U.S. Supreme Court denies Michigan pipline case

As four astronauts whiz toward a flyby of the Moon, looking out for them are mission control experts using cutting-edge technology and lessons learned from the Apollo program 50 years ago.

At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, a team of engineers and technicians watched over 100-odd computer screens Friday as the Artemis astronauts in the Orion capsule headed for their rendezvous with Earth's natural satellite on day three of their high-stakes mission.

The nerve center of the operation is the White Flight Control Room, where flight directors Judd Frieling and Rick Henfling oversee everything as the space travelers prepare to slingshot around the Moon on Monday using its gravitational pull, before heading home.

Nearby is the computer screen of the CAPCOM, or capsule communicator, the person responsible for all direct communication with the astronauts.

This time, the CAPCOM is Stan Love, a seasoned former astronaut who sends instructions, flight updates and decisions from the flight directors to the four astronauts: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, all from the United States, and the Canadian Jeremy Hansen.

"The team in mission control is very well trained, and experts in their systems that they're watching over on the spacecraft," NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem said, with the busy control room visible behind her.

"They work for a period of years to earn and graduate essentially into this role and working in the front room," Clem added.

- History -

Of course, Houston is no stranger to space history.

On July 20, 1969, mission control received a message that reassured millions of Americans: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." 

It was of course the voice of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon, with the Apollo 11 mission. 

He would later utter what has become one of history's most famous quotes: 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

It was here, too, that NASA heard the anxious and oft-misquoted words "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem," spoken by astronaut Jim Lovell on April 13, 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission. 

An oxygen tank had exploded in their spacecraft, forcing them to abort their lunar landing plans.

"All of our mission control rooms are all in this building," said Clem.

"There are different wings that have been modified over the years, but it's in the same building essentially as the historic Apollo mission control room, the International Space Station flight control room, and this room that we're in now."

-'Physics doesn't change'-

The Artemis 2 mission is the first crewed one to the Moon -- the astronauts will not land, only fly by it -- since the last Apollo flight in 1972. 

Since then, of course, the technology has changed dramatically.

NASA Orion Program Manager Howard Hu said that among other things this involves much greater computing capability, which lets the crew interact more with the spacecraft's systems.

He said another is sensor capability -- "the ability for us to know exactly where we are in space."

Hu also said the precision with which NASA can now do rendezvous and docking, for instance, "is a huge step in technology."

And while the Apollo capsules had room for three astronauts, the Orion craft carries four, as equipment was made to be more compact without a loss of functionality. 

The Apollo vessels were cone-shaped to maximize stability as the craft sped back to Earth through the atmosphere. Orion kept this feature.

"But physics doesn't change. The teardrop shape is very efficient from the aerodynamics perspective," said Hu.

"The Apollo giants were just very good technical engineering experts," he said.

"So we learned a lot from them in terms of the things they learned and we leveraged off of that."

mav/dw/sst

The NFL will not discipline Kansas City Chiefs star Rashee Rice after finding insufficient evidence he violated league conduct policy amid claims he assaulted his ex-girlfriend, a spokesman said Friday.

Rice's former partner Dacoda Jones has accused the wide receiver of multiple assaults over a span of 18 months between 2023 and 2025, including when she was pregnant.

In a civil lawsuit filed in February, she sought more than $1 million in damages for "severe and permanent injuries."

She also posted photos of herself with a bloodied lip, scratches and bruises in a now-deleted Instagram post, which did not name her alleged attacker.

The National Football League opened its own probe into the allegations, and Friday said the wide receiver had not been found in violation of the league's personal conduct policy.

"There was insufficient evidence to support a finding that he violated the personal conduct policy," spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement to AFP.

Rice has not been criminally charged in the matter, and the civil case is still pending.

In her lawsuit, Jones alleged that Rice "grabbed, choked, strangled, pushed, thrown, scratched, hit, and headbutted" her, as well as hitting her with inanimate objects.

"Additionally, he has engaged in other violent and abusive behaviors towards Ms. Jones, including throwing objects, destroying property, punching walls, and breaking furniture, as well as locking her out in the middle of the night.

"Many of these behaviors occurred while Ms. Jones was pregnant."

