North America

27 Feb 2023; MEMO: NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 space mission, which included Emirati astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi, has been called off minutes ahead of blast-off. The mission, which was to launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida as part of a six-month space mission to the International Space Station (ISS), was postponed due to an issue with ground systems, which is currently being investigated.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Parts of the Northeast are gearing up for what could be very heavy snow early Tuesday, after tornadoes and other powerful winds swept through parts of the Southern Plains, killing at least one person in Oklahoma, and some Michigan residents faced a sixth consecutive day without power following last week’s ice storm.

In California, the National Weather Service said winter storms will continue moving into the state through Wednesday after residents got a brief break from severe weather Sunday.

A look at the weather threats around the country:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Monday that it is creating a new task force to crack down on an explosion of the illegal exploitation of migrant children for labor in the U.S.

Hundreds of companies that employed nearly 4,000 children last year were found in violation of federal labor laws, a dramatic increase in the last five years.

STAGECOACH, Nev. (AP) — A medical transport flight that crashed in a mountainous area in northern Nevada, killing five all five people aboard the plane including a patient, apparently broke apart before hitting the ground, authorities said Sunday.

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent in a seven-member team of investigators to the site of Friday night’s crash near Stagecoach.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up a partisan legal fight over President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans.

The high court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, is hearing arguments Tuesday in two challenges to the plan, which has so far been blocked by Republican-appointed judges on lower courts.

Arguments are scheduled to last two hours, but likely will go much longer. The public can listen in on the court’s website.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 (APP): The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), a Rome-based UN agency, concluded a visit on Saturday to earthquake-devastated Syrian and Turkish communities and aid supply routes, calling on authorities to open more border crossings to help survivors of the disaster that hit both countries in early February.

“While the world has quickly mobilized in support of people here, the impact of this quake will be felt for months and years to come,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans are eyeing $150 billion in spending cuts that reflect a hardline drive to target education, healthcare and housing - particularly efforts to address racial inequities that conservatives deride as "woke" - as they push forward in talks on the federal debt ceiling.

House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington said Republicans are assembling a budget along the lines of a budget proposal developed by Russell Vought, who served as Republican President Donald Trump's budget chief.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb 27 (Reuters) - NASA and SpaceX early on Monday postponed the launch of a capsule containing two U.S. astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates crewmate minutes before scheduled lift-off from Florida on a flight to the International Space Station.

The U.S. space agency and SpaceX, the private rocket company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, cited a technical glitch concerning the ignition fluid used to start the spacecraft's engines.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tens of thousands of people filled Mexico City’s vast main plaza Sunday to protest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electoral law changes they say threaten democracy and could mark a return to the past.

The plaza is normally thought to hold nearly 100,000 people, but many protesters who couldn’t fit in the square spilled onto nearby streets.

NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential contenders typically fight for prime speaking slots at the Conservative Political Action Conference. But as conservative activists gather in suburban Washington this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be courting donors more than a thousand miles away in Texas and California.

The apparent CPAC snub is nothing new for DeSantis, who has emerged in the early phase of the 2024 presidential election as a leading contender for the GOP nomination even as he ignores many conventions of modern politics.