NASA gave its final go-ahead Friday to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX company to conduct its first unmanned test flight of a newly designed crew capsule to the International Space Station on March 2.
NASA has awarded SpaceX $2.6 billion and Boeing Co $4.2 billion to build rocket and capsule launch systems to return astronauts to the orbiting research laboratory from U.S. soil for the first time since America’s space shuttle program ended in 2011.
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The Trump administration is denying and delaying more skilled-worker visa petitions than at any time since at least 2015, in keeping with its promise to increase scrutiny of foreign workers, according to data the government released on Friday.
U.S. officials say they have made reforms that prioritize American workers, cut down on fraud and streamline the immigration process. But lawyers who help employers apply for the visas say the agency is rejecting legitimate applications and tying up requests in bureaucratic red tape.
The data provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that adjudicates the visas, extends to the 2015 fiscal year, encompassing the last two years of the Obama administration and the first two years of the Trump administration.
New policies for H-1B visas
Republican President Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 on restricting immigration, and early in his presidency issued an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, to tighten its policies on H-1B visas. The visas are intended for foreign workers who generally have bachelor’s degrees or higher to work in the United States, often in the technology, healthcare and education sectors.
In the 2018 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, the government issued “initial denials” to over 61,000 H-1B applications. In that time, the government issued decisions on over 396,000 applications.
That is more than double the number of such denials over the prior year, even as the total number of applications the government completed dropped by about 2 percent between 2017 and 2018.
And denials look set to increase even further this year. In the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year, the government issued initial denials to nearly 25,000 H-1B applications, a 50 percent increase over the same period last year.
Approval rate drops
The majority of petitions are still being approved, but the approval rate is dropping. In 2015, the approval rate was 96 percent, compared with 85 percent last year.
“USCIS has made a series of reforms designed to protect U.S. workers, increase our confidence in the eligibility of those who receive benefits, cut down on frivolous petitions, and improve the integrity and efficiency of the immigration petition process,” said Jessica Collins, a USCIS spokeswoman.
The government data also show that the administration is issuing far more “requests for evidence” in response to H-1B applications. Such requests, or RFEs as they are known, often challenge the basis of the original petitions and require employers and attorneys to submit additional paperwork.
Receiving an RFE from the government can add several months and thousands of dollars in legal fees to the cost of applying for a visa, attorneys say.
Screening questioned
The number of completed H-1B petitions that drew an RFE reached over 150,000 last year, compared with 86,000 in 2017, a 75 percent increase.
Ron Hira, a professor at Howard University and critic of the H-1B program, said the data suggests USCIS is giving employers a fair opportunity to justify their petitions through the RFE process.
“It also makes one question whether the Obama administration was doing an adequate job in ensuring the integrity and accountability of the H-1B program,” Hira wrote in an email. He also noted that large tech companies, such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, enjoyed H-1B approval rates last year of 98 percent or 99 percent, according to USCIS, while firms that have been criticized for using H-1B workers to replace Americans saw their petitions approved at far lower rates.
But immigration attorneys say many of the denials and RFEs are violating the laws and regulations governing the program. Some companies are successfully challenging the denials in federal court. Entegris Professional Solutions, a Minnesota company, sued USCIS in December over the rejection of an H-1B application for one of its employees.
This month, USCIS reopened the case and granted the petition, said Matthew Webster, one of Entegris’ attorneys on the case.
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R. Kelly, the R&B star who has been trailed for decades by allegations that he sexually abused underage girls and women and held some as virtual slaves, was charged Friday with aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims, including at least three between the ages of 13 and 17.
In a brief appearance before reporters, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Kim Foxx announced the 10 counts against the 52-year-old Grammy winner and said the abuse dated back as far as 1998. She did not comment on the charges or take questions.
The singer, who has consistently denied any sexual misconduct, was to appear in court Saturday. A message seeking comment from Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, was not immediately returned.
His arrest sets the stage for another #MeToo-era celebrity trial. Bill Cosby went to prison last year, and former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial.
Kelly, best known for hits such as “I Believe I Can Fly,” was charged a week after Michael Avenatti, the attorney whose clients have included porn star Stormy Daniels, said he recently gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of the singer having sex with an underage girl. It was not immediately clear if the charges were connected to that video.
