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NASA FINDS NEW CRATER ON THE MOON
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Scientists have discovered a crater on the moon that’s bigger than the Roman Colosseum and is the result of a powerful impact two years ago that initially went undetected.
The steep-sided hole -- about 728 feet (222 meters) across and up to 141 feet (43 meters) deep -- is the solar system’s biggest known impact crater carved out in recent times.
Such a large-scale event is estimated to occur only once every 132 years, researchers said, making this a treasure trove of information as NASA prepares to build a base for astronauts on the moon.
“This event constitutes a statistically rare, effectively once-in-a-lifetime observation,” the scientists wrote in one of two studies appearing on the subject Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the crater on the moon’s near side in May 2024 soon after it was formed by an incoming fragment of an asteroid or comet. The moon strike escaped real-time detection by telescopes on Earth and in space.
LRO’s wide-angle images were not identified in the crush of data until August 2025. The spacecraft gathered more detailed pictures last fall, followed by confirmation of the discovery early this year.
The crater -- named for the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of Houston’s Lunar and Planetary Institute -- is three times bigger than the previous record-holder found by the LRO a decade ago. Pockmarked since ancient times, the moon bears some of the solar system’s largest impact craters, including one that stretches more than 1,500 miles across.
This latest impact churned the lunar surface for more than 66 miles (100 kilometers). Dust and rocky soil were hurled away at a higher angle than expected, according to Mark Robinson, chief scientist for the LRO’s cameras who works at Intuitive Machines. Robinson was the lead author for one of the studies.
A separate study identified a 4-mile-wide cold spot around the new crater, consistent with a loosening of the moon’s top soil. Co-author David Paige of the University of California, Los Angeles, likens it to gardening.
“We’re now thinking of impacts as a way to garden the regolith -- churning the sediments and putting stuff above that’s usually below the surface,” Paige said in a statement.
The LRO’s numerous crater discoveries since its launch in 2009 show that the moon’s top inch (2 centimeters) of soil is being overturned by ejected material every 80,000 years, faster than previously thought, according to Robinson.
Contrary to the popular belief that the Apollo moonwalkers’ dusty lunar footprints will last forever, they will “definitely be long gone in that time frame,” Robinson said in an email.
The next step is to calculate the risk of ejected crater material striking NASA’s planned moon base, he added. “That information will help engineers harden structures so one won’t have to worry about damage, or maybe worry less.”
GEORGIA DEATH ROW INMATE GETS LAST MINUTE STAY
The execution of a man who killed two real estate agents in Georgia was halted by a judge’s late-night decision, at least for now, while an execution in Texas of a man convicted of a rural triple murder was still expected to take place Wednesday.
This would be the fifth execution in Texas, while Georgia has yet to put anyone to death this year. The nation’s busiest death chamber is in Florida, which accounted for more than half the 25 executions already carried out in the U.S. this year.
Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown in an Atlanta suburb. He had been scheduled to die by injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 7 p.m. EDT at the state prison near Jackson.
LeJames Norman, 40, was sentenced to death in the 2005 fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, while looking for cocaine inside their home in Texas. He too is scheduled to die by injection of the same chemical at 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
A judge halted Humphreys’ execution late Tuesday after his lawyers filed a petition seeking a resentencing under a new state law that allows victims of abuse to have their sentences reconsidered and reduced, if they can tie their crimes to abuse they suffered.
The state is appealing that ruling, which could keep the execution on track for Wednesday evening. If an appeals court rules before the scheduled execution time that Humphreys is not entitled to a hearing on his petition for a reduced sentence, the judge said he will consider lifting the stay so the execution can proceed.
Norman believed there was cocaine in the house in Edna, a small, rural city about 100 miles southwest of Houston, and hoped to steal it alongside Ker’Sean Ramey, according to court records. But they never found any drugs and fatally shot three people in the home. Lopez was shot four times, including three in the back of his head. Peacock was shot twice in the head. Roberts was shot five times to the chest, neck and head.
Norman was arrested about five months after the killings while trying to cross back into the U.S. from Mexico. He pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to decide his punishment.
Ramey was also convicted in the shootings and sentenced to death. His execution is set for next week.
U.S. Supreme Court denied a request on Wednesday from Norman’s attorneys to stop his execution.
CHAOS ERUPTS IN LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A motorist was arrested on murder charges after authorities say she slammed her SUV into a city bus in Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring six others in a prelude to a second deadly tragedy: the fiery crash of a TV news helicopter that was covering the collision.
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, was arrested Monday night and is being held at a Los Angeles jail with bail set at $4 million, police said. The case is being forwarded to the district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file the charges in court or pursue different ones. Information on a lawyer who could speak on her behalf was not immediately available.
