Tag: receives

Categories
Politics

Biden Receives Our bodies of Troopers Killed in Kabul Bombing

Biden Receives Bodies of Soldiers Killed in Kabul Bombing

The transfers began in the late morning and stretched nearly 40 minutes, finishing after noon. Time and again, service members in varying shades of green fatigues carried flag-draped transfer cases down the ramp of the transport, which faced Air Force One on the runway. First came the Army, then the Marines, then the Navy. The carry teams, as they are called, worked in three-minute cycles, marching before a host of dignitaries including the president, the secretaries of state and defense, and several top military brass. They carried the remains from the transport and lifted them through the back cargo doors of four gray vans.

The president stood with his hand over his heart as they passed by. When sets of Marines returned to the belly of the C-17, hands empty, to retrieve the next set of remains, Mr. Biden widened his stance and clasped his hands by his belt or behind his back. Often he bowed his head with his eyes squeezed shut, as if in prayer.

Across from him sat rows of family members of the fallen, so many of them that the Dover base could not house them all in its rooms built specially for next of kin.

The fallen service members returning Sunday to Dover were Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City; Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, Calif.; Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, Calif.; Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha; Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Ind.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Mo.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyo.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif.; Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio; and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tenn.

The president and the first lady, Jill Biden, met with the families of those service members midmorning on Sunday. They then participated in 13 transfers — 11 for families who chose to allow the news media to observe the remains of their loved ones returning home, and two for families who chose to keep their transfers private.

Categories
World News

Virgin Galactic receives FAA license to fly passengers to area

Virgin Galactic receives FAA license to fly passengers to space

Virgin Galactic announced Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration granted the company the license it needs to fly passengers on future spaceflights, a key hurdle as the venture completes development testing.

“The commercial license that we have had in place since 2016 remains in place, but is now cleared to allow us to carry commercial passengers when we’re ready to do so,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told CNBC. “This is obviously an exciting milestone and a huge compliment to the team.”

Virgin Galactic’s stock jumped 38.9% in trading on Friday, its largest ever rise in a single trading day, to close at $55.91. Shares had tumultuous start to the year, with the stock climbing above $60 in February and then plummeting to a low near $15 last month before rebounding.

While the FAA previously gave Virgin Galactic a launch license to conduct spaceflights, the license expansion allows the company to fly what the regulator calls “spaceflight participants.” The company completed a 29 element verification and validation program for the FAA, clearing the final two FAA milestones with its most recent spaceflight test in May. Colglazier noted the last two milestones were specific to the spacecraft’s flight-control systems and inertial navigation systems.

Notably, Virgin Galactic chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses is the only nonpilot to fly on one of the company’s spaceflights. To date, five Virgin Galactic employees, including four pilots, have become FAA-recognized astronauts – as the U.S. officially views an altitude of 80 kilometers (or about 50 miles) as the boundary to space.

Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft Unity is designed to hold up to six passengers along with the two pilots. The company has about 600 reservations for tickets on future flights, sold at prices between $200,000 and $250,000 each.

Next spaceflights TBD

With three spaceflight tests completed to date over the last two years, Virgin Galactic now has three more spaceflight tests planned before it completes development. The company previously announced its next spaceflight would carry four passengers to test the spacecraft’s cabin, its second would fly founder Sir Richard Branson and the third will carry members of the Italian Air Force for professional astronaut training.

Sir Richard Branson, left, and CEO Michael Colglazier celebrate the company’s third spaceflight test on May 22, 2021.

Virgin Galactic

However, a report earlier this month by a blogger based in Mojave, California – where Virgin Galactic manufactures its vehicles – said the company is considering reorganizing its flight schedule to launch Branson next over the July 4 weekend. The report came shortly after Jeff Bezos announced he would fly on Blue Origin’s first passenger spaceflight, planned to launch on July 20 – suggesting Branson may yet try to beat Bezos in personally flying to space.

Colglazier said the FAA approval means “the flight test program shifts now” to demonstrating “the cabin experience” of the spacecraft.