At the time the lawsuit was filed, Rice's lawyer Sean Lindsey said Jones had previously given a sworn statement that Rice had not struck her.

On Friday, Lindsey sent a statement to US media thanking the NFL for its investigation.

Jones has two children with 25-year-old Rice, a talented pass-catcher who won a Super Bowl in 2024 at the end of his rookie year with the Chiefs.

In 2025, Rice served a six-game suspension after his conviction for causing a multi-vehicle collision the previous year. 

Rice pleaded guilty to felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.

amz/bb

(The Center Square) – A student at Torrey Pines High School in San Diego was suspended after posting a pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement flyer reading, “We [heart] ICE – Real Americans,” following an anti-ICE walkout on campus, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Student-led anti-ICE walkouts have continued to rise nationwide. In 2026 alone, more than 300 such walkouts and protests have taken place. Various organizations have led training programs within K–12 schools, and the National Education Association has provided $1.7 million in funding to a May Day 2026 training toolkit that includes anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement messaging, according to an investigation by Defending Education.

A “Four Weeks of Power” training series is organized and led by Free the Future, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, New York University’s Steinhardt Metro Center and the Midwest Academy.

Torrey Pines school officials reportedly claimed the student's flyer was “harassment” and “intimidation,” leading to the student's suspension and prompting concerns from free speech advocates.

“Schools cannot favor one viewpoint over another. When students express themselves non-disruptively, the First Amendment guarantees their right to freedom of speech, regardless of what opinion they share,” Conor Fitzpatrick, senior attorney at FIRE, told The Center Square.

Midwest Academy has received $1,735,000 since 2015. The NEA funding has supported trainings and organizing efforts that promote demonstrations calling for policies like taxing the wealthy, opposing ICE and expanding democracy, according to materials outlined in the toolkit.

At the school level, the toolkit encourages participants to stage “walk-ins,” where students and supporters gather on campus to protest or “celebrate” issues related to school conditions and public policy.

“It should be deeply concerning that one of the suggested tactics is to enter schools to protest against policies they don’t like,” Rhyen Staley, director of research at Defending Education, said in a statement. “Putting children's education and safety at risk for political gain is unethical and immoral.”

The Center Square reached out to Defending Education for further comment but has not received a response. 

Fitzpatrick said punishing students for expressing certain viewpoints while allowing others raises concerns about viewpoint discrimination.

“Any time a student is punished for non-disruptive speech, it makes others scared to exercise their own free speech rights,” Fitzpatrick said. “We expect schools to prepare students for real life, and in life, students will have co-workers, neighbors and elected officials who may not talk, think or pray the same way they do.”

Fitzpatrick added that, generally, speech in schools rises to the level of punishable harassment only if it is “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” that it effectively denies other students equal access to educational opportunities. He said intimidation must meet a high legal threshold, such as a true threat involving intent to commit unlawful violence, to be subject to discipline.

The Center Square reached out to the NEA for a comment, but has not received a response.

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic will miss the remainder of the NBA regular season with a left hamstring strain, the team said Friday.

Doncic "has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out for the remainder of the regular season," the Lakers, who have five games left in the regular season, said in a statement.

ESPN reported that Doncic, who leads the league in scoring, is "uncertain" for the playoffs.

Doncic's injury is a massive blow to the Lakers, who have clinched a playoff berth but at third in the Western Conference are just one game ahead of the fourth-placed Denver Nuggets.

Doncic, who is averaging 33.5 points per game, 8.3 assists and 7/7 rebounds, limped out of the third quarter of the Lakers' crushing 139-96 loss to the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Slovenian was emotional as he hobbled toward the sideline. Moments earlier he had pulled up in obvious pain while driving to the basket.

Doncic produced a magical March campaign, delivering 13 30-point performances. That included seven 40-point games -- with one game of 51 and one of 60.

He had joined icon Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to score 600 points in the month of March and became one of just 10 players to score 600 points in any calendar month.

He has been central to the Lakers' surge to third in the West and put himself firmly in the Most Valuable Player conversation.

But missing five more games could see him fail to play the minimum 65 games required for award eligibility.

Doncic had felt some discomfort in the hamstring in the first half of Thursday's game, but coach JJ Redick said team medical staff had cleared him to return for the second half.

