NASA Rover Perseverance lands on Mars

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TO UPDATE: NASA successful landed his Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars. Read more about it here.

NASA is hours away from its most ambitious Mars mission to date. The US space agency will attempt to land the Perseverance rover after a journey of more than six months on the red planet.

Perseverance was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and is the fifth and most technologically advanced rover the agency plans to deploy on the surface of Mars for nearly two years. The rover and its spaceship are equipped with two dozen cameras to capture its expedition. The robot is full of scientific instruments to measure the geology of the planet – and hopefully collect samples that NASA hopes to return to Earth one day.

“Mars stimulates our imaginations and has been part of our dreams for many decades. The persistence balances the long history of systematic science-driven exploration of Mars,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, Deputy Administrator of NASA’s Directorate for Scientific Missions, in a briefing before landing.

The rover is scheduled to touch the surface at around 3:55 p.m. ET.

Since launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on July 30, Perseverance has traveled 293 million miles to reach Mars. The rover is about the size of a small car, weighs about a ton in total, and is 10 feet long by 9 feet wide by seven feet tall. It has a robotic arm that is about 7 feet long, the end of which has a robotic hand that has a camera, chemical analyzer, and rock drill.

“We want to land on Mars … and with the cameras turned on so that the whole world is inspired by us,” said Zurbuchen.

The landing will include what NASA engineers call the “Seven Minutes of Terror”. This is the time it takes to enter the Martian atmosphere and descend to the surface. It is known as such because it takes 11 minutes for communication to occur from the rover back to Earth. This means that the spacecraft and the rover have to land autonomously for the time delay.

An animation of the Mars rover Perseverance entering the atmosphere of the red planet in a protective spaceship.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

Erisa Stilley, co-head of entry, descent and landing systems at NASA’s JPL, explained how the landing process is carefully coordinated after the rover has come through the atmosphere.

“Once the persistence on the parachute drops, we can now let go of the heat shield that protected us on entering and for the first time. [autonomously] Turn on the radar and look at the ground, “Stilley said in a pre-landing briefing.

Perseverance then uses a map on board and searches an area of ​​property worth about 120 soccer fields on the surface to find the safest place to land.

“That happens in the 2.4 seconds it takes endurance to send commands to separate from the rear hull and free fall,” said Stilley.

“When we have this knowledge and we are done with our free fall, we will fire the missiles,” added Stilley. “We’re going from 170 mph to about two at this point [miles per hour] while we slow down and prepare for the ‘sky crane’ maneuver. “

Persistence will take photos in entry time, which Stilley said NASA is hoping to “produce some images we’ve never seen before”.

This illustration shows the events in the final minutes of the nearly seven-month journey NASA’s Perseverance rover makes to Mars

NASA / JPL-Caltech

The rover wants to land in the Jezero crater, a 45 km wide basin in the northern hemisphere of Mars. It’s a place NASA believes a body of water the size of Lake Tahoe was flowing. NASA’s science team is hoping that the ancient river delta may have received organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life that Perseverance will attempt to detect with its instruments.

NASA invested around $ 2.4 billion to build and launch the Perseverance mission. Another 300 million US dollars are to land and operate the rover on the surface of Mars.

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover efficiently lands on the floor

NASA successfully landed its fifth robotic rover, Perseverance, on the surface of Mars on Thursday after its six-month journey from Earth.

“Touchdown confirmed,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission control said at 3:55 p.m. ET. “Perseverance safe on the surface of Mars, ready to seek the sands of past life.”

The rover is the most technologically advanced robot NASA has ever sent to Mars. The agency plans to spend almost two years exploring the surface. NASA spent around $ 2.4 billion to build and launch the Perseverance mission. Another US $ 300 million is expected to land and operate the rover on the surface of Mars.

Based on its predecessor Curiosity, which reached Mars in August 2012 and is still in operation, the Perseverance rover was built by NASA JPL in California. Several companies have contributed to parts of the spacecraft, including the Lockheed Martin-built heat shield, the Aerojet Rocketdyne-built rocket engines, and the robotic arm built by Maxar Technologies.

