QUICK HITS

Cherry harvest hit: 1

Cherry industry officials in Oregon and Washington state estimate a tree infection has substantially depleted the

fruit for this year’s harvest. The infection known as little cherry disease has chopped an estimated 40 million pounds of cherries from the forthcoming harvest, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported

Sunday. The Northwest harvest begins around the end of May every year.

Historic gator dies: 2

An alligator that many people believe once

belonged to Adolf Hitler has died in the Moscow Zoo. The zoo said the alligator, named Saturn, was about 84 years old when it died on Friday. According to the zoo, Saturn was born in the United States and later sent to the Berlin Zoo, from which it escaped when the zoo was bombed in 1943. Its whereabouts were unknown until 1946, when

British soldiers found it and gave it to the Soviet Union, the zoo said.

Quake hits on TV: New 3

Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern barely skipped a beat when an earthquake struck during a live television

interview Monday morning. The magnitude 5.6 quake struck in the ocean about 62 miles northeast of the capital Wellington, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Rocket launch fails: 4

Richard Branson’s VirginOrbit failed Monday on its first attempt to launch a test satellite into space aboard a rocket carried aloft by a Boeing 747 and released over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.