NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft could end up bearing a message for intelligent aliens, just as the agency’s venerable Voyager probes are doing.
Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 famously carry copies of the “Golden Record,” which are loaded with photos, music, sounds and other data designed to teach any extraterrestrials who might encounter the probes about humanity and its home planet.
Though such an alien encounter isn’t likely, it is possible; Voyager 1 popped into interstellar space in August 2012, and its twin will probably do the same in the next few years, mission team members have said.
A senior congressional aide who has been briefed on the deaths of four U.S. servicemen in Niger says the ambush by militants stemmed in part from a “massive intelligence failure.”
The Pentagon has said that 40 to 50 militants ambushed a 12-man U.S. force in Niger on Oct. 4, killing four and wounding two. The U.S. patrol was seen as routine and had been carried out nearly 30 times in the six months before the attack, the Pentagon has reported.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly, said the House and Senate armed services committees have questions about the scope of the U.S. mission in Niger, and whether the Pentagon is properly supporting the troops on the ground there.
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Myeshia Johnson cries over the casket of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger, upon his body’s arrival in Miami, on Oct. 17, 2017. WPLG / AP
Former President George W. Bush on Thursday chastised Russia for alleged cyberattacks during the 2016 election, charging it was an effort to turn “Americans against each other” and “exploit our country’s divisions.”
Bush urged America to “harden its own defenses” in the face of “external attacks on our democracy.”
In remarks at a forum in New York held by the organization that runs his presidential library, Bush said the Russian cyberattacks amounted to a “sustained attempt by a hostile power to feed and exploit our country’s divisions.”
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Bush Slams Russia for Attempts to ‘Exploit Our Country’s Divisions’
Maribel Casas was in the middle of a dialysis treatment when she got an unexpected text message from her sister saying she had to be at Isla Grande Airport, a small airfield in San Juan, Puerto Rico, by 2 p.m. Her relatives in Miami had managed to get her a seat on a humanitarian flight off the island.
Casas ended her treatment two hours early. “I told the nurse: ‘I have to go. I’m leaving,'” she said.
Only after she landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, did she learn that the private plane she had traveled on belongs to the rapper Pitbull, who lent his jet to evacuate cancer patients and others like Casas, who need constant treatment to live.
. Elderly and ill evacuees from Puerto Rico arrive at Opa Locka Executive Airport in Miami. Their evacuation was coordinated by Fundacion Stefano. Courtesy Fundacion Stefano
Embattled movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was expelled Saturday from the ranks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the latest show of solidarity by Hollywood against a onetime titan of the industry.
The academy’s 54-member board said in a statement that they had “voted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority” to oust Weinstein, who has seen a wave of Hollywood actresses in recent days accuse him of sexual misconduct over the past three decades.
Members of the board include well-known stars such as Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, Laura Dern, Michael Mann, Steven Spielberg and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. Nearly half of the members of the academy’s board of governors are women.
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The Academy Expels Harvey Weinstein Amid Sexual Misconduct Claims
Born premature, 15 weeks early and weighing just a pound and half, she spent the first three months of life in a neonatal intensive care unit. And her struggle had just begun.
Tori recalls being 8 when her mother asked her to carry out a drug deal. When she was 11, her uncle, whom she describes as a father figure, died of a heroin overdose.
Left to fend for herself, Tori says she did not even see a dentist or primary care physician — despite her fragile birth — until she was 10.
Her mother, a recovering heroin addict, has been clean now for three years, but Tori lives with her grandparents.
“I consider myself as a parent, and my mom the kid,” Tori, describing her early childhood, said in an interview in her grandparent’s home near Dayton. “She’d never take care of me, never feed me. I had to feed myself.”
The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor.
“We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children,” said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts.
The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.
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Boy Scouts listen as President Donald Trump speaks during the National Boy Scout Jamboree at Summit Bechtel National Scout Reserve in Glen Jean, West Virginia, July 24, 2017. Saul Loeb / AFP-Getty Images
Sonoma County said it had received more than 100 phone calls to its missing person hotline as wind-powered wildfires swept through California wine country overnight, destroying at least 1,500 homes.
Officials said they were combing through the calls and believed some could be duplicates.
At least 10 people have died in the blazes as more than a dozen wildfires consumed parts of California wine country. Gov. Jerry Brown declared an emergency in eight counties, including Napa and Sonoma, and asked for a federal declaration of a major disaster for the entire state.
Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano said seven people had been killed there in fire-related incidents — and “that number’s going to change.” The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection confirmed that two people had been killed in Napa County, as well as one person in Mendocino County.
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A helicopter drops water on a wind-driven wildfire in Orange, California on Monday. Mike Blake / Reuters
Harvey Weinstein’s movie company said Friday it would investigate allegations that the Hollywood producer sexually harassed women inside and outside the company for years. Weinstein will go on an indefinite leave of absence during the probe, the company said.
The board of the Weinstein Company met Friday and decided to hire a law firm to delve into allegations revealed in an article published in The New York Times, which quoted several women who alleged they were sexually harassed, including actress Ashley Judd. The article said several women received financial settlements over the years.
“We strongly endorse Harvey Weinstein’s already-announced decision to take an indefinite leave of absence from the Company, commencing today,” the board said in a statement Friday evening. “As Harvey has said, it is important for him to get professional help for the problems he has acknowledged.”
. Harvey Weinstein attends the annual Appeal of Conscience awards dinner at the New York Hilton on September 18, 2017. Tim Boxer / Getty Images file
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Voyager’s Golden RecordNASA
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James' World 2 