MIAMI — Hurricane Kirk’s waves could generate life-threatening surf and rip current conditions this weekend throughout the United States East Coast, as well as in Bermuda, the Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas, according to forecasters.

Kirk was a Category 3 hurricane in the middle Atlantic Ocean that might grow further but was predicted to stay away from land, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center on Thursday.

Hurricane Kirk Could Cause Dangerous Surf Conditions Along The US East Coast

Kirk-generated swells were forecast to reach parts of the Leeward Islands on Friday, Bermuda and the Greater Antilles on Saturday, and the East Coast and the Bahamas on Sunday, according to the center.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect. The major storm was around 1,130 miles (1,820 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h).

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Leslie formed late Wednesday in the eastern Atlantic and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the following days, forecasters said. It was also not considered a threat to the land.

Hurricane Kirk Could Cause Dangerous Surf Conditions Along The US East Coast

The storm was about 540 miles (870 kilometers) southwest of Cabo Verde’s southernmost tip, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), according to the center.

The storms raged in the Atlantic as rescuers in the United States Southeast sought for missing persons after Hurricane Helene struck last week, leaving a trail of death and devastation.

SOURCE | AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – The two astronauts who have been stranded aboard the International Space Station since June welcomed their new trip home on Sunday, when a SpaceX spacecraft arrived.

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a smaller crew of two astronauts and two empty seats designated for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in the dark as the two aircraft flew 265 miles (426 km) above Botswana.

Stuck NASA Astronauts Welcome SpaceX Capsule That’ll Bring Them Home Next Year

NASA sent Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX after worries about the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA determined that the thruster failures and helium leaks that occurred after liftoff were too dangerous and little understood to jeopardise the test pilots’ safety. So the Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

The Dragon, which is carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov, will stay at the space station until February, extending what was supposed to be a weeklong trip for Wilmore and Williams to more than eight months.

Two NASA astronauts were removed from the flight to create way for Wilmore and Williams during the return trip.

“I just want to say welcome to our new compadres,” said Williams, the space station commander, as Hague and Gorbunov floated inside and were greeted by the nine astronauts who awaited them.

Hague stated that it was a smooth flight up. “Coming through the hatch and seeing all the smiles, and as much as I’ve laughed and cried in the last 10 minutes, I know it’s going to be an amazing expedition,” he told me.

NASA like to renew its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has been providing the taxi service since its first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also engaged Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were gone, but defective software and other Starliner difficulties caused years of delays and cost more than $1 billion to correct.

Starliner inspections are ongoing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, with post-flight data evaluations scheduled to begin this week.

“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,'” NASA’s associate administrator Jim Free stated during a pre-launch briefing.

Stuck NASA Astronauts Welcome SpaceX Capsule That’ll Bring Them Home Next Year

With the arrival of two new astronauts, the four who have been up there since March will be able to return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in little over a week, reducing the station’s crew size to the customary seven. Their stay was extended by a month due to the Starliner incident.

Although Saturday’s launch went properly, SpaceX claimed the rocket’s discarded upper stage ended up outside its intended landing zone in the Pacific due to a faulty engine firing. The corporation has paused all Falcon launches until it investigates what went wrong.was extended by a month due to the Starliner crisis.

SOURCE | AP

HELENA, Montana – An 81-year-old Montana man is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Great Falls on Monday for illegally combining tissue and testicles from huge sheep taken in Central Asia and the United States to make hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunts in Texas and Minnesota.

According to court records, prosecutors are not seeking a prison sentence for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana. He is seeking a one-year probationary sentence for breaching federal wildlife trafficking rules. The maximum sentence for both Lacey Act breaches is five years in jail. The fine can be as much as $250,000, or twice the defendant’s financial gain.

Montana Man Faces Sentencing For Cloning Giant Sheep To Breed Large Sheep For Captive Trophy Hunts

Schubarth’s attorney requested a probationary term, claiming that cloning the gigantic Marco Polo sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan had devastated his client’s “life, reputation, and family.”

However, the sentencing memorandum congratulates Schubarth on successfully cloning the endangered sheep, which he called Montana Mountain King. The animal has been confiscated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Jack did something no one else could, or has ever done,” the memo stated. “He built Montana Mountain King on a Montana ranch, in a barn. MMK is an exceptional animal, born of science and from a guy who, if he could rewrite history, would have left the problem of cloning a Marco Polo to Michael Crichton, the author of the science fiction novel Jurassic Park.

Schubarth owns Sun River Enterprises LLC, a 215-acre (87-hectare) alternative livestock ranch that buys, sells, and breeds “alternative livestock” such as mountain sheep, mountain goats, and ungulates, primarily for private hunting preserves where people pay to shoot captive trophy game animals, according to prosecutors. Schubarth stated he’d been in the game farm industry since 1987.

Schubarth pleaded guilty in March to conspiring with five other people to use tissue from an illegally imported Marco Polo sheep to clone the animal and then use the clone and its descendants to create a larger, hybrid species of sheep that would be more valuable for captive hunting operations.

According to court records, the Marco Polo sheep is the world’s largest, weighing 300 pounds (136 kilograms) and with curved horns that can reach 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length.

Schubarth sold MMK semen and hybrid sheep to three people in Texas, while a Minnesota resident sent 74 sheep to Schubarth’s property for insemination at various points during the conspiracy, according to court filings. Schubarth sold one direct descendent of MMK for $10,000 and several sheep with weaker MMK DNA for smaller sums.

According to court filings, Schubarth paid a hunting guide $400 in October 2019 for the testicles of a trophy-sized Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep taken in Montana, which was then excised and sold for semen.

Montana Man Faces Sentencing For Cloning Giant Sheep To Breed Large Sheep For Captive Trophy Hunts

According to authorities, the conspiracy involved bringing in sheep breeds that are not permitted in Montana, including 43 sheep from Texas.

The five co-conspirators were not identified in court documents, but Schubarth’s plea agreement requires him to fully cooperate with prosecutors and testify if called upon. Montana wildlife officials stated the situation is still under investigation.

Schubarth, in a letter attached to the sentencing statement, stated that he becomes tremendously passionate about any project he undertakes, including his “sheep project,” and is embarrassed of his conduct.

“I got my normal mindset clouded by my enthusiasm and looked for any grey area in the law to make the best sheep I could for this sheep industry,” he wrote in his diary. “My family has never been broke, but we are now.”

SOURCE | AP