SpaceX successfully lands Starship spacecraft
May 5, 2021
SpaceX s Starship rocket prototype had its first successful test flight on Wednesday, touching down safely in south Texas after flying more than six miles over the Gulf of Mexico.
The 160-foot rocket is made of stainless steel and bullet shaped. Four earlier test flights of Starship prototypes all ended with explosions taking place either before, during, or immediately after landing,
The Associated Press reports. SpaceX aims to use Starship to transport astronauts to the moon and people to Mars.
Catherine Garcia
1:11 a.m.
Monyay Paskalides now celebrates two birthdays: the day she was born and the day she was officially adopted by Leah Paskalides, her former caseworker.
In Colorado, children make up 26 percent of new COVID-19 cases
With highly-transmissible variants spreading across the state and more kids taking part in face-to-face activities, children now make up 26.4 percent of all active COVID-19 cases in Colorado.
Children between 0 to 19 make up 16.57 percent of overall infections in Colorado since the start of the pandemic, ABC News reports; 847 kids have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 13 have died. Dr. Sean O Leary of the University of Colorado School of Medicine told the network that since children under 16 aren t eligible for any COVID-19 vaccines, that s a group that is completely prone to getting infected at this point.
2 American students found guilty of killing Italian policeman
Two college students from California were found guilty on Wednesday of killing an Italian policeman in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.
Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were accused of stabbing to death 35-year-old Vice Brig. Mario Cerciello Rega while they were vacationing in Rome. On the night of July 25, the men â friends from high school â had been ripped off by a drug dealer, and they stole the backpack of a middleman who gave them an over-the-counter pain medicine instead of cocaine. Elder and Natale-Hjorth set up a meeting to give the man his backpack in exchange for their money, but instead encountered Cerciello Rega and his partner, Andrea Varriale.
DOJ sends letter detailing concerns over Arizona election audit
The Justice Department s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) on Wednesday detailing concerns it has over private contractors performing an audit of the November presidential election in Maricopa County.
Last month, the GOP-controlled state Senate used subpoenas to get the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County during the election, as well as voting machines and private and public voter information. The Senate hired private contractors to conduct the audit, now underway in Phoenix, seeking a recount of all ballots and a review of the voting machines and voter information to search for evidence of potential fraud,
May 5, 2021
The United States will advocate for waiving COVID-19 vaccine patent protections in discussions with the World Trade Organization, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Wednesday.
The Biden administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, Tai said in a statement, but the White House will back the waiver given the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration has faced pressure to support the measure, which is aimed at increasing vaccinations around the world especially in countries experiencing a surge in infections, like India without having to rely solely on exports.
These extraordinary times and circumstances of call for extraordinary measures. The US supports the waiver of IP protections on COVID-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic and we’ll actively participate in @WTO negotiations to make that happen. pic.twitter.com/96ERlboZS8