Humans Will Not ‘Migrate’ to Other Planets, Nobel Winner Says
Humans will never migrate to a planet outside of Earth’s solar system because it would take far too long to get there, Swiss Nobel laureate Michel Mayor said Wednesday.
Read more
Travel
Carnival Cruises Slammed Over Gaps in Pollution-Control Data
Justice Department attorneys are pressing cruise giant Carnival to turn over more information on its pollution-control efforts in the wake of the company’s $20 million fine for violating probation in an illegal waste dumping case.
Read more
Ailing French Airline XL Halts Flights as Bankruptcy Looms
Ailing French airline XL Airways said Monday that it had halted all flights after failing to attract any takeover offers over the weekend, heightening the likelihood of bankruptcy just days after another French airline collapsed.
Read moreHuman Rights Court Turns Away Hungarian Oil Boss
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that the CEO of a Hungarian oil and gas company cannot bring his fight against Croatia prosecutors to the court because he hasn’t exhausted his legal options in the Croatian judicial system.
Read more
Thomas Cook Tour Company Collapses, Stranding 150,000
British tour company Thomas Cook collapsed early Monday after failing to secure emergency funding, leaving tens of thousands of vacationers stranded abroad.
Read moreAllstate Insurance
A class action claims Allstate Insurance did not inform policyholders they were entitled to reimbursement for travel expenses for trips to and from medical appointments for treatment of their injuries from car accidents, depriving them of millions of dollars in benefits, in Broward County Court, Florida.
Read more
Vietnam Airlines Gets First License for Direct US Flights
Vietnam Airlines has become the first carrier in the country to secure a coveted license to fly directly to the United States, according to the airline and a regulatory filing.
Read moreDispatches From the Road: Courthouse Drama and Floods in Rural Montana
In his latest dispatch, Courthouse News’ western bureau chief visits a small railroad town with a beautiful historic courthouse with a scandalous past.
Read morePolitical Asylum
A Uighur, Chinese-born political asylee in the United States, claims in a federal complaint that the FBI inaccurately placed him on the no-fly list while he was legally visiting Sweden, preventing him from returning to his legal home in Virginia.
Read moreUS Has 501,000 Fewer Jobs Than First Reported
The U.S. job market isn’t quite as strong as originally believed — with revised figures showing that the economy had 501,000 fewer total jobs this March than initially reported.
Read more
Congresswomen Denounce ‘Cruel Reality’ of Israeli Occupation
Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib sharply criticized Israel on Monday for denying them entry to the country and called on fellow members of Congress to visit, though they cannot.
Read moreHiking and Mining Battle for Supremacy at Shrunken National Monument
Rabbitbrush bloomed in abundance, casting a soft yellow sheen that extended out from both sides of the desert roadway. To the north, the carpet of wildflowers was broken only by distant hills along the horizon that wall in the Paria River Valley. The super bloom gave testament to the glut of precipitation that fell in Utah’s high desert this past winter.
Read moreFrench Hoverboard Inventor Flies Over the English Channel
Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s a French inventor flying over the English Channel on his hoverboard.
Read moreDispatches From the Road: Alaska Northern Lights
In his latest dispatch, Courthouse News’ western bureau chief shivers through a northern lights show at a hot springs resort in the Alaskan wilderness.
Read more
Saudi Arabia Allows Women to Travel Without Male Consent
Saudi Arabia published new laws early Friday that loosen restrictions on women by allowing any citizen to apply for a passport and travel freely, ending a longstanding policy that gave men control over women.
Read moreWestern Pennsylvania
Entering a courtroom has always seemed a bit like walking through the doors of a theatre. There are actors who take their positions and say their lines. A director sits up high. A kind of Greek chorus comments on the action with a verdict.
Read more
Sri Lanka Gives Free Visa to Boost Tourism After Bomb Blasts
Sri Lanka announced Wednesday it will give a one-month free visa on arrival to visitors from nearly 50 countries in its latest effort to revive the island nation’s lucrative tourism industry that was badly hit by the Easter bomb attacks that killed 263 people.
Read more
Greta Thunberg Will Sail to US With Environmental Message
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose social media-savvy activism has inspired tens of thousands of students in Europe to skip classes and protest for faster action against climate change, plans to take her message to America the old-fashioned way: by boat.
Read more
San Francisco Bans City-Paid Travel to States that Restrict Abortion
Building on a 2016 ban on city-funded travel to states with anti-LGBT laws, San Francisco officials Tuesday voted unanimously to extend that ban to states with restrictive abortion laws.
Read morePittsburgh
Pittsburgh has a different feel than any of the other American cities I have gone to in the course of building a news service. It is old, yet modern, busy but not too much, hip but not overly so. It is a steel city that lost its steel but found its way.
Read more