In 2008, a jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges over a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. He and the person allegedly depicted with him denied they were in the 27-minute video, even though the picture quality was good and witnesses testified it was them, and she did not take the stand. Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, could have gotten 15 years in prison.
Charging Kelly now with sexual assault for actions that occurred within the same time frame as the allegations from the 2008 trial suggests the accusers are cooperating this time and willing to testify.
Because the alleged victim 10 years ago denied that she was on the video and did not testify, the state’s attorney office had little recourse except to charge the less offense under Illinois law, child pornography, which requires a lower standard of evidence.
Each count carries up to seven years in prison. If Kelly is convicted on all 10 counts, a judge could decide that the sentences run one after the other — making it possible for him to receive up to 70 years behind bars. Probation is also an option under the statute.
Documentaries
Legally and professionally, the walls began closing in on Kelly after the release of a BBC documentary about him last year and the multipart Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which aired last month. Together they detailed allegations he was holding women against their will and running a “sex cult.”
After the latest documentary, Chicago’s top prosecutor, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, said she was “sickened” by the allegations and asked potential victims to come forward.
#MeToo activists and a social media movement using the hashtag #MuteRKelly called on streaming services to drop Kelly’s music and promoters not to book any more concerts. And protesters demonstrated outside Kelly’s Chicago studio.
As recently as Thursday, two women said that Kelly picked them out of a crowd at a Baltimore after-party in the mid-1990s when they were underage and had sex with one of the teens when she was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol and could not consent.
The women, Latresa Scaff and Rochelle Washington, joined lawyer Gloria Allred at a New York City news conference to tell their story publicly for the first time.
Statute of limitations
In the indictment, the prosecution addresses the question of the statute of limitations, which is likely to be raised by the defense. It describes how prosecutors can charge Kelly under Illinois law even though the alleged crimes occurred as much as two decades ago.
The indictment says in at least one instance, the abuse of a minor occurred between 1998 and 1999 but that it clearly fell within the 20-year charging window allowed under Illinois law. The 20-year period only begins, it says, after a victim turns 18.
Greenberg said earlier this year that his client was the victim of a TV hit piece and that Kelly “never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone.”
Avenatti said his office was retained last April by people regarding allegations of sexual assault of minors by Kelly. He said the video surfaced during a 10-month investigation. He told the AP that the person who provided the VHS tape knew both Kelly and the female in the video.
Early career, allegations
Despite accusations that span decades, the singer and songwriter who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side has retained a sizable following. He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. His collaborators have included Jay-Z and Usher.
Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, “12 Play,” which produced such popular sex-themed songs as “Bump N’ Grind” and “Your Body’s Callin’.”
Months after those successes, the then-27-year-old Kelly faced allegations he married 15-year-old Aaliyah, the R&B star who later died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Kelly was the lead songwriter and producer of Aaliyah’s 1994 debut album.
Kelly and Aaliyah never confirmed the marriage, though Vibe magazine published a copy of the purported marriage license. Court documents later obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times showed Aaliyah admitted lying about her age on the license.
Jim DeRogatis, a longtime music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, played a key role in drawing the attention of law enforcement to Kelly. In 2002, he received the sex tape in the mail that was central to Kelly’s 2008 trial. He turned it over to prosecutors. In 2017, DeRogatis wrote a story for BuzzFeed about the allegations Kelly was holding women against their will in Georgia.
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday ordered two state agencies to investigate a media report that Facebook Inc may be accessing far more personal information from smartphone users, including health and other sensitive data, than had previously been known.
The directive to New York’s Department of State and Department of Financial Services came after The Wall Street Journal said testing showed that Facebook collected personal information from other apps on users’ smartphones within seconds of them entering it.
The WSJ reported that several apps share sensitive user data including weight, blood pressure and ovulation status with Facebook. The report said that the company can access data in some cases even when the user is not signed into Facebook or does not have a Facebook account.
In a statement Cuomo called the practice an “outrageous abuse of privacy.” He also called on the relevant federal regulators to become involved.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Shares in Facebook took a short-lived hit after the Wall Street Journal report was published, but closed up 1.2 percent.
In late January Cuomo along with New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an investigation into Apple Inc’s failure to warn consumers about a FaceTime bug that had let iPhones users listen to conversations of others who have not yet accepted a video call.