Perseverance also has a small helicopter called Ingenuity with which NASA plans to attempt the first flight on another planet.

Engineers observe the first test drive for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on December 17, 2019.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

The rover, about the size of a small car, weighs about 1 ton and is 10 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 7 feet high. It has a robotic arm that reaches about 7 feet, the end of which has a robotic hand that has a camera, chemical analyzer, and rock drilling machine. Perseverance is powered by nuclear power. A plutonium generator is provided by the US Department of Energy to generate power for its pair of lithium-ion batteries.

Perseverance traveled 293 million miles over a period of more than six months to reach Mars after being launched on July 30 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

Hold the landing

This illustration shows the events in the final minutes of the nearly seven-month journey NASA’s Perseverance rover makes to Mars

NASA / JPL-Caltech

The landing of the rover showed the typical “seven minutes of terror” that NASA engineers describe every time a spacecraft attempts to land on Mars. This is the time it takes to enter the Martian atmosphere and descend to the surface. It is known as such because it takes 11 minutes for communication to occur from the rover back to Earth. This means that the spaceship and the rover must perform the time delay and land autonomously.

Persistence entered the Martian atmosphere in a capsule that protected the rover as it moved at a speed of approximately 12,100 miles per hour. The spacecraft then parachuted to slow down before the capsule and heat shield were dropped, and then fired its rocket engines to slow down from about 170 mph to about 2 mph.

An animation of the spacecraft with the Mars rover Perseverance firing its engines to slow the landing.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

Next, the spaceship deployed its “sky crane”, which lowered the rover the remaining few meters to the surface.

An animation of the Mars rover Perserverance, which is being lowered onto the surface of Mars by the “sky crane”.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater, a 45 km wide basin in the northern hemisphere of Mars. It’s a place NASA believes a body of water the size of Lake Tahoe used to flow. NASA’s science team is hoping that the ancient river delta may have received organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life that Perseverance will attempt to detect with its instruments.

The target landing area of ​​NASA’s Perseverance rover is superimposed on this image of the landing site on Mars, the Jezero crater.

ESA / DLR / FU-Berlin / NASA / JPL-Caltech

In addition to its scientific instruments, the rover carries a plaque to honor Covid-19 health workers and to recognize the effects of the pandemic.

The rover also has the names of 10.9 million people written in morse code on three silicon chips on the rover with the words “Explore as one”.

Perseverance mission

The rover is packed with cameras to capture its expedition and full of scientific instruments to measure the geology of the planet and collect samples that NASA plans to return to Earth one day.

NASA plans to push persistence to the surface for a Martian year, equivalent to 687 days on Earth.

It has seven main instruments for a variety of purposes: the Mastcam-Z; the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer or MEDA; the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Experiment on Resource Use, or MOXIE; the planetary instrument for X-ray lithochemistry or PIXL; the Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment or RIMFAX; scanning of habitable environments with Raman & Luminescence for organic matter & chemicals or SHERLOC and the SuperCam.

The rover also has a sample caching system with nine different drills and many sample collection tubes to capture parts of the Martian surface.

“Perseverance is the first rover to bring a sample caching system to Mars that packs promising samples for return to Earth on a future mission,” NASA said in a press release. “Instead of pulverizing rock like the Curiosity drill does, the Perseverance drill cuts intact rock cores about the size of a piece of chalk and places them in sample tubes that are stored until the rover reaches a convenient drop off point on Mars.”

NASA hopes to return the samples in the future as part of a campaign in collaboration with the European Space Agency.

The rover is designed to cover more ground than any other robot previously sent to Mars. NASA designed Perseverance to travel an average of 650 feet per Mars day. This roughly equates to the longest trip the NASA Opportunity Rover completed at 702 feet in a day.

The goal is the first flight on another planet

The Perseverance rover with the Ingenuity helicopter visible underneath was preparing for takeoff.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

Perseverance also carries the Ingenuity helicopter. NASA plans to use the helicopter in a flat area a few months after landing under Perseverance. The rover then drives about 100 meters away to record the attempted flight with the rover’s cameras.

