AFP

The author Salman Rushdie released excerpts of a new novel on Monday, four months after he was severely injured in a stabbing attack in the state of New York.

The New Yorker magazine published an excerpt online entitled “A Sackful of Seeds” from the 15th novel by Rushdie, titled “Victory City,” which is due to be published in early February by Penguin Random House.

The book tells the “epic tale” of a woman in the 14th century in what is now part of India, the publishing house said.

The New Yorker said this excerpt will be published in its print edition dated December 12 and due out for sale on Monday.

Rushdie, a Briton born in India, confirmed on Twitter that the magazine has published an extract from “Victory City.”

It was the first time since August 9 that Rushdie posted something on Twitter. He did so then to announce that his next book would come out in February 2023.

Three days later, while Rushdie was on stage preparing to give a lecture in Chautauqua, New York, a young man ran up and stabbed him repeatedly.

The 75-year-old writer, who had received death threats after the publication of his “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, was stabbed several times in the neck and abdomen.

Rushdie was airlifted to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery but ultimately lost his vision in one eye and the use of one hand, his agent Andrew Wylie said in October.

The author had lived in hiding for years after Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his killing for what he deemed the blasphemous nature of “The Satanic Verses”.

The suspect in the stabbing, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey with roots in Lebanon, was arrested immediately after the attack and subsequently pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The attack sparked outrage in the West but was praised by extremists in Muslim countries like Iran and Pakistan.

Rushdie is now a naturalized US citizen and has lived in New York for 20 years.

Iran denied any involvement in the stabbing attack against Rushdie.

NASA’s Orion spaceship made a close pass of the Moon and used a gravity assist to whip itself back towards Earth on Monday, marking the start of the return journey for the Artemis-1 mission.

At its nearest point, the uncrewed capsule flew less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the surface, testing maneuvers that will be used during later Artemis missions that return humans to the rocky celestial body.

Communication with the capsule was interrupted for 30 minutes when it was behind the far side of the Moon — an area more cratered than the near side and first seen by humans during the Apollo era, although they didn’t land there.

The European Service Module, which powers the capsule, fired its main engine for over three minutes to put the gumdrop-shaped Orion on course for home.

“We couldn’t be more pleased about how the spacecraft is performing,” Debbie Korth, Orion Program deputy manager, said later.

As spectacular footage flashed on their screens once communication was restored, she told a news conference, “everybody in the room, we just kind of had to stop and pause, and just really look — Wow, we’re saying goodbye to the moon.”

Monday’s was the last major maneuver of the mission, which began when NASA’s mega Moon rocket SLS blasted off from Florida on November 16. From start to finish, the journey should last 25 and a half days.

Orion will now make only slight course corrections until it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on Sunday, December 11 at 9:40 am local time (1740 GMT). It will then be recovered and hoisted aboard a US Navy ship.

Earlier in the mission, Orion spent about six days in “distant retrograde orbit” around the Moon, meaning at high altitude and traveling opposite the direction the Moon revolves around Earth.

A week ago, Orion broke the distance record for a habitable capsule, venturing 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) from our planet.

Once it returns to Earth, Orion will have traveled more than 1.4 million miles, said Mike Sarafin, the Artemis mission manager.

Re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere will present a harsh test for the spacecraft’s heat shield, which will need to withstand temperatures of around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800degrees Celsius) -– or about half the surface of the Sun.

Under the Artemis program — named for the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology — the United States is seeking to build a lasting presence on the Moon in preparation for an onward voyage to Mars.

Artemis 2 will involve a crewed journey to the Moon, once again without landing. 

The first woman and next man are to land on the lunar south pole during Artemis 3, which is set for no sooner than 2025, though likely significantly later given timeline delays.

A man who shot Lady Gaga’s dogwalker during an attempt to steal the singer’s prize French bulldogs was sentenced to 21 years in prison Monday after pleading no contest to attempted murder. 

James Howard Jackson and two other men attacked Ryan Fischer on a Hollywood street in February 2021, and after a struggle made off with two of the “Poker Face” singer’s three pets that were out for a walk.

Fischer sustained chest injuries in the attack and said on Instagram a month later he had suffered a collapsed lung.

Jackson, 20, entered the no-contest plea after prosecutors agreed to drop further robbery, assault and other charges.

“The plea agreement holds Mr Jackson accountable for perpetrating a cold-hearted violent act and provides justice for our victim,” said a statement from the District Attorney’s Office.

The two other assailants have already been jailed for their parts in the crime.

Following the incident, Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward for the return of dogs Koji and Gustav. A woman who handed in the dogs in response to the reward has been charged with being an accessory after the fact and with receiving stolen goods.

The singer’s other bulldog, Miss Asia, was able to evade capture, and ran back to the wounded Fischer’s side after the robbers left.

Jackson earlier this year was recaptured after being accidentally released from custody in what officials described as a “clerical error.”

Los Angeles police said at the time they did not believe the dogs were targeted because of their owner, but because of the breed’s appeal on the black market.

Small and friendly — and thus easy to grab — French bulldogs do not have large litters.

Their relative scarcity, and their association with stars such as Lady Gaga, Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Jackman, Chrissy Teigen, Leonardo DiCaprio and Madonna, gives them added cachet and means they can change hands for thousands of dollars.