Facebook is facing a slew of lawsuits and regulatory inquiries over privacy issues, including a U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation into disclosures that Facebook inappropriately shared information belonging to 87 million users with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
New York’s financial services department does not traditionally supervise social media companies directly, but has waded into digital privacy in the financial sector and could have oversight of some app providers that send user data to Facebook.
In March, it is slated to implement the country’s first cybersecurity rules governing state-regulated financial institutions such as banks, insurers and credit monitors.
Last month, DFS said life insurers could use social media posts in underwriting policies, so long as they did not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sexual orientation or other protected classes.
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The Trump administration said Friday that it would bar taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, a move certain to be challenged in court by abortion rights supporters.
The final rule released Friday by the Health and Human Services Department pleased religious conservatives, a key building block of President Donald Trump’s political base.
The administration plan also would prohibit federally funded family planning clinics from being housed in the same location as abortion providers.
Planned Parenthood has said the administration appears to be targeting them, and calls the policy a “gag rule.”
The regulation was published Friday on an HHS website . It’s not official until it appears in the Federal Register and the department said there could be “minor editorial changes.” A department official confirmed it was the final version.
Known as Title X, the family-planning program serves about 4 million women annually through independent clinics, many operated by Planned Parenthood affiliates, which serve about 1.6 million women. The grant program costs taxpayers about $260 million annually.
Abortion is a legal medical procedure, but federal laws prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman.
Abortion opponents praised the administration’s move.
“We are celebrating the newly finalized Title X rules that will redirect some taxpayer resources away from abortion vendors,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said in a statement. Although federal family planning funds by law cannot be used to pay for abortions, religious conservatives have long argued that the program indirectly subsidizes Planned Parenthood.
A group representing family planning clinics decried the administration’s decision.
“This rule intentionally strikes at the heart of the patient-provider relationship, inserting political ideology into a family planning visit, which will frustrate and ultimately discourage patients from seeking the health care they need,” Clare Coleman, head of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, said in a statement.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo says Amazon’s backing out of a deal to put one of its second headquarters in New York City is the “greatest tragedy” he has seen since he’s been in government.
Cuomo said Friday on public radio station WAMC that losing the Amazon deal makes him sick to his stomach. Cuomo’s public comments were his first on the topic since his office issued a statement February 14, the day the Seattle-based internet retailer announced it was backing out of an agreement to redevelop a site in Queens.
Cuomo again blamed fellow Democrats who control the state Senate. They include Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represents the Long Island City neighborhood where Amazon wanted to base 25,000 jobs.
Emails requesting comment were sent to the offices of Gianaris and the Senate majority.
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Actor Jussie Smollett’s character is being removed from the final two episodes of Fox’s hip-hop drama Empire after he was arrested and accused of staging a hoax hate crime attack on himself, show officials said Friday.
The move came a day after the 36-year-old was charged with lying to Chicago police about the allegedly staged incident, in which he said two masked men beat him and slung a noose around his neck while yelling racist and homophobic abuse.
Smollett faces up to three years in prison if convicted in the case, which fueled political divisions that have roiled the United States since Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
Smollett’s character, Jamal Lyon, will be removed from the final two episodes of the current season of Empire, according to 20th Century Fox Television, which said it wanted to avoid “further disruption” on the set of the popular show.
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us,” the show’s co-creators and producers said in a statement. “While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out.”
Lawyers for Smollett did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
According to police, the actor, who is black and openly gay, paid two brother $3,500 to attack him on Jan. 29 in the hope of advancing his career and because he was unhappy with his salary.
Police did not spell out how he hoped to boost his salary by staging such a hoax.
While the actor initially received an outpouring of support on social media, others were skeptical about the attack, which he said took place outside his Chicago apartment at 2 a.m. on a frigid night.
‘MAGA country’
In his account, Smollett said his attackers also shouted “This is MAGA country,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Trump responded Thursday after Smollett was charged, tweeting: “(W)hat about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!?”
Trump’s critics have said his rhetoric has fueled racism and violence, while his supporters say the press has unfairly cast Trump and his supporters in a bad light.
The Walt Disney Co secured a $71 billion deal in July to acquire 21st Century Fox Inc’s film and television assets, which means Empire will belong to the production company.
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Children’s author and illustrator Mo Willems sees creativity as part of a grownup’s job.
