NASA delays moon rocket launch due to potential hurricane

NASA is skipping next week’s launch attempt of its new moon rocket because of a tropical storm that’s expected to become a major hurricane. It’s the third delay in the past month for the lunar-orbiting test flight featuring mannequins but no astronauts. Hydrogen leaks and other technical problems caused the previous scrubs. NASA decided Saturday to forgo Tuesday’s planned launch attempt and instead prepare the rocket for a possible return to its Florida hangar. Managers will decide Sunday whether to haul the 322-foot rocket off the launch pad. Currently churning in the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Ian is expected to slam into Florida’s Gulf coast by Thursday.

EPA will make racial equality a bigger factor in environmental rules

The Environmental Protection Agency will establish a new national office of environmental justice, the Biden administration’s latest effort to rectify the disproportionate harm caused by pollution and climate change in communities of color and in low-income cities, towns and counties, Michael Regan, the EPA administrator, announced Saturday. The new national office will combine three smaller midlevel offices of environmental justice, civil rights and conflict prevention and resolution into one high-level office with a Senate-confirmed assistant administrator who reports directly to Regan. It will be staffed by 200 people, in Washington and across the agency’s 10 regional offices — up from 55 people.

CIA unveils model of al-Qaida leader al-Zawahri’s hideout

The CIA has revealed the scale model of the safe house where it found and killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in Afghanistan. The model is now on display at the CIA Museum, newly refurbished for the agency’s 75th anniversary. Intelligence officials used the model to brief President Joe Biden in the White House Situation Room in July. The house shows several balconies, which officials used to show Biden where and how al-Zawahri liked to sit. The museum is not open to the public and generally restricted to agency employees and guests, but it allowed journalists in on Saturday to see its newest exhibits.

Soldier who went missing during Korean War accounted for

A soldier from Massachusetts who went missing during the Korean war and was later reported to have died in a prisoner of war camp has been accounted for. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says Army Cpl. Joseph J. Puopolo, of East Boston, was just 19 when he was reported missing in December 1950. It was later reported he had died in a prisoner of war camp. Military officials say remains disinterred in 2019 were identified as Puopolo through dental and anthropological analysis, mitochondrial DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence. Puopolo’s grandnephew says his family, including the soldier’s sister who is now 99 years old, has not forgotten him.

Iran protests surge to dozens of cities

The largest anti-government protests in Iran since 2009 gathered strength Saturday, spreading to as many as 80 cities, even as authorities escalated a crackdown that has reportedly killed at least 50 people and brought the arrests of dozens of prominent activists and journalists, according to rights groups and news media reports. Internet access — especially on cellphone apps widely used for communication — continued to be disrupted or fully blocked, affecting Iranians’ ability to communicate with one another and the outside world. News from Iran has trickled out with many hours of delay.

West works to deepen sanctions after Putin heightens threats

How will American leaders and their allies respond if President Vladimir Putin seeks to escalate his way out of his bad situation on Ukraine’s battlefields? Putin this week renewed threats of claiming more Ukrainian territory, and even using nuclear weapons. U.S. and European leaders have made clear they will try to double down on the same tactics that have helped put Russia in a corner in Ukraine. That means more financial penalties and international isolation for Russia, more arms and other backing for Ukraine. There’s no sign of the United States and NATO matching Putin’s intensified nuclear threats with the same bluster, which could raise the risks of escalating the conflict.

Kremlin stages votes in Ukraine, sees protests in Russia

Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kremlin-orchestrated votes took place in occupied regions of Ukraine to create a pretext for their annexation by Moscow. In Russia, hundreds were arrested on Saturday while trying to protest President Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize more troops to fight in Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies say the votes underway in four regions of Ukraine are a sham with no legal force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged residents to undermine “this farce.” He also encouraged people called up to fight to desert or sabotage the Russian military. Ukraine’s presidential office said the latest Russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 19.

South Korea says North Korea test-fired missile toward sea

South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired at least one unidentified ballistic missile toward its eastern sea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday did not immediately say what type of missile it was or how far it flew. The launch came a day after South Korean officials said they detected signs that the North was preparing to test a missile designed to be fired from submarines. The North has dialed up its testing activities to a record pace in 2022, testing more than 30 ballistic weapons, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, as it continues to expand its military capabilities amid a prolonged stalemate in nuclear diplomacy.

By wire sources