Author: Reporter

The U.S. government has long struggled to find a permanent solution for storing or disposing of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, and opposition to such a site is flaring up again as New Mexico lawmakers debate banning a facility without state consent. The state’s prospective ban cleared its first legislative hurdle with approval from a key committee. Supporters acknowledge that the bill has a long road ahead, but it does have the backing of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. State Senator Jeff Steinborn, the bill’s sponsor, said momentum against New Mexico becoming a permanent dumping ground...

A hundred years after taking in scores of children whose parents were killed in the Armenian genocide, a 19th-century orphanage in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter has reopened its doors as a museum documenting the community’s rich, if pained, history. The Mardigian Museum showcases Armenian culture and tells of the community’s centuries-long connection to the holy city. At the same time, it is a memorial to around 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks around World War I, in what many scholars consider the 20th century’s first genocide. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated...

Israel’s foreign minister arrived in Kyiv on February 16, the first public visit to Ukraine’s capital by a senior Israeli official since Russia’s invasion last year. Eli Cohen’s visit came just before the first anniversary of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, and as Western nations seek to increase aid to the country. Since the full-scale invasion, Israel has walked a tightrope between assisting Ukraine and avoiding friction with Russia, with which it has strategic regional interests. Unlike other Western countries, Israel has not imposed sanctions on Russia or Russian officials, shared intelligence or provided Ukraine with weapons. It has provided...

Mass shootings have commanded public attention on a disturbingly frequent basis across the U.S., from a supermarket slaying in Buffalo, New York, to an elementary school tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, to a recent shooting at a California dance hall. Rather than provoking a unified response from elected officials, each additional shooting seems to be widening the political divide among states on who should be allowed to have guns and what types are OK. “It’s wash, rinse and repeat with these mass shootings,” said Michael Anderson, a bartender who survived a mass shooting at a Colorado nightclub. “They happen, and...

Ohio’s restrictive new election law significantly shortens the window for mailed ballots to be received, despite no evidence that the extended timeline has led to fraud or any other problems, and that change is angering active-duty members of the military and their families because of its potential to disenfranchise them. The pace of ballot counting after Election Day has become a target of conservatives egged on by former President Donald Trump. He has promoted a false narrative since losing the 2020 election that fluctuating results as late-arriving mail-in ballots are tallied is a sign of fraud. Republican lawmakers said...