“Having a child is an opportunity to be silly again,” said Willems, who has been named the Kennedy Center’s first “Education Artist-In-Residence.”
“I think parents forget that they are cool and if they want the next generation to be creative then they have to be that way, too.”
On Friday, the Washington, D.C.-based center announced that Willems would organize projects for children and their families, including “collaborative experiences across artistic genres.” The residency lasts two years, along with a year for preparation. Willems, 51 and based in Massachusetts, will receive an undisclosed fee for his work.
Known for such acclaimed picture stories as Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Knuffle Bunny, Willems has a long history with the Kennedy Center. He has helped stage theatrical adaptations there of Knuffle Bunny and his Elephant & Piggie series and is working on a musical production of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! that will premiere at the Kennedy Center at the end of the year.
The center’s senior vice president for education, Mario Rossero, said in a statement that the goal for the residency was “to extend and deepen intergenerational audience experiences by providing not just kid-friendly art, but family-friendly art.”
“We knew that if we found the right partner — someone who appeals to children and adults, and someone who could help us push creative boundaries — we’d increase the ways that family and student audiences engage with the Center,” she said. “In Mo, the Kennedy Center has found the voice of a generation — actually, several generations.”
Willems, during a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press, said his work at the center will be an extension of his books and life. He likes the idea of making creativity accessible, noting that he draws in a simple, but distinctive style that readers enjoy imitating. He is the father of a teenage girl and at home might unfurl a roll of butcher block paper that family and friends can doodle on.
For his residency, he envisions multimedia projects for young and old, bringing in artists from other fields such as singer-songwriter Ben Folds and jazz pianist Jason Moran.
He said he has completed a couple of books, “banked” them in advance, so he can “concentrate on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be terrified and to learn.”
“I really don’t know how all of this stuff is going to end up, and that’s exciting.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He expressed optimism Friday that the two countries would reach a trade agreement and defuse a dispute between the world’s two largest economies, as both sides agreed to continue their negotiations for two more days.
“I would say that it’s more likely that a deal will happen,” Trump said to reporters at the White House.
Speaking through an interpreter, Liu, China’s top trade negotiator, said, “We believe that it is very likely that it will happen. And we hope that ultimately we will have a deal.”
Liu has been granted authority to negotiate directly with the U.S. by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“The fact that they’re willing to stay for quite a bit longer period, doubling up the time, that means something,” Trump added, “I think there’s a good chance that it happens.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed that talks have been extended through Sunday.
Tariff threat
Trump appeared to back away from his threat to more than double tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods if no deal is achieved by March 1.
“You can tell this to President Xi,” Trump said to Liu. “If I see progress being made, substantial progress being made, it would not be inappropriate to extend that deadline, keep it at 10 percent instead of raising it to 25 percent. And I would be inclined to doing that.”
The U.S. is calling on China to make structural changes on key issues such as stopping the theft of American technology and reining in improper subsidies and other advantages provided to state-owned companies.
Trump said he expected to meet with Xi to work out the finer points of the deal. “Probably in Mar-a-Lago, probably fairly soon,” he said.
Currency deal?
The two countries imposed more than $360 billion in tariffs in two-way trade last year, after Trump triggered the trade dispute over complaints of unfair trade practices. The tariffs have weighed heavily on both countries’ manufacturing sectors and raised concern they could exacerbate the global economic slowdown.
In the meeting, Mnuchin told Trump that “currency manipulation,” a significant sticking point in the trade talks, had been resolved.
“We’ve actually concluded and reached an agreement, one of the strongest agreements ever on currency, but we have a lot of work to do over the next two days,” Mnuchin said.
Details of the currency deal or any other part of the agreement have not yet been released.
Charles Boustany of the U.S.-based National Bureau of Asian Research co-authored a newly released report that includes recommendations on how to manage the trade impasse.
“We don’t believe the [Trump] administration has set the stage properly to get China to change,” Boustany told VOA. “It’s truly a test if China will change with these broad structural issues. So, we don’t think the deal they come up with is truly enforceable at this stage.”
Boustany said the U.S. must solicit the help of allies to build more pressure on China, adding maintaining U.S. efforts will not “be enough unilaterally.”
Praise and frustration
Trump effusively praised Xi and lauded the Chinese delegation. He recounted how in 1985, then-Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is the current U.S. ambassador to China, met and worked with Xi and predicted he would become China’s president.