The disgraced lawyer who represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her battle with Donald Trump was sentenced to another jail term Monday, this time in California.

Michael Avenatti, who acted for Daniels in her lawsuit against the former US president, was given a 14-year sentence for stealing money from his clients and for not paying taxes.

This sentence will be on top of a five-year prison term he received for convictions in New York relating to trying to extort sportswear firm Nike and to stealing from Daniels, US District Judge James Selna ruled.

Federal prosecutors said Avenatti pilfered $12.35 million from his clients by skimming settlements he reached on their behalf.

In a sentencing submission prosecutors said Avenatti “would lie about the true terms of the settlement agreement he had negotiated for the client, conceal the settlement payments that the counterparty had made, secretly take and spend the settlement proceeds that belonged to the client, and lull the client into not complaining or investigating further by providing small ‘advances’ on the supposedly yet-to-be-paid funds.”

They also charged he was a tax cheat, citing failure to pay payroll taxes after his firm acquired Tully’s Coffee in bankruptcy, to the tune of $3.2 million, and had avoided paying $1.6 million in payroll taxes from his law firm.

Avenatti had admitted the charges at an earlier appearance.

Avenatti’s fall from grace was as dizzying as his rise, when he became internationally famous in 2018 as the glib lawyer who appeared beside Daniels baiting the then-president.

Daniels was embroiled in a legal battle with Trump over hush money she received for an alleged affair with him in 2006.

Reveling in his role as an outspoken critic of the president, Avenatti appeared frequently on camera and on social media, raising suspicions that he harbored ambitions for a run for the White House.

But while representing Daniels, Avenatti was also defrauding her.

He tricked literary agents into sending $300,000 of an $800,000 advance she received for a book called “Full Disclosure” into a bank account that he controlled, without her knowledge. 

Avenatti then spent the money on personal and professional expenses including plane tickets, restaurant meals and the lease of a Ferrari, prosecutors said.

The conservative-majority US Supreme Court appeared poised Monday to rule in favor of a Christian graphic designer who refuses to make wedding websites for same-sex couples.

The case, one of the most consequential being heard by the nation’s highest court this term, pits free speech rights against anti-discrimination laws.

Lorie Smith, owner of 303 Creative, a website design firm in Colorado, is challenging a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating on the basis of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Smith claims that creating marriage announcements for same-sex couples would be “inconsistent” with her Christian beliefs and being compelled to do so would violate her First Amendment free speech rights.

The case closely resembles one from 2018 when the Supreme Court partially ruled in favor of a Colorado baker, also a devout Christian, who had refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

During Monday’s two-and-a-half-hour hearing, the six conservative justices on the court, which recognized same-sex marriage in 2015, appeared to be receptive to arguments made by Smith’s lawyer.

The liberals were deeply skeptical.

“This would be the first time in the court’s history that it would say that a commercial business serving the public could refuse to serve a customer based on race, sex, religion or sexual orientation,” said Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberal justices.

“How about people who don’t believe in interracial marriage?” Sotomayor asked. “People who don’t believe that disabled people should get married?

“Where’s the line?” she asked. “If I disagree with their personal characteristics like race or disability I can choose not to sell those people my website because it’s my speech?”

Ketanji Brown Jackson, another liberal justice and the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, questioned whether religious objections were a valid basis for refusing to provide a service.

“Historically, opposition to interracial marriages and to integration, in many instances, was on religious grounds,” Jackson said.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito took issue with the comparisons to interracial marriage and also said there are “honorable people who object to same sex marriage.”

– ‘Cannot refuse to serve gay couples’ –

Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, who heads the faith-based Alliance Defending Freedom, said the state law would force her client to “create and speak messages” she does not believe in “on pain of investigation, fine and reeducation.”

“When you’re requiring a speaker to create a message to celebrate something that they believe to be false you’re compelling their speech,” said Waggoner, who represented cakemaker Jack Phillips in the previous case.

“Under Colorado’s theory, jurisdictions could force a Democrat publicist to write a Republican’s press release,” she said.

Waggoner said Smith provides website services to members of the LGBTQ community other than marriage announcements and there are heterosexual unions she also would not endorse.

“So it’s about the message and not about the sexuality of the couple?” asked conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Another conservative justice, Brett Kavanaugh, said the case may hinge on the “narrow question” of whether Smith can be considered an artist with free speech rights rather than, for example, a landscaper or restaurant owner.

Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson said a company can “sell websites that only feature biblical quotes describing a marriage as between a man and a woman — just like a Christmas store can choose to sell only Christmas-related items.

“The company just cannot refuse to serve gay couples,” Olson said. “Just as a Christmas store cannot announce no Jews allowed.”

Asked about the case, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration “believes that every person, no matter their sex, race, religion or who they love, should have equal access to society, including access to products and services.”

In the 2018 case, the Supreme Court voted 7-2 that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had displayed anti-religious hostility toward the baker, thus violating his constitutional rights.

The court, however, did not squarely address the issue of whether a business can decline to serve gays and lesbians on free speech or religious grounds.

The Supreme Court has undergone a radical transformation since that ruling, with two staunch conservatives nominated by former president Donald Trump replacing one liberal and one swing justice.

The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its ruling before the end of June.