S. CRAIG ZAHLER

Hate rats.

President Joe Biden has chosen a former New Orleans mayor, Mitch Landrieu, to supervise his $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

Russian rock musician, poet and actor Pyotr Mamonov has died at the age of 70.

President Joe Biden is nominating West Virginia’s former health commissioner as the nation’s top anti-drug official, tapping a doctor who served on the front lines of the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Robotics scientist Lynne Parker was a pioneer in figuring out how robots could work together to perform difficult missions, like cleaning up after a nuclear disaster, waxing warehouse floors or pulling barnacles off a ship.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has alleged that some of the country's foreign foes dream about biting off pieces of the country’s vast territory, warning that Moscow would “knock their teeth out” if they ever try.

The European and Russian space agencies skipped the 2020 Mars launch window, their life-sniffing Mars rover grounded until 2022 because of technical issues and COVID-19 restrictions. Three weeks later, SpaceX launched its biggest cargo shipment yet to the space station for NASA. If the repairs work and the capsule finally reaches the space station, the first Starliner astronauts could be flying by summer. The actor was in talks with NASA this year about filming a movie at the space station. “Whatever else can be said about the four years of the Trump administration, they have been positive for the U.S. civilian space program,” noted John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute.

It’s a social economic decision.”Gamzu is managing the virus crisis at a bleak time, with the world rapidly approaching 1 million COVID-19 deaths globally. But Gamzu is taking it in stride, drawing on a personal battle with cancer just two years ago for inspiration. “I had my personal crisis with the eye cancer. It was a hard time, really, a crisis, personal one. In an attempt to revive the flagging economy, schools and businesses were reopened swiftly — and virus numbers began to creep up.

FILE In this file photo taken on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, Father Sergiy, a Russian monk who has defied the Russian Orthodox Church's leadership, right, speaks to journalists in Russian Ural's Sredneuralsk, Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday July 3, 2020, defrocked Father Sergiy, who has defied the coronavirus lockdown orders and has taken control over a monastery. (AP Photo/Vladimir Podoksyonov, FILE)MOSCOW The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday defrocked a coronavirus-denying monk who has defied Kremlin lockdown orders and taken control of a monastery. A church panel in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg ruled to defrock Father Sergiy, who has attracted nationwide attention by urging believers to disobey church leadership and defy church closures during the pandemic. The church banned the monk from ministry in May, but he has continued preaching and last month took charge of the monastery outside Yekaterinburg that he had founded years ago.

MOSCOW A rebellious Russian monk who has denied the coronavirus' existence and urged believers to ignore the Kremlin's lockdown orders has taken control of a monastery in the Ural Mountains. Father Sergiy showed up Tuesday at the Sredneuralsk women's monastery that he had founded years ago and took charge. The Russian Orthodox Church has denounced Father Sergiy's move, saying he has been banned from conducting church services and urging him to repent. Father Sergiy has declared the coronavirus non-existent and urged believers to ignore the lockdown orders from authorities. He also has faced charges of spreading false information about the coronavirus,The monk has ignored the church's ban.