Distant shores

The UK government is putting a lot of money into funding a space-based climate monitoring facility which it can presumably flog to other countries (so they have something technically correct to read while they drown.)
Meanwhile, Uncle Sam is planning to show the Chinese who's boss by conspicuously using it's missile defense system to shoot down a dud spy-satellite, and the Russians are also flexing their inter-continental ballistic muscle as the Great Game recommences.

Oh, and big science once again confirms that it is, indeed, a big universe,- and everything else is very, very, very far away.