SpaceX's massive Starship spacecraft exploded into a dramatic fireball during testing in Texas late on Wednesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program. The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time while Starship was on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase while preparing for the tenth test flight, SpaceX said in...
Israel Hits Nuclear Sites, Iran Strikes Hospital as War Escalates
TEL AVIV/DUBAI - Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital overnight, as the week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an off-ramp. Following the strike that damaged the Soroka medical centre in Israel's southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin...
Trump Says He Signed Executive Order Extending Deadline for TikTok Closing
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he has signed an executive order extending the June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short-video app TikTok for 90 days. "I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September...
Afghan Ally Detained by ICE After Court Hearing in San Diego, CBS Reports
Sayed Naser, an Afghan man who worked with U.S. troops, was detained by ICE officers on June 11 after attending a mandatory immigration hearing in San Diego, CBS reported on Wednesday. An Afghan ally who served alongside U.S. forces was legally paroled into the U.S. and showed up for his...
Xi Says China ‘Deeply Worried’ About Israel-Iran Conflict, Urges De-Escalation
BEIJING - China is "deeply worried" about Israel's military operation against Iran that has escalated tensions in the Middle East, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday, in his first public comments on the conflict that erupted last Friday. Xi, speaking on the sidelines of a summit with five Central Asian nations in...
US Strike on Iran Would Bring Risks at Every Turn
WASHINGTON — It sounds so surgical, so precise, exactly the kind of air attack that only the U.S. Air Force can execute. A series of B-2 bombers lifts off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri or the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Refueled in the air,...
Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran
President Donald Trump refused to say explicitly Wednesday whether he would order U.S. forces to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, suggesting the possibility that he had not yet decided whether to join in the war between Iran and Israel. “I may do it,” he told reporters on the White House lawn....
‘Amber Waves of Grain’ Recede in America’s Heartland as Wheat Farmers Struggle
COLBY, Kansas - On a foggy morning in May, Dennis Schoenhals drove a carload of crop scouts around the wheat fields of northern Oklahoma, part of an annual tour to evaluate the health of the crop. But on some fields, Schoenhals and other farmers had already abandoned plans to harvest...
Russia Tells US Not to Strike Iran, Warns of Nuclear Catastrophe
ST PETERSBURG - Russia is telling the United States not to strike Iran because it would radically destabilize the Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday, and Moscow said Israeli strikes risked triggering a nuclear catastrophe. Russia signed a strategic partnership with Iran in January and...
Israel’s Airstrikes Aim to Break Foundations of Khamenei’s Rule in Iran
Dubai - Israel's sweeping campaign of airstrikes aims to do more than destroy Iran's nuclear centrifuges and missile capabilities. It seeks to shatter the foundations of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's government and leave it near collapse, Israeli, Western and regional officials said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants Iran weakened enough...