Ticket bought in Illinois wins $1.337B jackpot
A single ticket bought in a Chicago suburb beat the odds and won a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot.
According to megamillions.com, there was one jackpot-winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines.
The winning numbers were 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.
“We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, the current lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery’s website. “We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!”
The jackpot was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.
Debris from Chinese rocket falls over ocean
Debris from a large Chinese rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean at 9:45 a.m. Pacific time Saturday, according to the U.S. Space Command.
In an update posted on social networking site Weibo, the Chinese Manned Space Agency said most of the debris had burned up on reentry over the Sulu Sea, a body of water between the island of Borneo and the Philippines.
The possibility, however slight, that debris from the rocket could strike a populated area had led people around the world to track its trajectory for days.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a rebuke Saturday, saying that China “did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth.” He added that all countries should “share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B.”
NYC 2nd major city in health emergency
New York City officials declared monkeypox a public health emergency Saturday, saying the city is the epicenter of the state’s outbreak and the move will boost measures to help slow the spread of the disease.
“We estimate that approximately 150,000 New Yorkers may currently be at risk for monkeypox exposure,” Mayor Eric Adams and Dr. Ashwin Vasan, commissioner of the city’s health and mental hygiene department, said in a joint statement. “This outbreak must be met with urgency, action, and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment.”
The declaration takes effect immediately, the statement said. It comes just a day after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order declaring a state disaster emergency.
San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to declare a local health emergency on Thursday.
In widening crackdown, noted journalist held
In another sign of growing political repression in Guatemala, authorities have arrested an awardwinning journalist who was critical of the government and raided the offices of the newspaper he founded.
Jose Ruben Zamora, president of the elPeriodico newspaper, was arrested at his home in Guatemala City on Friday night on charges including possible money laundering, blackmail and influence peddling, according to the Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office.
“There must be a conspiracy, a persecution,” Zamora told reporters outside his home as he was being held by police.
Zamora’s arrest is the latest move by Guatemalan authorities to stifle political dissent and crush attempts to expose graft in the government of President Alejandro Giammattei, which has become an increasing challenge for Joe Biden’s administration and its goal of stamping out corruption in Central America.
Navajo Code Talker dies; 3 left from group
Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died.
Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula said Saturday. He was 98.
Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr. and Thomas H. Begay.
The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists. The Code Talkers are celebrated annually on Aug. 14, the day the Japanese surrendered.
Malula Sandoval said her husband had been looking forward to participating in the celebration this year and seeing a museum built in honor of the Code Talkers.