"We checked him out," Redick said after the game. "He got work done, but he was cleared. We're not going to put a player at risk. Those things happen."

bb/amz

Thiago Tirante stunned top-seeded Ben Shelton 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4 on Friday to book a semi-final showdown with friend and fellow Argentinian Roman Burruchaga at the ATP clay court tournament in Houston, Texas.

Tirante, ranked 83rd in the world, notched his second career win over a top-10 player as he sent the ninth-ranked Shelton packing to reach the second ATP semi-final of his career.

"I knew that Ben was a very difficult player, a great player, so I had to take more risks at some times of the match," said Tirante, who fended off a break point early in the third set and broke Shelton for a 5-4 lead before serving it out with a comfortable hold.

"I did sometimes good, I did sometimes bad, but that's the key. (I had to stay) mentally strong all the time and try to break the serve -- he serves amazing."

Burruchaga, ranked 77th, upset third-seeded American Learner Tien, ranked 22nd in the world, 7-5, 6-4 to reach his first career semi-final.

The son of former soccer player Jorge Burruchaga, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986, the 24-year-old had already knocked out another member of the world top 40 on Thursday, 33rd-ranked local favorite Brandon Nakashima.

bb/amz

As Artemis 2 astronauts forged ahead Friday on their lunar mission, NASA released initial images taken from inside the Orion spacecraft, including a full portrait of Earth featuring its deep blue oceans and billowing clouds.

After a flurry of high-stakes activity including a dramatic blast-off and an engine firing that catapulted them on their historic trajectory to circle the Moon, the four astronauts aboard were able to catch their breath, even as they continued to perform a variety of equipment checks and tests.

"There has been a tremendous amount of disbelief for me, it's just so extraordinary," said Canadian Jeremy Hansen during a Q&A session with press late Thursday.

"I really like it up here," said Hansen, on his first ever journey to space. "The views are extraordinary."

"It's really fun to be floating around" in zero gravity, he added. "It just makes me feel like a little kid."

Hansen is on the crew with Americans Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman.

They are due to loop around the Moon early next week -- a feat not accomplished in more than 50 years.

NASA official Lakiesha Hawkins praised the photographs taken by commander Wiseman, calling them "amazing" during a briefing Friday.

"We continue to learn all about our spacecraft as we operate it in deep space with crew for the first time," Hawkins said.

"It's important to remind ourselves of that as we learn a little bit more day by day.

- 'Great spirits' -

Friday's to-do list includes a CPR demonstration and medical kit checks, the US space agency said, as well as preparation for the scientific observations they'll need to document when they are closest to the Moon on day six of their journey.

NASA officials reported Friday that all systems were performing well, and that the astronauts were in "great spirits" and had spoken to their families.

The next major milestone of the approximately 10-day journey is expected overnight Sunday into Monday, at which point the astronauts will enter the "lunar sphere of influence" -- when the Moon's gravity will have stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth's.

If all proceeds smoothly, as Orion whips around the Moon the astronauts could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.

"There is nothing normal about this," said mission commander Wiseman late Thursday.

"Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort, and we are now just realizing the gravity of that."

The Artemis 2 mission is part of a longer-term plan to repeatedly return to the Moon, with the goal of establishing a permanent lunar base that will offer a platform for further exploration.

bur-mdo/mlm

Pope Leo XIV led a torch-lit procession at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday as he prepares for his first Easter as pontiff in the shadow of war in the Middle East.

Among the 30,000 people attending the poignant ceremony, known as the Way of the Cross, was Sarah, a Palestinian Catholic.

"We need peace in the Holy Land," she told AFP.

"People like you and me listen, but the governments don't. They still do whatever they want. They don't listen. They promise and they don't deliver," the 61-year-old said.

Geryes Bejjani, a 33-year-old Lebanese man, said he had come with friends to "carry a message of peace and coexistence," despite the difficulty of travelling from his homeland which has been dragged into the war.

"The pope is the only purely selfless political leader... There's no hidden agenda, there's no ambiguity in his message. And that's his strength," he said.