An animation of the Perseverance rover using the Ingenuity helicopter.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

If all goes well, Ingenuity’s flight will be the first powered controlled flight on another planet in what NASA calls the “Wright Brothers Moment” on Mars.

An animation of the Ingenuity helicopter making its first flight on Mars.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

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Dionne Warwick says a sequence about her life is within the works and Teyana Taylor could also be concerned

It looks like we will soon be able to see the story of the legendary Dionne Warwick on our screens in the form of a limited series. During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dionne revealed that the series is currently in the works.

Last December, Dionne posted a video clip of herself and asked her followers if they would see her if she did a series. She posted the video on her Twitter account and said, “This is a case for Netflix. Please don’t ask who I would cast to play me as it would obviously be Teyana Taylor. “

This is a case for @netflix. Please don’t ask who I would cast to play me as it would obviously be @TEYANATAYLOR. pic.twitter.com/acGbBKGFfH

– Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) December 16, 2020

Netflix responded to Dionne to let her know they were taking notes, and Teyana even posted the exchange on her Instagram, saying, “When the LEGENDARY @therealdionnew had that moment with @netflix and they started jotting notes in their palm pilots … i looked at her likeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. “

“[Teyana] is certainly a talented young lady that I have had the pleasure of working with. In fact, we had a conversation on the phone last night, ”said Dionne. “She’s very excited about the prospect of getting involved, and she’s going to be very, very involved in directing and putting together parts of how we see this.”

While there isn’t yet a place for the set in stone series, Dionne went on to say that Netflix is ​​a place she certainly considered.

She said, “Netflix is ​​one of the places I’ve been looking for opportunities. They aren’t the only place we go, but Netflix seems to be the leading episode [platform] to do something similar to what I want to do. A lot of very exciting things are going on right now. “

Last month, Lil Kim also mentioned that Teyana should also portray her in a project.

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TSR STAFF: Jade Ashley @ Jade_Ashley94

Biden desires to pledge billions for international efforts

A health worker applies a Sinovac CoronaVac Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine to an elderly Citzen on February 18, 2021 in Sao Goncalo, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ricardo Moraes | Reuters

President Joe Biden is expected to announce Friday that the US will be spending $ 4 billion on international Covid vaccination efforts, White House officials said.

During his first virtual meeting as president with G7 leaders, Biden will also encourage other nations to pledge more money for the global fight against the pandemic, officials told reporters in a conference call on Thursday afternoon.

“This pandemic will not end if we don’t end it globally,” said an official, while noting that vaccinating Americans remains the government’s “top priority”.

“But pandemics travel,” the official said, “and the more diseases there are, the more likely we are to see additional mutations and variants.”

The funds were provided by Congress under the Covid Relief Act, which was incorporated into law in late December with overwhelming support from both parties, despite former President Donald Trump describing the package as a “disgrace”.

The Biden government plans to donate half of that $ 4 billion “almost immediately” to the Gavi nonprofit global vaccination alliance, an official said.

Gavi is the co-head of COVAX, an international initiative aimed at improving access to Covid vaccines. The initial $ 2 billion shipment from the United States aims to improve access to Covid vaccines for 92 low and middle income economies supported by COVAX’s Advance Market Commitment.

The government plans to spend the remaining $ 2 billion gradually through 2022, officials said, with the aim of encouraging other donors to increase their contributions.

“We basically want to turn this into a way to convert $ 2 billion into billions of dollars,” an official said in the call, setting a target of at least $ 15 billion for “what is likely.” is required to actually increase the delivery of the vaccine around the world. “

The government stressed that the global funding will have no impact on the US domestic vaccination program. Officials said if Congress passes Covid’s additional bill, pushed by Biden lawmakers and the Democrats, they expect to ensure adequate vaccine supplies to meet their schedule goals.

“If we have adequate supplies, we may want to consider donating excess vaccines,” said an overseas official.

When asked the importance of supporting global vaccination efforts, one official said, “In addition to saving many lives … it is also the right thing to do to help everyone in America from a national security and economic perspective.”

