attack by the 24-year-old, said Markus Söder, the governor of Bavaria, the state of which Munich is the capital. Police said the car passed a police cruiser that was accompanying the demonstration and plowed into the crowd. Officers fired one shot while arresting the man.