Leo, the first US-born pope, has repeatedly and ever more insistently called for peace in the Middle East and this week directly urged US President Donald Trump to find an "off-ramp".

"Hopefully he's looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing," he said.

The United States and Israel sparked the war on February 28 by bombing Iran, which retaliated with strikes against Gulf states and an effective chokehold on the vital Strait of Hormuz.

"If only Trump would listen to anyone!" said Ines Duplessis, 29, who came from Paris to the Colosseum ceremony, where attendees held candles in a silence broken only by liturgical chants and recited prayers.

"For me, it's very symbolic, but nothing more," she said of the pope's appeals.

"Sadly, everything is so driven by political and economic interests" that "it's a bit of a lost cause", she said.

On Sunday, Leo will preside over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square before delivering a typically political blessing which is especially anticipated this year.

– 'A form of humility' –

It is the first time since 2022 that the pope has personally taken part in the Way of the Cross, which has been organised at the Colosseum since 1964.

In recent years, his predecessor Francis, who died on Easter Monday last year aged 88, had to give up attending for health reasons.

Wearing his red mozzetta and stole, Leo appeared deep in prayer during the ceremony, listening with eyes closed.

The 70-year-old pope himself carried a large wooden cross through all 14 stations retracing Jesus Christ's path to the tomb, marking a return to a tradition observed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Augustin Ancel, from Paris, said the pope carrying the cross was "a powerful message".

"It's also a form of humility, because we naturally tend to see the pope as distant, as someone in a very important role," he said.

cmk/dt/sbk

Vanessa Trump, former daughter-in-law of US President Donald Trump, offered a supportive message to boyfriend Tiger Woods on Friday after the golf superstar's driving under the influence arrest.

Vanessa Trump shared a photo of herself and Woods relaxing in a hammock to her Instagram feed with the caption "love you" and a couple of heart emojis.

Woods and Trump, who divorced Donald Trump Jr. in 2018 after a 13-year marriage, had revealed their romance in simultaneous social media posts in March of 2025.

At that time, the famously private Woods wrote on X "Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side," in a caption to photos of the couple -- one of which was the photo Vanessa Trump used on Friday to reaffirm her support.

Woods, 50, was arrested on March 27 on suspicion of DUI after clipping a trailer being pulled by a pickup truck and rolling his vehicle on a residential road near his Florida home.

A breathalyzer test cleared Woods of driving under the influence of alcohol, but he refused a urine analysis and officers at the scene determined he was impaired by an unknown substance.

Police found two hydrocodone painkiller pills on Woods, who told deputies he takes "a few" prescription medications.

Woods, who has undergone multiple back operations and surgeries on severe leg injuries he suffered in a 2021 California car crash, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to DUI.

But he issued a statement saying he was "stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health."

That decision means Woods won't play in or attend the upcoming Masters tournament at Augusta National, where he is a five-time champion.

The 15-time major champion hasn't teed it up in a top-level golf event since the 2024 British Open.

He has become a key figure shaping plans to revamp the US PGA Tour schedule, but the PGA of America announced on Wednesday he will not captain the 2027 US Ryder Cup team.

Martin County Court judge Darren Steele on Wednesday granted Woods's request to leave the country to seek treatment.

In his motion to travel Woods's attorney Douglas Duncan cited the golfer's urgent need for an "intensive, highly individualized and medically integrated program" as well as privacy from media and public scrutiny.

Celebrity news website TMZ reported on Friday that Woods's private jet had landed in Zurich, Switzerland, although it could not confirm he was on board.

President Trump, who awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Woods in 2019 and last week called him a "very close friend," told the New York Post on Tuesday that he had spoken with Woods following his arrest.

In bodycam footage from the crash scene Woods is heard telling officers he was on the phone "with the president," although he didn't specify that it was Trump.

bb/amz

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Iran says second US plane downed -

Iran's military says it has downed a second US military jet in the Gulf, according to state media.

There was no immediate confirmation or denial from Washington.

- Man killed in Syria -

State media in Syria said Israeli fire killed a man in Quneitra province in the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The SANA agency said the man had been killed in an attack by "an Israeli tank", while state television said a car was targeted.

- One killed at UAE gas site -

An Egyptian national was killed and four others wounded after a fire at a gas complex in Abu Dhabi, caused by falling debris from an intercepted attack, the government media office said.