The helicopter, which was used by NBC and Telemundo, crashed about two hours after police say Rios drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue, ran a red light and struck a vehicle before hitting the bus. One passenger was fully ejected from the bus and another was partially ejected, police said.
Rios’ mother, Cindy Rios, said she was shocked and saddened by the string of events. She said she had not spoken to Bailee Lynn since her arrest and had not been contacted by law enforcement.
“It’s just horrible,” Cindy Rios told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. “The fact that my daughter was involved and was the cause of it is just extremely disturbing.”
“If anything, I’m sorry for the other families,” she added. “My daughter’s alive. People lost their lives.”
NBC4 Los Angeles reported that two people aboard the helicopter -- reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw -- were killed when the chopper went down Tuesday in the Chatsworth neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley north of downtown.
A person on the ground, identified as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, died in a parking lot, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said. He was from Guatemala, the country’s consulate confirmed.
The crash happened as news crews were reporting on the collision involving the SUV that slammed into the bus.
There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter crash, but an alarm could be heard sounding inside the helicopter’s cockpit as it lost altitude in the final seconds of video the crew broadcast before the crash.
Just after the beeping noise starts, a woman’s voice says “uh oh.” The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and starts losing altitude. The woman says “You can’t pull up?” before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.
The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, went down near a large storage facility. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the helicopter caught fire. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik was at the bus scene and saw black smoke and rushed to the helicopter crash site.
BILLIONAIRE HELD IN CONTEMPT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House approved a resolution Wednesday holding billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress, referring the matter to the Department of Justice after he defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoenas in its investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The action was swift, and without a formal vote, and now leaves it to the Justice Department to decide whether to seek criminal prosecution. Black has refused to respond to the subpoenas’ requests to appear and to turn over any potential nondisclosure agreements involving the investigation into Epstein.
Republicans and Democrats from the Oversight Committee joined in a bipartisan effort to advance the resolution forward.
“No one is above the law,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the Oversight Committee chairman, said in a statement. “We will continue to seek transparency for the American people and justice for survivors in our investigation of the federal government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell criminal cases.”
California Rep. Robert Garcia, the panel’s top Democrat, called the vote “an important step towards justice and accountability.”
Black’s lawyers have denounced the Oversight Committee’s pursuit of the former head of a private equity firm as an abuse of congressional power. They said he “had no knowledge of any of Epstein’s heinous conduct.”
“The Committee has continued to insist on looking for information that does not exist,” attorneys Susan Estrich and Aaron Cutler said in a statement.
They called the action “politically motivated” and have sued the committee and asked the Office of Congressional Conduct to open a probe into Comer’s tactics.
“This an outrageous action that ignores the facts and the truth about Mr. Black,” they said.
Black is the latest among several prominent figures, including Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, who have been asked to appear as part of the Oversight Committee’s long-running probe of Epstein. Survivors of Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse have told personal stories of being young women in a trafficking enterprise organized by Epstein and his colleague Maxwell.
In June, Black did appear for a voluntary interview at the committee. Lawmakers said later that he refused to answer their questions about the nondisclosure agreements.
The committee issued two subpoenas seeking to compel Black to produce the NDAs and to appear for a deposition July 16. The committee said it had accommodated Black’s request to delay the deposition to Sept. 3, but he refused to appear.
On Tuesday the Oversight Committee voted unanimously to approve the contempt recommendation, sending it to the full House.
Black co-founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and stepped down in 2021 during the fallout over his ties to Epstein.
Lawmakers have alleged that Black paid Epstein $180 million during their yearslong relationship.
A 2021 review commissioned by Apollo found that Black paid Epstein $158 million from 2012 to 2017, after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor. The review said the payments were for “bona fide tax, estate planning and other related services.”
RUSSIAN SANCTIONS BILL NAMED AFTER GRAHAM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House will vote Wednesday on a broad package of sanctions targeting Russian officials and key pillars of its economy as lawmakers look to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of the financial resources needed to wage the war against Ukraine.
The bill is named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who spent more than a year working on it. If the House passes the bill, it would go to President Donald Trump to be signed into law.
The legislation represents the most ambitious effort to support Ukraine since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and would break nearly two years of relative gridlock on the issue following a 2024 emergency aid package. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing for the bill’s passage and made a direct appeal to senators shortly before they passed it last month.
The measure sanctions Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving. It also directs Trump to impose up to 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports.
“These countries have a choice to make about whether they will continue to sustain Putin’s aggression,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
Supporters said the provision is aimed at deterring China and India from purchasing Russian energy, but critics of the bill said they fear Trump will use it to target allies in the European Union and elsewhere. Americans, they warned, would pay the price for such tariffs through higher prices at the cash register.