Meals and its packaging are not possible to transmit viruses

A health worker wearing a protective mask works in a laboratory during clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine at the Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Florida, USA

Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images

It’s been a little over a year in the global Covid-19 pandemic and there is still “no credible evidence” that people can catch the virus from food or food packaging, US food and health officials said Thursday.

While there have been some scientific studies that have identified Covid-19 particles on food packaging, according to a joint press release from the United States, most of that research is to find the genetic fingerprint of the virus, not the live virus that is causing it Human Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Transmission of the virus through food or food packaging is highly unlikely because the amount of virus particles that a person could theoretically ingest by touching a contaminated surface is not enough to produce an infection through oral inhalation.

Health experts around the world have come to similar conclusions and have found that international scientists are constantly learning more about the virus.

“Despite the billions of meals and food packaging treated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been no evidence to date that food, food packaging, or handling of food is a source or an important route of transmission for SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19, “said a recent statement from the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Food.

Over 110 million people around the world have tested positive for the coronavirus. There are several different ways that the virus can be transmitted and infected, but global health experts agree that taking it out on Friday night is unlikely to be one of them.

Hollywood helps Texas after the winter storm

Texas needs help from the American people.

Millions of residents were left without electricity after a winter storm hit the Lone Star state earlier this week. According to NBC News, half a million people were still without power in Texas as of Thursday, February 18.

A familiar face who experienced the electricity crisis firsthand was the Real Housewives of Dallas Star Stephanie Hollman. In an Instagram video, the Bravo star told how her family got along with the help of a fireplace.

“3rd day without electricity at home,” she wrote. “I know so many of you are cold, scared, and just trying to keep your family warm. I send you my love and prayers. Check out your friends and neighbors, especially the elderly, who may not be able to ask for help. All my love for you. “

In addition to power outages, many Texas counties have faced water disruptions while others have been instructed to boil tap water before drinking. With first responders and key personnel working around the clock to help others, many in Hollywood are sending assistance to residents. Keep scrolling to see their messages.

The CDC’s instructing would preserve 90% of faculties a minimum of partially closed

A student is seen walking down the steps of PS 139 closed public school in the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States on October 8, 2020.

Michael Nagle | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s long-awaited guidelines on safely reopening schools during the pandemic could result in children being locked out of the classroom for longer than necessary, four doctors told CNBC.

Many public health professionals applauded the agency last week for publishing the clearest and most comprehensive federal guidance on whether and to what extent schools should reopen. The 35-page document defines “essential elements” of the reopening, including social distancing, universal masking, and some testing. It also sets a number of parameters that can be used to assess how far the coronavirus is spreading within a community and whether schools should be fully reopened for face-to-face learning or a partial or complete removal schedule should be followed until the outbreak has subsided.

However, doctors who spoke to CNBC pointed to notable flaws in the guidelines, saying it would prevent more than 90% of schools, including in nearly all of the country’s 50 largest counties, from fully reopening.

If CDC guidelines are strictly followed, schools may not reopen fully to face-to-face learning for months – even if doctors feel they could safely reopen much sooner.

Restrictive metrics

At the center of the criticism is the CDC’s decision to link the reopening decisions to the spread of the virus in the surrounding county. The guidelines state that schools can only be fully reopened to face-to-face learning in countries with low or moderate transmission, which means fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 population over seven days or a test positivity rate of less than 8%. Schools in counties that don’t reach this threshold should switch to hybrid learning if students only spend some time in the classroom, with the primary goal of getting elementary school students into class, the guide says.

Because of these measures, the vast majority of schools in the United States should not have students in class five days a week. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky admitted in a call with reporters on Friday that currently more than 90% of K-12 schools in the country are in high transmission areas.

However, more than 40% of K-12 schools are already working full-time in person, according to Burbio, a service that is tracking plans to open the school.

Only a handful of counties, including Honolulu County, Hawaii and Cass County, North Dakota, meet the CDC’s criteria for schools to fully reopen. Los Angeles County, California, Cook County, Illinois, Harris County, Texas, and almost every other city in the country wouldn’t make the cut. In fact, they fall under the CDC’s most restrictive requirements to reopen schools there due to a high level of community transmission. However, doctors who spoke to CNBC said schools in these districts, even with high prevalence, are safe to reopen to full-time face-to-face learning if the correct protocol is followed.