Two of the four people hurt were from Egypt, while the others were from Pakistan, it said. 

- Trump briefed on downed plane, Iran hunts for pilot -

US President Donald Trump has been briefed about the downing of a military jet in Iran that has triggered a major search and rescue operation for the crew, the White House said.

US media has reported that one crew member was rescued.

Iranian authorities urged people living in the rugged southwest of the country to search for the jet's crew, as state TV broadcast images of what was said to be the mangled debris. 

- Lebanon university warning -

The US embassy in Lebanon, where the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group is at war with Israel, said that Iran and allied groups could seek to target universities in the country.

Among other universities, Lebanon is home to the American University of Beirut, one of the most prominent US institutions in the region, whose campus and hospital are in the heart of the capital.

- Trump seeks $1.5 tn defence budget -

Trump asked lawmakers to approve a massive $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027, as the United States faces rising costs from its war with Iran and mounting global security commitments.

The proposal would lift Pentagon spending by more than 40 percent in a single year -- the sharpest increase since World War II.

- UN peacekeepers wounded -

The United Nations force in Lebanon said a blast at one of its positions had wounded three peacekeepers, two of them seriously -- the third such incident in a week.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is deployed in the country's south near the border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war for a month and where Israeli troops are carrying out a ground invasion.

- 'Immediate ceasefire' urged -

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East war during a phone call, the Kremlin said.

"It was noted that intense military action is leading to serious negative consequences not only regionally but also globally, including in the areas of energy, trade, and logistics," it added.

- Fresh strikes on Beirut -

Fresh strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs as the Israeli army said it was targeting "terror infrastructure", hours after having issued an evacuation warning for the area.

An AFP correspondent heard explosions as the state-run National News Agency reported strikes on the area, a Hezbollah bastion that has largely emptied of residents since war erupted last month.

- Tankers cross Hormuz -

Three tankers, including one co-owned by a Japanese company, crossed the Strait of Hormuz by hugging close to Oman's shore, a rare transit route as Iran maintains a chokehold on the key war-torn passageway.

Their passage was notable because they sailed close to the Omani Musandam Peninsula to the south of the waterway, maritime traffic data showed Friday.

- Italian PM visits Gulf -

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni began a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia as part of a Gulf tour to boost "national energy security", a government source said.

The source said Meloni would meet with officials from Saudi Arabia, as well as from Qatar and United Arab Emirates on what had been a hitherto unannounced trip.

burs/sst/jgc

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a pair of bills Friday that would have exempted overtime pay and cash tips from state income taxes.

Assembly Bill 461 would have matched a temporary federal income tax exemption on overtime that would apply to the extra pay received for working overtime up to $12,500 per year for an individual or $25,000 per year for joint filers.

The exemption is targeted at middle-income residents and is phased out for those making an adjusted gross income between $150,000 and $275,000 as an individual or $300,000 to $550,000 as a joint filer.

“My position has always been that when we provide tax relief, it should be real, responsible, and targeted to the middle class and working families who need it,” Evers said in his veto message. “Unfortunately, I must veto this bill in its entirety because I object to this bill changing the tax code in a way that will treat Wisconsin workers who earn similar wages differently just because of their classification as salaried or hourly workers.

“A salaried worker who earns $35,000 (and is not eligible to earn overtime compensation) should not pay a different amount in taxes from an hourly worker who earns $35,000 through working overtime. We should focus on creating a fairer tax code that provides real, responsible tax relief that supports rather than divides working Wisconsinites.”

Senate Bill 36 would similarly had created an exemption for up to $25,000 in cash tips from state income tax.

“I am vetoing this bill because I object to the Legislature effectively ceding control over the direction of state tax policy to Congress by connecting the proposed state tax deduction for tips to any change in the federal deduction, regardless of what is best for Wisconsin,” Evers wrote in his veto message. “We should not be at the whims of a Republican-controlled Congress that has no problem gutting basic necessities and services like food and access to healthcare just to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

“Wisconsin should retain control over the parameters of a potential income tax deduction for tips so we can modify the policy based on what makes the most sense for Wisconsinites.”