“I know there’s a lot of interest and speculation out there but we have not announced either the date nor the people that would be on those,” Colglazier said. “We approach this very methodically, with safety as the first consideration, and when we have all those boxes checked and all the steps in place – that’s when we can move forward and announce.”

Development delays have pushed back the company’s promised beginning of commercial service from mid-2020 to early 2022.

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Categories
Business

Level72 founder Steve Cohen leaves Twitter after household receives threats

Point72 founder Steve Cohen leaves Twitter after family receives threats

Steven A. Cohen

Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Steve Cohen, the founder of Point72 hedge fund and owner of the New York Mets, turned off his Twitter account after his family received threats in the GameStop trading frenzy this week.

“I really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter, which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that resulted in our family receiving personal threats,” Cohen said in a statement on Saturday.

“So I’m taking a break for the time being. We have other options to listen to your suggestions and keep advocating,” he said.

Cohen’s hedge fund, which manages nearly $ 19 billion in assets, lost nearly 15% this year after small investors drove shares of video game retailer GameStop, a source familiar with the matter told the New York Times.

The losses at Point72 are mainly due to the company’s investment in the hedge fund Melvin Capital, which bet against GameStop and had to receive emergency money of nearly $ 3 billion from two outside investors, including Point72.

Cohen, who bought the Mets for about $ 2.5 billion in November, was faced with questions on Twitter about how Melvin’s losses would affect the baseball team.

Cohen also had a back-and-forth with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on Twitter Thursday after Portnoy accused Cohen of being involved in controversial trade restrictions in GameStop for apps like Robinhood.

Categories
World News

Joe Biden receives Covid vaccine, encourages public to get inoculated

Joe Biden receives Covid vaccine, encourages public to get inoculated

US President-elect Joe Biden will receive a Covid-19 vaccination from Tabe Masa, nurse and head of health care for employees on December 21, 2020 on the Christiana Care campus in Newark, Delaware.

Alex Edelman | AFP | Getty Images

President-elect Joe Biden received a Covid-19 vaccine on live television Monday afternoon during a demonstration to encourage Americans to get their own footage if they can.

“There’s nothing to worry about. I’m looking forward to the second shot,” said Biden, from a Delaware hospital.

Jill Biden, the arriving first lady, was given a dose of the vaccine earlier in the day. Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala Harris of California and her husband Doug Emhoff will be vaccinated next week.

Biden’s vaccine, given by Tabe Masa, the head of health for staff at ChristianaCare Hospital, comes as officials try to vaccinate Americans across the country in hopes of controlling the rapidly spreading virus.

Covid-19, which killed more than 300,000 people in the U.S., shook the nation in 2020, freezing large swaths of the economy, and changing the traditional process by which candidates for presidency fight.

Biden, more so than his rival, President Donald Trump, was careful to avoid spreading the virus in the course of his bid, largely avoiding major events, and suspending door-to-door campaign activity.

After receiving the vaccine, Biden credited the Trump administration with her work, saying it “deserves some credit for getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed”.

The former vice president also encouraged Americans to cancel unnecessary travel plans and wear masks.

“We owe a lot to these people, the scientists and the people who put this together, the frontline workers, the ones who actually did the clinical work. It’s just amazing,” Biden said.

Biden received the first dose of the Pfizer-made vaccine, which was the first to be approved by US regulators. A second vaccine from Moderna was shipped across the country over the weekend. Both require two doses several weeks apart.

Public health officials have announced plans to vaccinate up to 20 million people in the remaining weeks of 2020, but have indicated that it could be months before most people can receive shots.

Biden, one of the first Americans to receive a vaccine, recognized this long period.

“Now Moderna will be on the road too, but it will take time,” said Biden. “It will take time, and in the meantime – I don’t want to hear a sour note here – I hope people listen to all the experts.”

In the past few days, other senior officials have also been publicly vaccinated, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump, who was hospitalized with coronavirus in October, has not yet received a vaccine.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday that Trump did not receive the vaccine because he was recently treated with monoclonal antibodies.

“That’s actually a scenario where we tell people, ‘Maybe you should hold back on the vaccination and talk to your doctor about the right time,” Adams said on CBS News.

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