“We know a year after this pandemic that you can protect schools even if you have high community transmission,” said Dr. Syra Madad, senior director of the system-wide program for specific pathogens at New York City Health + Hospitals. “These benchmarks are likely to put more pressure on schools than necessary.”

Walensky has defended the agency’s approach.

“We know that the level of disease in the community completely affects what happens in school. If there are more diseases in the community, there will be more in school,” she said on CNN on Sunday. “So I would say it is everyone’s responsibility to do their part in the community to reduce disease rates so we can open our schools.”

‘Strong point’

Dr. Megan Ranney, emergency physician and director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health, said the CDC was in “an difficult position”. She admitted that most countries end up in the CDC’s most restrictive reopening tier, but added that “most schools are also absolutely unable to put the security in place”.

The necessary precautions are costly and require more resources, Ranney said. Without additional funding, it is unrealistic to believe that most schools can ensure that classroom desks are two meters apart, that they can improve ventilation and reopen safely in communities with significant distribution. She added that in areas with high prevalence, the concern is not that schools are contributing to the outbreak, but that school staff will be infected and schools will remain understaffed.

Ranney noted that in her home state of Rhode Island, all public elementary schools, including those of her own children, were open for personal study five days a week. Middle and high schools have done hybrid learning, she said, “basically following CDC guidelines.”

Infection prevention

Dr. However, Bill Schaffner, an epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University, said the CDC should have made it easier for the K-12 schools to reopen. He said the guidance was overall “not bad,” but the CDC should have been less restrictive of its community broadcast guidelines as schools now have to reopen.

“Parents not only want their children to learn more effectively in school again, many of these children also have a meal at school, children who come from impoverished areas,” he said. “Parents, whether they work from home or go to work, would then be able to approach the economy and their work more coherently.”

Schaffner said the CDC should have focused more on making sure schools know what infection prevention measures to implement and less on community spread.

Dr. Leana Wen, former Baltimore health commissioner, noted that some of the CDC’s recommendations on infection prevention give her a break.

ventilation

Wen noticed that the CDC guidelines specifically do not include ventilation measures. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been increasing evidence that the coronavirus can spread efficiently through the air. Air pathogens specialists and epidemiologists have called on the federal government to include flight safety standards in schools and at work.

The CDC guidelines contain only one paragraph on ventilation: “Improve ventilation as much as possible, for example by opening windows and doors to increase airflow outside.” The four doctors CNBC spoke to said the ventilation instructions didn’t go far enough. Wen said the CDC should have issued guidelines on portable air cleaner systems if it weren’t for recommendations on how to overhaul HVAC systems in schools, which would be enormously expensive.

Wen said she thought leaving out guidelines on classroom ventilation was a sign that the CDC was purposely looking to keep the school safe, but others defending the agency said it was likely an attempt to connect science with reality.

In addition, Wen, Schaffner and Madad said the CDC should have continued to emphasize the importance of vaccinating not just teachers but all school staff. While none of the doctors said teacher vaccinations were necessary to reopen schools, the CDC should have urged states to give teachers priority.

“If the CDC had come out and said really strongly, ‘This is a critical part of the reopening,’ it would have put pressure on these governors to give teachers priority,” Wen said. “This is the biggest oversight for me and I really don’t understand why you want to start this debate.”

– Artwork by Nate Rattner of CNBC.

Ted Cruz accused of flying to Cancun in the course of the Texas winter storm

Images allegedly showing Ted Cruz aboard a United Airlines flight from Houston, TX to Cancun, Mexico.

Source: @Ian McBride via Twitter

Will Senator Ted Cruz be known as “Flyin ‘Ted” now?

Photos erupted on social media allegedly showing a masked Cruz on Wednesday boarding a plane in Houston and then flying to Cancun, Mexico, despite millions of his Texans froze from historically low temperatures and widespread power outages.