Liu brought a letter from Xi that was read out loud by an interpreter. In it, Xi thanks the U.S. president for the “lovely video” the Trumps’ grandchildren made for Xi and his wife to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s children “speak fluent Chinese,” according to President Trump.
But Trump appeared frustrated by the legal and bureaucratic process needed to reach an agreement. Several times he argued with his own negotiating team on the need for a Memorandum of Understanding or Letter of Intent, both documents commonly used in negotiations.
“I don’t like MOUs because they don’t mean anything, to me they don’t mean anything. I think you’re better off just going into a document. I was never, never a fan of an MOU,” Trump said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, lead negotiator of the talks, responded, “A Memorandum of Understanding is a binding agreement between two people. And that’s what we’re talking about in detail. This covers everything in great detail.”
Trump disagreed and argued until Lighthizer said, “No more! We’ll never use the term! We’ll have the same document — it’s going to be called a trade agreement. We’re never going to use MOU again.”
VOA’s Mandarin service contributed to this report.
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The 91st Academy of Motion Pictures Awards ceremony is Sunday at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Although this year’s Oscars are still officially without a host for a second time in their history, Los Angeles is getting ready. VOA’s Anna Kook has this inside look.
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An Israeli spacecraft is on its way to the moon.
It was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday night from Cape Canaveral in the southern U.S. state of Florida.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watched the takeoff of the unmanned mission live in Israel at the control center of Israel Aerospace Industries.
The Israeli craft is expected to reach its destination on April 11, making Israel the fourth country to land on the moon, behind the U.S., Russia and China.
The $100 million mission was financed mainly through private donors.
The craft’s name is Beresheet, Hebrew for Genesis or “In the Beginning.” Beresheet is designed to measure the moon’s magnetic field.
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Analysts say a $15.4 billion write-down for food giant Kraft Heinz reflects changing consumer taste for fresh food products over processed ones.
The company said Thursday the decrease in value of some of its major brands resulted in a net loss of $12.6 billion.
Kraft Heinz also announced Thursday the Securities and Exchange Commission had subpoenaed it late last year because of its procurement procedures.
At the end of the business day Thursday, the company saw its stock drop about 20 percent.
“We expect to take a step backwards in 2019,” Chief Financial Officer David Knopf said in a post earnings conference call. He promised “consistent profit growth” for 2020.
Kraft Heinz is the home of such iconic brands as Velveeta Cheese, Heinz ketchup brands, Oscar Mayer hotdogs and Cheez Whiz.
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California is earthquake country, and residents of Los Angeles can now get some critical warning, when conditions are right, after a quake has started and seismic waves are heading their way.
The system, called ShakeAlertLA, is the first of its kind in the United States.
Earthquake alert systems like this save lives, said Jeff Gorell, deputy Los Angeles mayor for public safety, as he demonstrated the application on his smartphone.
“When an earthquake starts, the first waves that go out are called P-waves,” he said. They serve as a warning and “are not the damaging, destructive waves” that will follow.
The alert system, which relies on data from seismic sensors throughout the region, could offer up to 90 seconds of warning for quakes of magnitude 5 or larger.
Even a few seconds can make a difference, said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, as he rolled out the ShakeAlertLA smartphone app in January. Alerts let people know to drop, cover and hold on, as they are instructed to do in earthquakes.
Mexico City system
An alert system is in place in Mexico City that let residents brace for a mild shaker in early February after an earthquake struck Chiapas to the south. The quake was barely felt in the capital, but residents were ready.
The system doesn’t always help, however, and it did not with the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Sept. 19, 2017, that killed hundreds in and around the Mexican capital. The quake’s epicenter was too close to offer warning.
Distance to epicenter crucial
Alert systems work when there’s enough distance between the earthquake’s epicenter and a center of population, said Thomas Heaton, professor of engineering seismology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
“So, if you can recognize that an earthquake has started … you can give some area that’s about to be shaken strongly a heads up that says, ‘There’s an ongoing earthquake, and oh, by the way, it’s headed in your direction.’”
California is riddled with geological fault lines that periodically rupture. The largest, the San Andreas Fault, can give rise to massive temblors, including the San Francisco quake in 1906, which may have killed 3,000, according to later estimates.
