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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.

 
‘CODA’ wins best picture Oscar, marking a...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a movie year often light on crowds, the Academy Awards named an unabashed crowd-pleaser, the deaf family drama “CODA,” best picture Sunday, handing Hollywood’s top award to a streaming service for the first time. Sian Heder’s “CODA,” which first premiered at a virtual Sundance Film Festival in winter 2021, started out as an underdog but gradually emerged as the Oscars’ feel-good favorite. It also had one very deep-pocketed backer in Apple TV+, which scored...

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Oscars live: The eyes have it: Chastain...
8:25 p.m. The Oscars looked kindly on Jessica Chastain. Chastain won the Academy Award for best actress on Sunday night for playing televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” It’s the first Oscar for Chastain in three nominations. She was previously nominated for “Zero Dark Thirty” in 2013 and “The Help” in 2012. She beat out fellow nominees Olivia Colman, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart. Chastain thanked each of her nominees, her co-tsar Andrew...

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WIll Smith confronts Chris Rock, then wins...
Chris Rock made a joke. Will Smith took immediate offense. And the Oscars suddenly had a scene like none other. Smith — not long before he won best actor honors for his portrayal of tennis dad Richard Williams in “King Richard” — marched on stage and appeared to smack Rock during Sunday night’s Academy Awards after the comic made a joke about the appearance of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith shouted at Rock to “keep my wife’s name...

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Live updates: Nordic power firms ready to...
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Four Nordic energy companies say they are ready to help the three Baltic nations in the event Russia curbs or completely cuts electricity exports to its smaller neighbors. Denmark’s Energinet, Statnett of Norway, Sweden’s Svenska kraftnat and Fingrid Oyj of Finland said in a statement they’ve “secured routines and identified eventual ambiguities in a scenario where the Baltics are disconnected from the Russian grid.” “In such a scenario, frequency support from the Nordic system will be...

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California groundbreaking set for largest wildlife crossing
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Groundbreaking is set for next month on what’s billed as the world’s largest wildlife crossing — a bridge over a major Southern California highway that will provide more room to roam for mountain lions and other animals hemmed in by urban sprawl. A ceremony marking the start of construction for the span over U.S. 101 near Los Angeles will take place on Earth Day, April 22, the National Wildlife Federation announced Thursday. The bridge will...

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Louisiana twister carved destruction in mere moments
ARABI, La. (AP) — A powerful tornado took mere seconds to rip off roofs and destroy homes as it chiseled a path of destruction through a New Orleans area neighborhood where one man died, residents said Wednesday as they picked through wreckage and mourned their neighbor. Tuesday night’s tornado in the Arabi community of St. Bernard Parish sprung from a storm system blamed for earlier tornadoes in Texas that killed a woman north of Dallas and prompted Gov. Gregg...

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Russia-Ukraine war: Key things to know about...
One month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fire rained down on a shopping mall and high-rise buildings in Kyiv, as the outnumbered Ukrainian military waged intense battles to defend the capital and other key cities from falling under Russian control. Russian forces have wreaked destruction on cities throughout Ukraine over the past four weeks, but they appear to have stalled in many places in the face of fiercer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance. NATO estimated Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers...

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Live updates: As many as 15,000 Russians...
WASHINGTON — A senior NATO military officer says the alliance estimates that Russia has suffered between 30,000 and 40,000 battlefield casualties in Ukraine through the first month of the war, including between 7,000 and 15,000 killed. It is NATO’s first public estimate of Russian casualties since the war started Feb. 24. The military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO, said the estimate of the number killed is based on a combination of information...

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Witness: ‘No question’ about plot to get...
A man who pleaded guilty to planning a kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer explained the scheme to jurors Wednesday, taking them through training, secret messages and a late night trip to her weekend home to see how a group of extremists could pull it off before the 2020 election. Ty Garbin talked about building a “shoot house” with wood, tarps and scrap materials to resemble Whitmer’s home so the men could practice an eventual assault in Elk Rapids....

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Stars defeat Edmonton; Oilers’ 1st loss after...
DALLAS (AP) — Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov scored 24 seconds apart late in the third period, and the Dallas Stars rallied to beat Edmonton 5-3 on Tuesday night, handing their Oilers their first loss this season after scoring first. Tyler Seguin added an empty-net goal at 19:41 for his 300th career score and Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski added goals for the Stars, who won consecutive games for the first time since a four-game streak Feb. 27-March 6....

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Wallets, IDs but no survivors found in...
WUZHOU, China (AP) — Mud-stained wallets. Bank cards. Official identity cards. Poignant reminders of 132 lives presumed lost were lined up by rescue workers scouring a remote Chinese mountainside Tuesday for the wreckage of a China Eastern flight that one day earlier inexplicably fell from the sky and burst into a huge fireball. No survivors have been found among the 123 passengers and nine crew members. Video clips posted by China’s state media show small pieces of the Boeing...

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EXPLAINER: What is known about the China...
BEIJING (AP) — The crash of a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet in China’s southwest started a fire big enough to be seen from space and forced rescuers to search a rugged, remote mountainside. One day after the China Eastern Airlines flight plunged from the sky, there are more questions than answers. ___ WHAT CAUSED THE CRASH? The cause is unknown. Flight 5735 was at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) on Monday afternoon when it went into a dive about an...

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NCAAs: Coach K’s farewell tour extended through...
Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell tour was thisclose to over. Duke trailed Michigan State 70-65 with 5:10 left to play Sunday and there was next to nothing he could do about it. “I’m an Army guy,” recalled Krzyzewski, who played for Bobby Knight at West Point and started his coaching career there. “But it looked like our ship was sinking.” From the moment in June when Krzyzewski announced his 42nd season would be his last, it was bound to be all...

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Iran leader signals support for nuke talks...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader on Monday signaled support for Tehran’s nuclear negotiations to secure sanctions relief, a rare reference to the still-halted talks as world powers near a diplomatic turning point. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed the importance of Iranian economic self-sufficiency during a lengthy televised speech on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. But he quickly added: “I do not say that you should not seek to lift the sanctions. Those who are trying...

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Live updates: People rally in Berlin...
BERLIN — More than 8,000 people are attending an open-air concert in the German capital to express their support for Ukraine. The “Sound of Peace” concert at the city’s landmark Brandenburg Gate on Sunday features German music stars such as Marius Mueller-Westernhagen, who was to perform his iconic song Freiheit, or freedom in German, violinist David Garrett, singer Peter Maffay, and the bands Revolverheld and Silbermond. Up to 20,000 people were expected at the concert which started in the...

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