Hours after thousands of Twitter posts shared these photos, other images showed someone with the Republican’s last name and the first initial of his legal first name – Rafael – waiting for a United Airlines flight from Cancun back to Houston. This flight is scheduled to start on Thursday afternoon.

At the time, the temperature in Houston was only 34 degrees Fahrenheit – 50 degrees colder than Cancun.

NBC News received no comment from Cruz’s office on the images despite repeated requests.

Images allegedly showing Ted Cruz with Heidi Cruz (circled) on board a United Airlines flight from Houston, TX to Cancun, Mexico.

Source: @Ian McBride via Twitter

A Houston Police Department spokesman told NBC News that Cruz staff asked the department on Wednesday afternoon to assist Cruz with his arrival and movements through George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where a scheduled flight to Cancun at 4:44 p.m. local time was planned.

Images posted on social media show a woman who appears to be at the airport with Cruz’s wife Heidi on Wednesday.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the gray mask seen on the man in the airport photos is the same mask used by Cruz when President Joe Biden was inaugurated last month and during the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate last week.

The mask features the image of a black cannon and the words “Come and Take It,” a design reminiscent of flags Texans used during the 1835 revolution against Mexico – a provocative choice given the target, “the newspaper said.

The Texas Democratic Party urged Cruz to resign or be expelled from office in view of the apparent trip.

“In the middle of one of the worst crises in Texas history, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico. His constituents in Texas remain trapped in the cold with no clean water, heat, or hot food. 37 of them have died, “the party said in a statement.

“This is what we expected the Texas Republican leadership to do. They are self-serving, incompetent, corrupt politicians who believe that in office they are entitled to do what they want.”

Former MP Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who lost a narrow Senate election to Cruz in 2018, beat him up during an interview Thursday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Cruz “is on vacation in Cancun as the people of the state he was elected to represent and serve are literally freezing to death,” said O’Rourke, who campaigned for the 2019 Democratic President nomination.

Julian Castro, former San Antonio mayor who served as secretary for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, tweeted, “In crises like this, Congressmen play a vital role in connecting their constituents to emergency services and aid. “

Cruz “should be calling federal agencies, not a trip to Mexico,” Castro wrote.

Ted Cruz on standby for a United Airlines flight

Source: United Airlines

On Tuesday, Cruz was toasted on Twitter and elsewhere for making fun of California’s blackouts months ago.

In response, Cruz tweeted that day, “I have no defense. A blizzard hits Texas and our state is closed. Not good.”

In December, Cruz criticized Democratic officials for failing to adhere to their own restrictions on coronavirus pandemics, including Steve Adler, Austin, Texas mayor, who himself flew to Mexico for his daughter’s wedding in November despite urging his city residents stay at home.

“Hypocrites. Complete and utter hypocrites,” wrote Cruz in his December 2 tweet.

Photos of Cruz without a mask on an American Airlines flight and at an airport gate were widely reported in July.

The person who took the photos and who worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaigns Committee noted that American Airlines guidelines require travelers to wear face covers.

Cruz’s spokeswoman at the time claimed that Cruz temporarily removed his mask to drink coffee.

While taking on Cruz in the 2016 Republican nomination contests, Trump regularly used the contemptuous nickname “Lyin ‘Ted” when speaking of him.

Cruz later became a passionate Trump supporter and last month tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to reject confirmation of Biden’s victories on electoral college in several states.

That verification process was interrupted on January 6th by the invasion of the Capitol complex by thousands of Trump supporters. Five people, including a Capitol Police Office, died as a result of the uprising.

Dow drops 200 factors after disappointing job knowledge, weak Walmart forecast

US stocks fell Thursday as investors were discouraged by an unexpectedly poor display of jobless claims and a grim outlook from Walmart.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 210 points. The S&P 500 was down 0.8% while the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.3% as investors continued to turn away from high-flying technology.

Initial unemployment claims last week were 861,000, the highest in a month and above the Dow Jones estimate of 773,000, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.

Walmart stock fell nearly 6% after fourth-quarter earnings fell below Wall Street estimates. The big box retailer also sees a slowdown in sales growth this year as pandemic momentum subsides.

