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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
El Congreso pone fin al mandato de...
Las fuerzas militares de EEUU en todo el mundo ya no estarán obligadas a recibir la vacuna COVID-19, después de que se levantó el mandato en virtud de un proyecto de ley de gastos de defensa de $858 mil millones aprobado por el Congreso y promulgado el viernes por el presidente Joe Biden. El departamento tiene 30 días para trabajar en los detalles para rescindir el mandato. El Pentágono dijo el viernes que, mientras tanto, los servicios militares detendrían...

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Stuck at the border, migrants find a...
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — After fleeing violence in their Guatemalan town, but with their way to relatives in California blocked by continuing U.S. asylum restrictions, a family of 15 joined an Advent candlelight ceremony organized by their shelter just south of the border. The evening service in the Buen Samaritano shelter’s small Methodist church, which doubles as cafeteria, didn’t quite compare with the weekslong Christmas celebrations they had loved in Nueva Concepcion. Those included fireworks, tamales made with...

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Arctic chill may bring record low temperatures...
The D.C. region is still enduring a deep freeze Saturday after a flash freeze started the holiday weekend Friday evening, possibly bringing in record-low temperatures for Christmas Eve. Here’s what you need to know. After Friday’s heavy rain and blustery winds arrived, temperatures dipped into the upper teens overnight, with morning lows Saturday expected to drop to 10 degrees above zero, setting up a frigid next few days. “With this massive Arctic air mass now fully entrenched across much...

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Packed ICUs, crowded crematoriums: COVID roils Chinese...
BAZHOU, China (AP) — Yao Ruyan paced frantically outside the fever clinic of a county hospital in China’s industrial Hebei province, 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Beijing. Her mother-in-law had COVID-19 and needed urgent medical care, but all hospitals nearby were full. “They say there’s no beds here,” she barked into her phone. As China grapples with its first-ever national COVID-19 wave, emergency wards in small cities and towns southwest of Beijing are overwhelmed. Intensive care units are...

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Packed ICUs, crowded crematoriums: COVID roils Chinese...
BAZHOU, China (AP) — Yao Ruyan paced frantically outside the fever clinic of a county hospital in China’s industrial Hebei province, 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Beijing. Her mother-in-law had COVID-19 and needed urgent medical care, but all hospitals nearby were full. “They say there’s no beds here,” she barked into her phone. As China grapples with its first-ever national COVID-19 wave, emergency wards in small cities and towns southwest of Beijing are overwhelmed. Intensive care units are...

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Jamie Lee Curtis says the ‘nepo baby’...
Jamie Lee Curtis is opening up about her experiences in Hollywood as the child of movie stars, prompted by the current conversation around ‘nepo babies‘ — the term for children of notable figures whose familial ties are thought to have helped them find exposure and fame themselves. The actress, who is the daughter of “Psycho” star Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis of “Some Like It Hot” fame, posted to Instagram on Friday and immediately identified herself as an “OG...

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Weather Updates | Travel chaos, bitter cold,...
PORTLAND, Ore. — Emergency weather shelters in Portland, Oregon, called for volunteers amid high demand and staffing issues as a winter storm bringing snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures descended upon the area. An unprecedented number of people are seeking shelter in a region where thousands live outside, and many staff members have been unable to make it to their shifts because of dangerous road conditions or illness, officials said. Nearly 800 people slept at the city’s five...

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New this week: ‘White Noise,’ 21 Savage...
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES — Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise” has long been said to be “unfilmable.” But Noah Baumbach’s energetic movie, streaming Friday, Dec. 30, on Netflix, makes a spirited argument for its adaptation. In Baumbach’s “White Noise,” Adam Driver stars as Jack Gladney, a college professor with a teeming suburban family (Greta Gerwig co-stars as his wife,...

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Winter weather live updates | Travel chaos,...
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Extreme cold, powerful wind and blowing snow are wreaking havoc on holiday travelers. The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center calls it a “historic winter storm.” If you’re in the U.S., there’s a good chance winter weather of some sort is in your forecast. The weather service says its map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.” By the numbers: — 181 million people are under wind chill warnings...

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Radical dialogue and open roads in ‘Women...
NEW YORK (AP) — When Sarah Polley has flown from her home in Toronto to the U.S. this year for the release of her film “Women Talking,” she’s had conversations with customs officials that usually go something like this: “What are you here for?” “I’m screening a film.” “What’s the name of the film?” “Women Talking.” “Then I get either the biggest eyeroll you’ve ever seen or I get something openly confrontational like, ‘I’ve had enough of that in...

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Review: Clumsy Whitney Houston biopic mars its...
Whitney Houston’s voice was one of a kind and the creative team behind a new big-budget biopic of the singer had no choice but to agree. Naomi Ackie, who plays Houston in “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” turns in a fierce performance but is asked to lip-sync throughout to Houston biggest hits. The effect is, at best, an expensive karaoke session. The dilemma that Houston’s own prodigious gift put everyone in is understandable: The chances of finding someone who...

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With House shifting, Senate locks in Ukraine...
WASHINGTON (AP) — On the heels of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s emotional appeal for continued U.S. support, the Senate voted Thursday to ensure the money keeps flowing for years, even after Republicans take control of the House. Ukraine will receive $44.9 billion in aid as part of the massive $1.7 trillion government spending bill. Passed by the Senate with a vote of 68-29, the bill now goes to the House for a final vote before it can be sent...

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Rain, then look for bitterly cold conditions
Sleet and freezing rain will continue to fall in the D.C. area Thursday, and heavier rain is expected later this evening ahead of a record Arctic cold front on Friday. The cold could bring the D.C. region its coldest Christmas in 20 years. The wintry conditions made parts of Interstate 66 icy north of Front Royal, Virginia, said Storm Team4 meteorologist Mike Stinneford. And many areas west of Interstate 95 have been below freezing Thursday morning. The light precipitation...

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Review: Remake ‘Ikiru’? ‘Living,’ with Bill Nighy,...
It’s probably not fair, this season especially, to recoil at the remaking of a classic. “A Christmas Carol,” for one, has been told and retold countless times, and who among us won’t jump at the chance to watch the Muppets or Bill Murray do their version of Dickens. Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film “Ikiru” has no holiday connection, but it likewise concerns the late-in-life redemption of an old man whose awakening comes amid softly falling snow. There’s a good case...

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El pleno de Diputados de España aprobó...
(CNN) — El Proyecto de Ley para la igualdad real y efectiva de las personas trans y para la garantía de los derechos de las personas LGTBI —también conocida como”Ley trans”— fue aprobada este jueves por el Pleno del Congreso de los Diputados de España. La votación resultó con 188 votos a favor, 150 en contra y 7 abstenciones. Ahora, la iniciativa será remitida al Senado, donde deberá ser aprobada para convertirse en ley. La Cámara Alta tendrá 20...

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