CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA issued a welcomed all-clear Thursday, saying there’s now zero chance that asteroid 2024 YR will crash into the moon in 2032. The space agency had been predicting a 4.3% chance of a direct hit. But observations by the Webb Space Telescope in February helped scientists refine the asteroid’s orbit. This new information indicates that the asteroid will miss the moon by 13,200 miles (21,200 kilometers) on Dec. 22, 2032. Discovered at the end of 2024, the asteroid at first looked like it might threaten Earth. Scientists last year ruled out a collision with our planet anytime in the next century, but kept the moon as a possible target. The asteroid is about 200 feet (60 meters) across. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal panel reviewing President Donald Trump’s plans to build a ballroom at the White House has set April 2 for a final vote on the project, the chairman said as the agency prepared to give additional consideration to the construction plans. Will Scharf, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission and a top aide to the Republican president, made the announcement Thursday at the start of the panel’s March meeting. The panel will hear additional details about the project from the White House as well as its own staff, and had been expected to vote on Thursday. But Scharf announced that the vote was switched to April to give every member of the public who wants to comment a chance to do so. More than 100 people had signed up to comment at Thursday’s meeting, which was being conducted online as a result. The panel has also been flooded with scores of written comments about Trump’s plans to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) addition where the East Wing of the White House once stood. Trump has said it will cost about $400 million and be paid for with private money. Trump had the East Wing demolished in October. Scharf said the meeting was being conducted online to ease the public testimony portion, which he said was likely to extend into Friday given the number of people who had signed up to speak. “They are taking time out of what I presume are busy schedules to join us,” he said. “One way or the other, we are going to make sure that members of the public have the opportunity to be heard on this project.” Critics of the project have argued that Trump should not have demolished the East Wing until the National Capital Planning Commission and a separate panel, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, had reviewed and voted on his plans. The fine arts panel approved the project last month. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, nonprofit group, asked a federal judge to temporarily halt construction until the White House submitted the plans both to federal panels and to Congress for approval, and allowed the public to comment. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected the request last week, and the trust has said it plans to file an amended lawsuit. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – Groups representing major U.S. airlines and travel groups on Thursday warned an ongoing partial government shutdown could snap air traffic as the busy U.S. spring break travel season nears. About 50,000 Transportation Security Administration airport security screeners are working without pay and as the shutdown continues more workers could be unable or unwilling to come to work because of financial hardship. (Reporting by David Shepardson) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Katharine Jackson WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – A man protesting the U.S. and Israel’s strikes on Iran was injured in a struggle with U.S. Capitol Police and Republican Senator Tim Sheehy on Wednesday. The man, Brian McGinnis, a former Marine who is a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, interrupted a Senate Armed Services hearing shouting “Israel is the reason for this war, America does not want to fight for Israel.” A video of the incident verified by Reuters showed officers and Sheehy attempting to haul McGinnis, who was dressed in military uniform, out of the doorway as his hand was pinned behind the open door.   “No one wants to fight for Israel,” McGinnis shouted, as onlookers called attention to his hand, which was trapped in the hinge of the door, when a cracking sound was heard. ANGER OVER IRAN STRIKES Tensions have escalated since a massive military campaign against Iran began on Saturday, plunging the Middle East into a new and unpredictable conflict. The U.S. and Israeli militaries struck sites across Iran, triggering retaliatory Iranian attacks against Israel and nearby Gulf Arab countries. A website representing McGinnis’ campaign states that he went to Marine boot camp days after graduating from high school and that he served for four years. The Instagram profile linked to it describes him as a veteran, firefighter and father of four.  In a post on X, Sheehy, who represents Montana, said he got involved to help defuse the altercation. “Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protester from the Armed Services hearing. He was fighting back. I decided to help out and deescalate the situation. This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one. I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence,” Sheehy wrote. Three officers were treated for injuries and “the suspect, who got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room, was also treated,” Capitol Police said. McGinnis, 44, faces charges for assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, and obstructing during an unlawful demonstration, police said.   It was unclear from the video what injuries McGinnis sustained during the altercation. McGinnis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

MIAMI (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday urged Latin American countries to take a more aggressive approach against drug cartels, warning that the Trump administration would be forced to act by itself if governments fail to effectively combat criminal organizations that directly threaten the United States and border security. “America is prepared to take on these threats and go on the offense alone if necessary,” Hegseth said in a speech at U.S. Southern Command in Miami with defense officials from allied governments around the region. Hegseth spoke at what the Pentagon billed as the first “Americas Counter Cartel Conference,” with representatives from Argentina, Honduras and the Dominican Republic among more than a dozen conservative governments closely aligned with President Donald Trump. Most of the military leaders came to Florida with their presidents, who on Saturday are scheduled to attend a summit with Trump at his nearby golf club. The defense secretary said the U.S. and Latin America had a shared Christian heritage and that it was at stake as a result of decades of inaction and a purely law enforcement approach to fighting organized crime and terrorist networks in the Western Hemisphere. “Business as usual will not stand,” he said, pledging U.S. support to combat cartels, restore deterrence and “make the Americas great again.” His comments were echoed by Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff who is a key architect of Trump’s aggressive stance in the region. “Cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS (Islamic State group) and al-Qaida of this hemisphere and must be treated just as ruthlessly,” Miller said, adding that “hard power” and lethal force — not criminal justice — must be used to repel the groups. “The human rights that we are going to protect are not those of the savages that rape, torture and murder but those of the average citizens,” he said. The meetings come as the Republican administration seeks to leverage military assets to restore dominance in the hemisphere while now also fighting a war in Iran. When Trump took office in January 2025, he pledged a renewed focus on Latin American, a strategic pivot that his national security strategy describes as the “Trump Corollary” to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which sought to ban European incursions in the Americas. Key to that objective is a greater reliance on the U.S. military to neutralize drug cartels long blamed for soaring crime and murder rates that hold back Latin America’s economic potential and fuel migration to the United States. “For too long, leaders in Washington abandoned the simple wisdom of the Monroe Doctrine,” Hegseth said, referring to Trump’s focus on the region’s security as the “Donroe Doctrine.” Trump early on designated cartels from Mexico and Venezuela as foreign terrorist organizations. Later, he declared that Washington was in “armed conflict” with those groups. The extraordinary assertion of presidential power to combat drug trafficking is at the heart of the White House’s legal rationale for dozens of strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean — so far, 44 boat strikes that have resulted in at least 150 deaths. A massive naval deployment, unseen in Latin America since the end of the Cold War, also paved the way for the U.S. military operation in early January that captured Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolas Maduro. He is now facing drug charges in New York. Trump’s approach has won support among conservatives in the region such as El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, who rode to power on promises to use a “mano dura” — iron fist — against criminal groups. Just this week, Ecuador for the first time carried out joint operations with U.S. military forces against organized crime groups. But relying on the military to supplant the role traditionally performed by civilian law enforcement entails risks in a region where military institutions and oversight are weaker, armed forces have a legacy of human rights abuses and corruption is a perennial challenge. “Without strong rule-of-law institutions and civilian oversight, militarizing the fight against cartels can weaken the very institutions needed to defeat them,” said Rebecca Bill Chavez, president of the Inter-American Dialogue and a former deputy assistant defense secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com