A section of the same fault shifted in 1989, causing a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that killed more than 60 in Oakland and nearby communities. Smaller fault lines can also cause large temblors, including a previously unknown fault beneath the Northridge section of Los Angeles, where a magnitude 6.7 quake killed more than 60 people in 1994.
The ShakeAlertLA app offers users critical information after a temblor has started, said Deputy Mayor Gorell, “just enough so that they can digest it and then react to it, without overwhelming them with information or frightening them,” he said.
Advanced alert systems are also in place in Japan, and while the systems have limitations, authorities there say they have saved lives.
Los Angeles officials say preparing for earthquakes requires work on many fronts, including encouraging residents to prepare disaster plans and stock emergency supplies.
Preparations also require upgrades to old buildings. Los Angeles now has nearly 13,000 so-called soft-story buildings, with wide windows or doors on lower floors that need bracing. These buildings are vulnerable to damage or collapse if struck by seismic waves of a certain type or intensity.
Nearly 1,700 buildings have been upgraded to modern earthquake standards, and another 3,500 have been issued permits for retrofitting. It’s a race against time, officials say, because massive shakers rock the region periodically. The last big quake in Southern California, in 1857, reached magnitude 7.9, and could have killed thousands in a modern city.
The alert app can help, said Heaton, who noted that when the ground “starts to shake, you have no idea whether it’s going to get bigger, or whether it will stay small. Usually it stays small,” he said, “but you don’t know.”
Heaton said the system will give you an indication of what to expect, and also let emergency workers know where to send help after a quake has struck.
ShakeAlert is being rolled out in phases in the U.S. West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington, which are all vulnerable to earthquakes.
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California is earthquake country, and residents of Los Angeles can now receive some warning, when conditions are right, after a quake has started and the seismic waves are heading their way. Mike O’Sullivan reports, the long-delayed system called ShakeAlertLA is the first of its kind in the United States.
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Researchers at Israel’s Tel Aviv University who are monitoring the effects of plastics on animals have found an ocean dwelling helper. They’re using a tiny nuisance of a creature called the sea squirt. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Days are left before the 91st Academy Awards ceremony that’ll take place in Los Angeles. But before actors and directors walk the red carpet and talk about the films they made, an exhibition showcasing costumes from the Oscar-nominated movies opened in Los Angeles. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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A Japanese spacecraft touched down on a distant asteroid Friday on a mission to collect material that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth.
Workers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency control center applauded Friday as a signal sent from space indicated the Hayabusa2 spacecraft had touched down.
During the touchdown, Hayabusa2 is programmed to extend a pipe and shoot a pinball-like object into the asteroid to blow up material from beneath the surface. If that succeeds, the craft would then collect samples to eventually be sent back to Earth. Three such touchdowns are planned.
Japanese Education Minister Masahiko Shibayama said the space agency had concluded from its data after the first touchdown that the steps to collect samples were performed successfully.
JAXA, as the Japanese space agency is known, has likened the touchdown attempts to trying to land on a baseball mound from the spacecraft’s operating location of 20 kilometers (12 miles) above the asteroid.
The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 900 meters (3,000 feet) in diameter and 280 million kilometers (170 million miles) from Earth.
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Musician Peter Tork, the perpetually cheerful keyboard-playing member of the 1960s rock group The Monkees, has died at 77.
Tork’s family and his Facebook page gave no cause of death, but he was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer in 2009.
Tork was a bass guitarist and an established but obscure folk singer when he joined The Monkees in 1966. The group was created for a television sitcom about four struggling rock musicians.
The Monkees TV series was known for its outlandish plots, slapstick comedy, and quick-cut editing. It became a major hit, especially with young people, and won several awards.
Tork’s comedy character was goofy, shy and forever optimistic.
Critics were not so kind to The Monkees as a musical group, calling them a contrived attraction made up of four actors who were just competent musicians and never played together before the TV show was created.
But their records became smash hits, outselling the Beatles and Rolling Stones at one point to become part of the soundtrack of late 60s America.
The TV show was canceled in 1968 and Tork quit the band not long after to concentrate on his solo career. He struggled with alcoholism and had a hard time finding work until reruns of the TV show made The Monkees popular again.
He frequently joined fellow stars Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith for reunion shows.
Jones died in 2012. Dolenz and Nesmith still perform both together and solo. Both surviving Monkees say they are heartbroken over Tork’s death.
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