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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.

 
Lanterns and crescents: more retailers court Ramadan...
With her 3-year-old daughter sitting inside a red Target shopping cart, Aya Khalil looked through the aisles with anticipation. The author was on a mission: See for herself that her children’s book about a boy and his grandmother baking for an Islamic feast was actually carried by her local Target store in Toledo. “Oh my God! … It’s right there,” Khalil said on spotting “The Night Before Eid.” “Oh yeaaaaah!” her daughter joyously exclaimed. Khalil giggled. For Khalil, it...

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Sinner stuns top-ranked Alcaraz in Miami Open...
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Tenth-seeded Jannick Sinner of Italy stunned top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz on Friday night in the Miami Open semifinals, rallying from a set down to beat the defending champion, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2 in a three-hour thriller. Sinner ended Alcaraz’s winning streak at 10 matches before a packed house at Hard Rock Stadium. Sinner’s powerfully steady baseline game wore down Alcaraz, who appeared to be cramping early in the decisive third set while he also dealt...

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Lakers overtake Timberwolves in standings with 123-111...
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Davis scored 17 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter and had 17 rebounds to lift the Los Angeles Lakers past Minnesota 123-111 and leapfrog the Timberwolves on Friday night in the crowded Western Conference playoff race. “You’ve got to have that one pivotal force that’s leading the charge, and in our case with this particular team here in the moment it’s AD,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “When he comes out and he’s...

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Members of exiled Chinese church detained in...
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — More than 60 self-exiled members of a Chinese Christian church who were detained in Thailand paid fines for overstaying their visas but remained in police custody Saturday uncertain about their legal status amid fears they would be deported against their will to their home country, where they face possible persecution. The 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church were taken to court Friday in the resort city of Pattaya after being detained a day...

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Pop icon Leslie Cheung’s legacy endures 20...
HONG KONG (AP) — Fans of late Canto-pop icon Leslie Cheung, one of the first singers to come out as gay in Hong Kong, flocked to the city this week to commemorate their idol’s death 20 years ago — revisiting his legacy of pioneering work made during a socially conservative time. Cheung, who was 46 when he died, was a superstar known for his singing, dancing and acting during the heyday of Hong Kong’s entertainment industry in the 1980s...

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San Diego County supervisor to resign after...
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The chair of San Diego County’s board of supervisors said he will resign amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a government employee, completing a swift and shocking fall for a decorated Marine combat veteran whose star rose with his Democratic Party’s ascendancy in the nation’s eighth-largest city. Nathan Fletcher, who defected from the Republican Party in 2012, was elected to a second term with 65% of the vote in November, two years after Democrats won...

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Harris enters the fray over democracy with...
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday encouraged Tanzania’s fragile progress toward a more inclusive government, stepping onto the front lines of America’s push to strengthen democracy in Africa as part of her weeklong trip to the continent. Standing alongside Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania’s first female president, Harris cited recent decisions from Tanzania such as lifting a ban on opposition rallies and encouraging more press freedom as “important and meaningful steps” toward democratic reforms....

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Indonesia stripped of hosting Under-20 World Cup...
GENEVA (AP) — Indonesia was stripped of hosting rights for the Under-20 World Cup on Wednesday only eight weeks before the start of the tournament amid political turmoil regarding Israel’s participation. FIFA said Indonesia was removed from staging the 24-team tournament scheduled to start on May 20 “due to the current circumstances” without specifying details. The decision followed a meeting in Doha, Qatar between Indonesian soccer federation president Erick Thohir and Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, soccer’s world...

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Recent cosmic explosion likely the ‘brightest of...
Watch Video: New image from James Webb Telescope shows star about to become supernova NASA astronomers recently spotted a burst of radiation that was quickly crowned the “BOAT”: the brightest of all time. The source of the radiation, which NASA said “swept through the solar system” on Oct. 9, 2022, was a gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion. NASA said in a news release that the gamma-ray burst triggered spacecraft detectors. Researchers and astronomers around the world...

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A different March Madness: Online hate for...
HOUSTON (AP) — It wasn’t so much that social media was criticizing his son. That happens sometimes — especially after a loss like THAT. But when a post came up suggesting Terrance Williams II, a junior forward for Michigan, be left for dead in a ditch, his dad decided enough was enough. Terrance Williams Sr.’s profanity-laced response to all the haters was, in many ways, an expected byproduct of social media vitriol that bubbled up after the Wolverines blew...

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Nashville shooter who killed 6 drew maps,...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A former student shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school and killed three children and three adults after elaborately planning the massacre by drawing out a detailed map and conducting surveillance of the building, police said. The massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville was the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country that has grown increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools. The victims included three 9-year-old children, the school’s...

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Renée Fleming stars as `Nixon in China’...
PARIS (AP) — After spending decades portraying generals’ wives, a countess and a courtesan, Renée Fleming walked gingerly onto the stage of the Bastille Opera in a blond wig, red coat and black gloves to depict Pat Nixon, former first lady of the United States. John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” a 1987 work among the most acclaimed American operas, received its Paris Opera premiere on Saturday night to eight minutes of applause following a revelatory production by Argentine director...

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Lamar Jackson says he has requested trade...
Lamar Jackson said Monday he has requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens. In a series of tweets, the star quarterback said he requested a trade as of March 2. On March 7, the Ravens put the nonexclusive franchise tag on Jackson and said they were still hopeful they could reach a long-term deal with him. That version of the franchise tag allowed Jackson to negotiate with other teams, but it also gives Baltimore a chance to match any...

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No atmosphere found at faraway Earth-sized world,...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Webb Space Telescope has found no evidence of an atmosphere at one of the seven rocky, Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star. Scientists said Monday that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the planets in this solar system, some of which are in the sweet spot for harboring water and potentially life. The NASA-led team reported little if no atmosphere exists at the innermost planet in the Trappist system, 40 light-years away....

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In Ghana, Kamala Harris ‘excited about the...
ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by schoolchildren, dancers and drummers as she arrived Sunday in Ghana for the start of a weeklong visit to Africa intended to deepen U.S. relationships amid global competition over the continent’s future. “We are looking forward to this trip as a further statement of the long and enduring very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on this continent,” Harris said....

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