Trump says he will remove chairman of Kennedy Center and give himself the role

BALTIMORE — President Donald Trump on Friday announced his plans to remove several board members of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, including Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein as chairman.

In his post on Truth Social, Trump announced that he would install himself as Rubenstein’s successor.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Rubenstein, who officially purchased the Orioles in March for $1.725 billion, has served as the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees Chairman since 2010. The private equity billionaire became only the sixth chairman in the center’s history, which dates to 1958 when its creation was authorized by Congress.

—Baltimore Sun

An asteroid could collide with Earth: What could happen if it hits, and should we worry?

An asteroid measuring as wide as 295 feet is possibly headed right toward Earth, but don't run for cover just yet. A NASA-funded telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, first spotted the asteroid, named 2024 YR4, on Dec. 27.

"The object had a close approach with Earth," which made it bright enough to be detected in surveys for asteroids, according to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

Observations and data gathered since the initial sighting concluded that, as of Jan. 31, the asteroid is 30 million miles from Earth and moving farther away on its orbital path around the sun.

There's a more than 1% chance the asteroid will make its way toward Earth and crash-land on the planet in December 2032. But scientists say they expect the asteroid's future trajectory and impact probability to change as astronomers collect and analyze more data.

—Los Angeles Times

6,000-pound massive shark washes up on Cape Cod in the winter: Possibly ‘made a wrong turn’ and got trapped

BOSTON — Even though it’s the heart of winter, sharks are still in our frigid waters.

One of those sharks unfortunately washed up dead on a Cape beach earlier this week, as researchers responded to Wellfleet Harbor and took samples from the massive 6,000-pound basking shark.

Scientists are still trying to figure out what caused the fish’s death, but this stranded 26-foot female shark may have gotten trapped in the harbor due to the tides. The stranding gave local shark researcher John Chisholm “déjà vu” from when a 24-foot basking shark in February 2017 washed up in the same spot.

“Cape Cod Bay is the perfect natural fish trap,” Chisholm told the Herald. “As species are migrating south down the coast from Canada when the temperatures drop, they can be funneled into the Bay and hooked right up into Wellfleet Harbor.

—Boston Herald

Israel drafts plans to allow Gazans passage via ports, borders

Israel has identified an airport and seaport as potential departure points for Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza, according to a draft plan presented to Defense Minister Israel Katz on how to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal.

Preliminary ideas were put to Katz at a military briefing on Thursday, said an Israeli official familiar with the discussions. He’d ordered the military to put together a road map for Trump’s proposal, despite little clarity over whether it can get the required support or where Palestinians would be willing to move.

The suggestion of relocating over 2 million residents of Gaza to make way for U.S.-led reconstruction was swiftly rejected by Palestinian and Middle Eastern officials as well as some Western governments.

Even so, the Israel Defense Forces is in the process of determining which of five land crossings between Gaza and Israel would allow the safe exit of Palestinians after they’d gone through security vetting, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

—Bloomberg News