Author: Grace Thompson

Peanut the squirrel , the Instagram-famous rodent whose killing by New York state environmental officers became a brief election flashpoint, did not have rabies after all, officials have said. Peanut's owner, Mark Longo, said he would file legal action as the state Department of Environmental Conservation and local government leaders confirmed Tuesday that both Peanut and a raccoon named Fred that was euthanized on Oct. 30 had tested negative despite fears they had been exposed to the disease. Chemung County Executive Chris Moss displayed certificates at a news conference Tuesday showing both animals had tested negative. Peanut bit an environmental officer during a search of Longo’s home, prompting the need for a test — in many cases animals need to be killed before rabies ...

The United States wants real and extended pauses in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, but the best way to help people would be to end the war, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. “Israel, by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the goals that it set for itself,” Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels. “This should be a time to end the war.” On Tuesday, after the expiration of a 30-day U.S. deadline for Israel to take steps to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Washington said Israel was not blocking aid to Gaza and therefore not violating U.S. law . Eight international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet the U.S. demands to improve access for assistance. Food security experts ...

A U.S. judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Port of Oakland from using “San Francisco” in the Oakland airport’s name, finding the name change would likely cause consumer confusion and harm the city of San Francisco. U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson said in the decision that changing the name of Metropolitan Oakland International Airport in nearby Oakland to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” would likely mislead consumers into thinking it is connected with San Francisco. A spokesperson for the Port of Oakland said the port is “continuing to review the recent ruling and considering all available options.” Spokespeople for San Francisco did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. The Port of Oakland announced plans in March to chang...

Nadhmi al-Nasr, the long-time chief executive of the $500 billion NEOM mega-project at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s drive to diversify away from oil, has departed, NEOM said on Tuesday without giving a reason. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into development projects through the kingdom’s PIF sovereign wealth fund. NEOM, a Red Sea urban and industrial development nearly the size of Belgium due to house nearly nine million people, is central to the prince’s Vision 2030 plan to create new engines of economic growth beyond oil. But some of the schemes have had to be scaled back due to rising costs, including The Line, a futuristic city between mirrored walls extending 106 miles into the desert within NEOM. Reuters reported in May t...

Several Jewish faculty members at the University of Rochester were targeted by antisemitic vandalism that depicted them in hundreds of "wanted" posters plastered around the school in upstate New York, officials said. University President Sarah Mangelsdorf called the incident "disturbing, divisive and intimidating" and said it "runs counter to our values as a university." The Department of Public Safety said it was made aware of the posters Sunday night and immediately began removing them. The posters were found in buildings across campus, including classrooms, public safety chief Quchee Collins said in a message to the community . The posters target certain university staff members and professors for alleged war crimes related to the conflict in Gaza, NBC affiliate WHEC...

Mortgage rates continued to climb last week as investors considered the future of the economy under a Trump presidency. The mortgage market basically took a breather. Total application volume was essentially flat, rising just 0.5% last week, compared with the previous one, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. While tiny, the increase marked the first rise in overall demand in seven weeks. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances of $766,550 or less increased to 6.86% from 6.81%, with points decreasing to 0.60 from 0.68, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. “Mortgage rates continued to increase last week, driven by higher Treasury yields as financial ma...

KYIV, Ukraine — A bomb planted under a car blew up and killed a Russian serviceman in the occupied Crimean city of Sevastopol on Wednesday in what a Kyiv security source told NBC News was a Ukrainian hit on a senior naval official accused of war crimes. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles probes into serious crimes, said in a statement that an improvised explosive device had detonated, killing a serviceman whom it did not identify. It said it was treating the crime as terrorism. A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the explosion killed Valery Trankovsky, a Russian naval captain in charge of the headquarters of the 41st Brigade of Russia’s Black Sea missile ships. The car bombing was “a successful special operation of the SBU. As a result of the...

JACKSON, Miss. — For out-of-state developers hoping to bring a win to Mississippi’s capital, their pitch was flat. The city had long been searching for someone to develop part of downtown Jackson, and when two men showed up expressing their interest in late February, City Council member Virgi Lindsay agreed to meet with them at an upscale steakhouse in a nearby suburb. But they had “no vision,” Lindsay said in an interview, and they were short on details. She could not recall whether they even offered a business card. She left the dinner — after having paid for her own meal, a personal policy that is a holdover from her days as a newspaper reporter, she said —  not expecting to join them at a ribbon-cutting any time soon. “I just thought I would never see them again, because I ...

A bus carrying 27 passengers fell into the Indus river in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 14 people, according to a statement from the Gilgit-Baltistan authorities. Twelve of the remaining passengers are missing, and one passenger has survived the accident with injuries, as mentioned in the statement from the authorities. The accident occurred due to speeding, and the driver losing control of the vehicle, according to the authorities. According to the local broadcaster Geo, the bus was part of a wedding procession headed toward Pakistan’s Chakwal district when it fell into the river from Telchi bridge at the limits of Diamer district. Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads in many rural areas are in poor condi...