By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Venus will pass between the Earth and sun on Saturday during what’s called an inferior conjunction.

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But don’t plan on seeing the linkup. The sight is extremely difficult to spot without special equipment and a trained eye.

“The glare from the sun makes it really, really difficult to see,” said Michelle Nichols with Chicago’s Adler Planetarium.

A conjunction happens when two celestial bodies appear close together in the sky. It could be two planets, or a planet and the sun. An inferior conjunction of Venus happens when the planet swings between the sun and Earth.

Such an alignment happens about every 19 months because of how Venus and Earth orbit the sun. The moment of inferior conjunction happens around 9 p.m. EDT.

“Some people call that a Venus kiss because we’re extremely close together,” said astronomer Geary Albright with James Madison University.

Venus has phases just like the moon. Before and after the conjunction, Venus looks like a thin crescent — though only telescopes can see it. Those looking for signs of the transition can watch Venus move from the evening to morning sky Sunday.

In the nights leading up to the conjunction, find a flat area and look near the horizon just after sunset to glimpse Venus before it sets. It appears as one of the brightest objects in the sky.

After the conjunction, Venus will be visible in the morning sky just before sunrise. Take precaution to not stare directly at the sun.

While this weekend’s event isn’t much of a visual spectacle, scientists say it’s an opportunity to track how the planets shift in space.

“Get a chance to get to know Venus,” said Nichols.

Paul McCartney’s “The Kiss of Venus” was partly inspired by a book chapter describing the inferior conjunction. And two upcoming NASA missions will put a spotlight on Venus, investigating how it formed and why it turned out so different from Earth.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ANDREW DALTON

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal her perennial megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from other songwriters.

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Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani granted Carey’s request for summary judgment on Wednesday, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory without going to trial.

In 2023, songwriters Andy Stone of Louisiana — who goes by the stage name Vince Vance — and Troy Powers of Tennessee filed the $20 million lawsuit alleging that Carey’s 1994 song, which has since become a holiday standard and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their country 1989 song with the same title.

Their lawyer Gerard P. Fox said he’s “disappointed” in an email to The Associated Press.

Fox said it is his experience that judges at this level “nearly always now dismiss a music copyright case and that one must appeal to reverse and get the case to the jury. My client will make a decision shortly on whether to appeal. We filed based on the opinions of two esteemed musicologists who teach at great colleges.”

Stone and Powers’ suit said their “’All I Want For Christmas Is You’ contains a unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one, and accordingly writes a letter to Santa Claus.”

They said there was an “overwhelming likelihood” Carey and Afanasieff had heard their song — which at one point reached No. 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart — and infringed their copyright by taking significant elements from it.

After hearing from two experts for each side, Ramírez Almadani agreed with those from the defense, who said the writers employed common Christmas cliches that existed prior to both songs, and that Carey’s song used them differently. She said the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing that the songs are substantially similar.

Ramírez Almadani also ordered sanctions against the plaintiffs and their lawyers, saying their suit and subsequent filings were frivolous and that the plaintiffs’ attorneys “made no reasonable effort to ensure that the factual contentions asserted have evidentiary support.”

She said they must pay at least part of the defendants’ attorney fees.

Defense attorneys and publicists for Carey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Carey’s Christmas colossus has become an even bigger hit in recent years than it was in the 1990s. It has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the past six years in a row — measuring the most popular songs each week — not just the holiday-themed — by airplay, sales and streaming.

Carey and Afanasieff have had their own public disagreement — though not one that’s gone to court — over who wrote how much of the song. But the case made them at least temporary allies.

By PATRICK WHITTLE and HOLLY RAMER

The leader and two members of a cultlike group that has been connected to six killings in three states face new gun charges in Maryland.

Authorities have described Jack LaSota, who is also known as Ziz, as the apparent “leader of an extremist group” called the Zizians who follow her online writings on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence. The group has been linked to killings in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California. A cross-country investigation into LaSota and the Zizians broke open in January when one member of the group died and another was arrested after the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont.

LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement and illegal gun possession last month after a Frostburg, Maryland, man told police that three “suspicious” people parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there. Their trials had been scheduled to begin in Allegany County District Court on Monday, but their cases were transferred Wednesday to the county’s higher-level circuit court after new indictments were handed up.

LaSota now faces nine charges, Zajko faces 14 and Blank faces 12. The new charges, which include carrying concealed and loaded handguns, are misdemeanors. The possible maximum penalties for each charge range from three months of incarceration for trespassing and up to five years for some of the gun charges. Initial court appearances are scheduled for April 8.

Members of the Zizian group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022, the landlord’s subsequent killing in January, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple in between. The Pennsylvania victims were Richard and Rita Zajko, the parents of Michelle Zajko.

A Maryland prosecutor has said two guns Zajko purchased were recovered in connection with the shooting death of Maland, the Border Patrol agent killed in a shootout during a traffic stop in Vermont in January. Teresa Youngblut, who was driving the car and is accused of firing at Maland, has pleaded not guilty to federal firearms charges. Felix Bauckholt, a passenger in the car, also was killed.

Bauckholt and LaSota were living together in North Carolina as recently as this winter, according to their landlord, who also was renting a duplex to Youngblut in the same neighborhood. Youngblut also had applied for a marriage license with Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with killing landlord Curtis Lind in California.

Jordan Mason is a man of few words.

None of the answers from the 25-year-old running back were long on Thursday afternoon as he talked to reporters for the first time since being acquired by the Vikings in a trade with the San Francisco 49ers.

That said, Mason still managed to get his point across, especially when it came to how he was approaching his opportunity with the Vikings. Asked what appealed to him about the offense that head coach Kevin O’Connell runs, Mason replied, “I love that he wants to give me the ball.”

There’s no doubt about that. Let’s just say it’s not a coincidence that the Vikings added Mason to the backfield after last season, when veteran running back Aaron Jones logged a career-high 306 touches.

The style that Mason brings to the table will be a nice complement to Jones in the backfield.

“You earn respect by hitting somebody in the mouth,” Mason said in reference to the physicality that he brings when the ball in his hands. “I guess it came from not really having too much speed. You’ve got to do something to get here. That was something I picked up early on.”

The numbers speak for themselves. Mason forced a missed tackle on 37 percent of his carries last season, according to Next Gen Stats, which was the best rate in the NFL among players with at least 150 carries. Though he showcased his shiftiness in the open field from time to time, Mason usually forced those missed tackles simply by bulldozing opposing players at the point of attack.

The power that Mason possesses in his 5-foot-11, 225-pound frame is something the Vikings could certainly use on offense, especially near the goal line, where they have often seemed allergic to asking a running back to score.

In total, Mason finished with 153 carries for 789 yards and three touchdowns with the 49ers last season, doing most of his of his damage while filling in for star running back Christian McCaffrey, who missed an extended period of time due to injuries.

Not bad considering Mason originally went undrafted out of Georgia Tech. Why does he think every team in the NFL passed on him multiple times?

“They can’t see this,” Mason said pointing to his chest. “They can’t see the heart that people have in them.”

That heart has been on display as Mason has essentially forced his way into the rotation for the 49ers and now figures to play an important role for the Vikings as they set their sights on the Super Bowl.

Since finding out he was being traded to the Vikings, Mason has already connected with Jones, fullback C.J. Ham and a few players on the offensive line. And he’s looking forward to the next chapter.

“They told me they want me to be myself,” Mason said. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

There’s not much else to say other than that.

San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason (24) stands on the field during the first half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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