Stephen Lewis, social activist and former politician, dead at 88

On December 19, 2025, 3I/ATLAS—a comet from another solar system—quietly made its closest pass to Earth at a distance of 270 million kilometres, nearly twice as far away as the sun. It was my son’s birthday. I thought about the interstellar visitor as my daughter, wife, and I took turns dragging his wandering monster truck balloon back to the table and again, later that day, as he exhaled a wish through the golden candle on his birthday brownie. For months, speculation had swirled about this strange comet, with its peculiar features and behaviour, including the fact that its tail pointed...