The International Space Station marks 25 years of nonstop human presence in orbit
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station is marking 25 years of nonstop human presence in orbit. Nearly 300 people have lived aboard the scientific outpost. The visitors are mostly professional astronauts, but also the occasional space tourist and movie director. With only five years left at the complex, NASA is counting on private companies to launch their own orbiting stations with an even bigger and wider clientele. NASA is paying SpaceX nearly $1 billion to boot the space station from orbit in early 2031. The station's first full-time residents — one American and two Russians — opened the hatch in 2000.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs seeks speedy appeals court hearing while he serves a 4-year sentence
NEW YORK (AP) — Hip-hop producer Sean “Diddy” Combs wants a federal appeals court to quickly consider the legality of his conviction on prostitution-related charges and his more than four-year prison sentence. His lawyers filed papers with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, asking that oral arguments in his appeal occur in April. Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers across state lines to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.
Brad Marchand steps away from the Panthers to help a friend whose daughter died of cancer
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — Brad Marchand is stepping away from the Florida Panthers to help a friend whose daughter died last week of cancer. Marchand is serving as a guest coach Wednesday night for the under-18 March and Mill Co. Hunters in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in place of friend JP MacCallum. The game is a fundraiser for the family after the loss of 10-year-old Selah Panacci-MacCallum and includes a raffle for an autographed Marchand jersey. Marchand missed Florida's game Tuesday night against Anaheim. Coach Paul Maurice expects Marchand to be back when the Panthers face Dallas on Saturday.
The Grand Egyptian Museum showcasing 50,000 artifacts is finally opening
CAIRO (AP) — The Grand Egyptian Museum is finally nearing its grand opening after two decades of anticipation. The museum, located just outside Cairo, is set to open on Saturday. It highlights ancient Egyptian civilization and aims to boost tourism, a crucial source of foreign currency for Egypt. The $1 billion facility will be the world’s largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, featuring over 50,000 artifacts. The museum has faced multiple delays, with construction beginning in 2005 and interruptions due to political instability. Officials hope the museum will revitalize tourism and attract millions of visitors annually.
How Americans feel about changing the clocks, according to a new AP-NORC poll
NEW YORK (AP) — A new AP-NORC poll finds that only 12% of U.S. adults support the current system of daylight saving time, which has people in most states changing the clocks twice a year, while 47% are opposed and 40% are neutral. Around the country, the clocks will go back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday to mark the return to standard time and more daylight in the mornings. If forced to choose, most Americans would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening. Permanent daylight saving time would be unpopular with a significant chunk of people, though, the survey found — particularly those who prefer mornings.
AI chipmaker Nvidia is the first $5 trillion company
Nvidia has become the first $5 trillion company, just three months after the Silicon Valley chipmaker was first to break through the $4 trillion barrier. The ravenous appetite for Nvidia’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023. On Wednesday the shares closed at $207.04 with 24.3 billion shares outstanding, putting its market cap at $5.03 trillion. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was heading to South Korea this week as leaders from major Pacific Rim economies, including the United States, China and Japan, are gathering for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Search is on for 3 escaped monkeys after truck overturns on Mississippi highway
HEIDELBERG, Miss. (AP) — Authorities in face shields and other protective gear have been searching for three monkeys that escaped from a truck that overturned on a Mississippi highway earlier in the week. Officials say animal experts from Tulane University examined the crashed truck and determined three monkeys had escaped after Tuesday's crash on Interstate 59 near Heidelberg, Mississippi. Those searching for the monkeys on Wednesday were scouring fields near the crash site Wednesday. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate. It remained unclear who owns the monkeys, who was transporting them and where they were being taken when the truck crashed.
Microsoft deploys a fix to Azure cloud service that's hit with outage
NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft says users of its Azure cloud portal may be not be able to access Office 365, Minecraft or other services due to issues with its global content delivery network services. The tech company posted a note to its Azure status page that its teams are currently deploying a fix to address the outage.
German scents exhibition combines 1,000 years of fragrances with art and history
DÜSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — An exhibition in Germany invites visitors to explore the world of scents through 81 fragrances across 37 galleries. "The Secret Power of Scents" opens Wednesday at the Kunstpalast museum in Düsseldorf. The exhibit combines fragrances with art and spans over 1,000 years of cultural history. It uses scent steles, atomizers, and diffusers to connect art with the smells of different time periods. Curator Robert Müller-Grünow says it's the first exhibition of its kind to bring scents into a museum on this scale. The show highlights the significance of scents in religion, politics, art, and more, offering a unique sensory experience.
Uber plans to offer autonomous taxi rides in San Francisco starting next year
Uber said Wednesday that the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market for its specially built autonomous taxi, which is expected to launch in late 2026. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company said in July it was developing a robotaxi with the electric car company Lucid and the self-driving technology company Nuro Inc. Uber said it plans to have 100 test vehicles on the road in the coming months. Within six years, Uber plans to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid-based autonomous taxis in multiple locations. The vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber and available to riders through the Uber app.
