USA

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Rolling blackouts may hit New England if there’s an extended cold snap this winter, as the regional power grid operator warns of a “precarious” situation due to snags in the natural gas supply.

Much of the grid’s power comes from burning natural gas, and right now that fuel is in shorter-than-normal supply and is subject to supply chain disruptions, said Gordon van Welie, CEO of ISO New England.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Heads up, future space travelers: No more commercial astronaut wings will be awarded from the Federal Aviation Administration after this year.

The FAA said Friday it’s clipping its astronaut wings because too many people are now launching into space and it’s getting out of the astronaut designation business entirely.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico House on Friday passed a bill for funneling federal pandemic relief funding to improve broadband internet improvement projects and the state’s road infrastructure after a committee added more spending items to the bill.

An amendment put in the bill by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee calls for using $50 million to build a rural hospital. While a location for the hospital has not been determined, some legislators were leaning toward building it in Valencia County, south of Albuquerque.

MONETTE, Ark. (AP) — At least two people were killed Friday night when a reported tornado ripped through an Arkansas nursing home, and emergency crews in southern Illinois were also responding to reports of injuries at an Amazon warehouse after a roof collapsed amid storms there.

Craighead County Judge Marvin Day told KAIT-TV that at least five others were injured and 20 people were trapped after the tornado struck the Monette Manor area in northeast Arkansas. A call by The Associated Press to the county office wasn’t immediately returned.

HONOLULU (AP) — The Navy believes that contaminated tap water that went to Hawaii military households came from a one-time spill of jet fuel last month and was not caused by a leak from aging underground fuel storage tanks above an aquifer, a top Navy official told state lawmakers on Friday.

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States and United Nations condemned the Myanmar junta over what Washington described as “credible and sickening” reports of the killing of 11 villagers, including children, in a restive central region.

The State Department and the UN secretary general’s statements came as local media and residents said that soldiers seized 11 people from Dontaw village in Sagaing region following mine and bomb attacks on a military convoy a day earlier.

Sagaing region has seen regular clashes between junta troops and civilian militia.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 17 million U.S. workers lost their jobs or saw their wages decline in the course of the pandemic, a U.S. report said on Thursday.

This is the figure as of October this year, said the article published by the Ascent, a website focused on financial services, using data from the Washington-based think tank Economic Policy Institute.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday recommended individuals 16 and 17 years of age get a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at least six months after completing their first two doses.

The CDC recommendation came hours after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech third shot to this age group.

NEW YORK (AP) — Another key accuser at the sex-abuse trial of Ghislaine Maxwell testified Friday that Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein forced themselves on her during a 1996 visit to the financier’s sprawling New Mexico ranch when she was just 16.

Annie Farmer told jurors she accepted an invitation to the ranch hoping that Maxwell and Epstein wanted to help her with academic endeavors. Instead, she said, Maxwell ended up fondling her breasts and Epstein climbed into bed without her permission, she said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government announced financial sanctions and other restrictions Friday on 15 people and 10 entities in China, Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh to coincide with International Human Rights Day.

The actions announced by the Treasury Department also included investment restrictions on a Chinese company connected to the mass government surveillance operations in China. The sanctions are intended to freeze the targeted people and entities out of the global financial system.