“This president has always said he loves tariffs,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. “And we know the history of what he’s done with reference to tariffs to our European allies, and our allies everywhere.”
Democrats are divided on the bill, despite overwhelming support in the caucus for aiding Ukraine. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told colleagues they can’t control what the president does, but they can stand up and declare where they are on the war.
“If we fail to pass this bill, there will be cheers in the Kremlin and tears in Kyiv,” Hoyer said.
But Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., predicted Ukraine supporters would come to regret voting for the bill
“Yes they will be able to say ‘we stood with Ukraine,’ in the immediate aftermath,” Beyer said. “But when Donald Trump hits our allies with new tariffs and waives sanctions on Russia, the propaganda victory for Putin will be lasting, and the damage will be embedded in U.S. law.”
TRUMP CUTS $177 BILLION IN GRANTS
The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term, according to a tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists.
The cuts affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief making up the largest share of cuts, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organization found.
Among the grants that were eliminated, frozen or delayed were ones related to maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa, the researchers found. California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina saw the highest amounts of interrupted grant money. The tracking tool is called Lost Funds.
“By bringing thousands of funding disruptions from the Trump administration together in a publicly accessible, verified database, Lost Funds puts the magnitude of their impact on full display,” Scott Delaney, co-founder of Grant Witness, said in a statement.
The $177 billion finding represents nearly 10% of federal discretionary spending, the groups said.
The tracker’s organizers said the disrupted grants were beyond the kind of cuts that typically happen when administrations change.
“Lost Funds shows the extraordinary scale and real human impact of these disruptions, and how states are once again on the front lines protecting their residents,” said Kelly Rader, States United Democracy Center’s research director.
In some cases, courts have ruled against the administration’s grant funding cuts.
The new tool, which is being made available for public use, relies on data from USASpending.gov, an open data source of federal spending information, according to the groups’ methodology. They said the tracker would be updated regularly as the administration takes new action and lawsuits move through the courts.
States United bills itself as a nonpartisan group dedicated to the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections. It was cofounded by Norm Eisen, an attorney who has been involved in prominent lawsuits against the Trump administration, including over the Kennedy Center. Eisen left the States United center in 2024.
Grant Witness is a group of scientists, researchers and attorneys who document how funding is changing under President Donald Trump’s administration.
A message seeking comment on the analysis was sent to the White House.
KARDASHIAN GETS 1 EURO AS CRIME VICTIM
SAINT-ETIENNE, France (AP) -- A Paris court on Tuesday awarded 1 euro to Kim Kardashian for having been the victim of an armed robbery in the French capital in 2016, the amount of compensation she had asked for, according to a lawyer involved in the case.
Kardashian has sought to move on since the court last year found eight people guilty for their roles in what the celebrity described as “the most terrifying experience of my life.” She and stylist Simone Harouche expressed gratitude to the French justice system in a joint statement.
“The experience was deeply traumatic, and its impact has stayed with us. Today’s decision is not about the compensation, but about accountability and recognition,” the statement to The Associated Press read. “We are thankful to the Court and everyone who supported us throughout this process, and we hope to now move forward and continue to heal.”
The court awarded a former receptionist at the Hôtel de Pourtalès 109,516 euros ($126,472), according to his lawyer. Kardashian had been staying at the hotel when the robbery gang targeted her.
The receptionist said he had been traumatized by the Oct. 2, 2016, jewel heist during Fashion Week. He had sought 550,000 euros ($634,868) in damages and interest. His lawyer, Mohand Ouidja, welcomed the decision as a victory.
The lawyer read the court’s written decisions pertaining to Kardashian and the others aloud to the AP.
The court awarded the hotel 50,000 euros ($57,741). It awarded 1 euro -- the amount she had requested -- to Harouche, Kardashian’s stylist who was present during the robbery.
French lawyers who acted for Kardashian during the trial didn’t respond to text messages and phone calls this week from the AP.
Two of the robbers, dressed as police, forced their way into her suite, bound Kardashian with zip ties and tape and made off with more than $6 million in jewelry, including a diamond ring she’d worn that night to a Givenchy show.
Because of their ages, the robbers became known in France as “les papys braqueurs,” or the grandpa robbers. Six of them were in their 60s and 70s when they were tried for armed robbery, kidnapping, gang association and other charges.
With time already served in pretrial detention, none of those found guilty went back to prison. None of them appealed the verdict.
Kardashian said in a statement issued after their conviction that she was “deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.”
“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family,” the celebrity said. “While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice and promoting a fair legal system.”