China spacecraft lands on moon to bring rocks back to Earth
BEIJING — A Chinese spacecraft landed on the moon to bring back lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s, the government announced.
The China National Space Administration said Chang’e 5 “successfully landed” at its designated site shortly after 11 p.m. (1500 GMT) Tuesday after making a powered descent from its orbiter. It published images of the barren scene at the landing site, including where the lander’s shadow can be seen.
The lander was launched Nov. 24 from the tropical southern island of Hainan. It is the latest venture by a Chinese space program that sent its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, has a spacecraft en route to Mars and aims eventually to land a human on the moon.
Plans call for the lander to spend about two days drilling into the lunar surface and collecting 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and debris. The sample will be lifted up into orbit and transferred to a return capsule for the trip to Earth, setting down on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia around the middle of the month.
If it succeeds, it will be the first time scientists have obtained fresh samples of lunar rocks since a Soviet probe in the 1970s. Those samples are expected to be made available to scientists from other nations, although its unclear how much access NASA will have, given tight U.S. government restrictions on space cooperation with China.
US probing potential bribery, lobbying scheme for pardon
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to a court document unsealed Tuesday.
Most of the information in the 18-page court order is redacted, including the identity of the people whom prosecutors are investigating and whom the proposed pardon might be intended for.
But the document from August does reveal that people are suspected of having acted to secretly lobby White House officials to secure a pardon or sentence commutation and that, in a related scheme, a substantial political contribution was floated in exchange for a pardon.
As part of the investigation, more than 50 laptops, iPads and other digital devices have been seized, according to the document.
The existence of the investigation was revealed in a court order from U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, the chief judge of Washington’s federal court, in which she granted investigators access to certain email communications connected to the alleged schemes that she said was not protected by attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors will be able to use that material to confront any subject or target of the investigation, the judge wrote.
Strong start to December as S&P 500 index sets another high
Wall Street kicked off December with more milestones Tuesday after a broad rally for stocks pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite to new highs.
The S&P 500 gained 1.1%, with Big Tech companies and banks driving a big part of the rally. The strong opening to December follows a 10.8% surge for the broad index in November, marking its best month since April. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.3%. Both indexes beat the record highs they set on Friday. Treasury yields also rose in another sign of optimism from investors.
Stocks have been ramping higher in recent weeks as investors focus on the possibility that coronavirus vaccines could soon help usher in a fuller global economic recovery. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington are debating once more whether to deliver another round of coronavirus relief to the economy before President Donald Trump leaves office.
“It seems like both the House and the Senate are trying to break this logjam,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “It seems the market is feeding off that.”
The S&P 500 rose 40.82 points to 3,662.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 185.28 points, or 0.6%, to 29,823.92. The Nasdaq climbed 156.37 points to 12,355.11. Small company stocks also added to their recent gains. The Russell 2000 index picked up 16.23 points, or 0.9%, to 1,836.05.
From wire sources
___
Ex-Arizona politician gets 6 years in adoption scheme
PHOENIX — A former Arizona politician who admitted running an illegal adoption scheme in three states involving women from the Marshall Islands was sentenced in Arkansas to six years in federal prison. It was the first of three punishments he’ll face for arranging adoptions prohibited by an international compact.
Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as metro Phoenix’s assessor for six years and also worked as an adoption attorney, illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to come to the U.S. to give up their babies in at least 70 adoptions cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas, prosecutors said.
Marshall Islands citizens have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003 and prosecutors said Petersen’s scheme lasted three years.
Judge Timothy Brooks, who imposed the sentence from Fayetteville, Arkansas, said Petersen abused his position as an attorney by misleading or instructing others to lie to courts in adoptions that wouldn’t have been approved had the truth been told to them.
The judge said Petersen turned what should be joyous adoption occasions into “a baby-selling enterprise.” He also described Petersen’s adoption practice as a “criminal livelihood” and said he ripped off taxpayers at the same time he was elected to serve them.
‘Big Sky’ producers recognize Native American criticism
LOS ANGELES — Native American tribes and advocates are condemning “Big Sky,” a Montana-set ABC drama, for ignoring the history of violence inflicted on Indigenous women and instead making whites the crime victims.
They also have assailed the network and the show’s producers for failing to respond to their complaints, which they first made known in a Nov. 17 letter. On Tuesday, the makers of “Big Sky” broke their silence.
“After meaningful conversations with representatives of the Indigenous community, our eyes have been opened to the outsized number of Native American and Indigenous women who go missing and are murdered each year, a sad and shocking fact,” the executive producers said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“We are grateful for this education and are working with Indigenous groups to help bring attention to this important issue,” according to the statement. The producers include David E. Kelley (“Big Little Lies,” “The Undoing”) and novelist C.J. Box, whose 2013 book “The Highway” was adapted for the series.
Created by Kelley, “Big Sky” stars Katheryn Winnick and Kylie Bunbury as private detectives searching for two white sisters on a road trip who go missing and turn out to be part of a pattern of abductions.