“This is not the direction unemployment claims are supposed to go, but keep in mind that this could be a minor nuisance as the pace of vaccination continues to accelerate and cases across the country decline,” said Mike Loewengart, principal investment officer at E-Trade Financial.

Apple shares fell another 2.4%. The tech giant is down 4.6% this week as investors take some gains in big tech stocks, which have brought the market back to record highs. Tesla fell 2.5%, bringing the week’s losses to 4.6%.

The move comes after a meeting on Wednesday when the broader market struggled to take a clear direction. The Dow, carried by Chevron and Verizon, rose slightly to set a new record, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed in negative territory.

Corporate America is ending a strong season of earnings and Washington policymakers are negotiating another round of incentives. Cliff Hodge, Cornerstone Wealth’s chief investment officer, said the conclusion of the economic agreement could mean another step for the markets, even if the price is already somewhat priced in.

“If you think about how the added incentive can affect the average consumer, since the CARES Act 1.0 and the Second Round of Review really add to the savings, at this point we firmly believe that the additional incentive will pour straight into the economy” said Hodge.

Investors are closely following price movements outside of stocks, where government bond yields are trading near the year-long high and oil and gas prices have risen in the face of the Texas cold snap.

The congressional hearings on the GameStop saga are also set to begin on Thursday. Melvin Capital and Robinhood executives will join Reddit retailer Keith Gill on the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Black small enterprise house owners are being left behind amid the Covid pandemic

Trainer Iya Karade was forced to close her gymnastics studio, the Athletic Arts Academy, when the pandemic hit. Now open, it is about 25% full.

Source: Iya Karade

When the pandemic first struck the country in March last year, Iya Karade was one of countless small business owners who had to close their doors.

Her Orange, New Jersey-based gymnastics studio, Athletic Arts Academy, didn’t reopen until July – and then it was only 25% busy.

“The word pivot has become synonymous with survival,” said Karade, 54, who started her business in 2014 in hopes of bringing gymnastics to children in her urban area.

That meant running virtual courses and after they reopened adding skateboarding and roller skating to their offerings.

It is still 25% busy as many families stay at home, may be afraid of coming or living in multi-generational households – which means they need to be careful about putting older relatives at risk.

Whether she can survive another year under these conditions depends on many variables, such as the flexibility of her landlord.

“It depends on getting more money,” said Karade.

Almost a year into the pandemic, many companies, especially black-owned companies, are trying to stay afloat.

About a third, or 37%, of black small business owners said they could survive for more than a year in current conditions, compared with 59% of white small business owners and 55% of Hispanic small business owners. CNBC quarterly | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey.

Additionally, 15% said their store had temporarily closed and has not yet reopened due to the pandemic. By comparison, 8% of white small business owners said the same. The survey was conducted on the SurveyMonkey platform January 25-31 and included responses from just over 2,100 small business owners across the country.

At the same time, confidence and optimism among black small business owners is higher than that of any other race. Their Small Business Confidence Index is 61, compared to 41 for their white counterparts and 59 for Hispanics.

“As African Americans, we are extremely resilient,” said Ron Busy, president and CEO of the US Black Chambers. “We always had to be creative and improvise, especially when it came to capital.”

This resilience does not surprise Karade either.

“For most of us, this is our opportunity to change things, not just for ourselves but for generations to come,” she said. “You will take the credit collapse.

“You will take on the additional debt.”

Glenda West, right, and her wife Juliana own a small construction company in Seattle.

Source: Glenda West

For 61-year-old Glenda West, who owns a small construction company with her wife in Seattle, the pandemic also brought financial difficulties.

While it stayed open during the crisis, it was underutilized for about a quarter of the year, resulting in a loss of about $ 200,000 in revenue.

However, there was also a silver lining in the recent racial awakening, which began following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last May.

More from Invest in You:
This Wall Street veteran works to bring diversity to the American company
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West, who is Black, made a decision 20 years ago to stay away from marketing collateral for the company. Instead, her wife Juliana was the face of the business, called Westmintster.

“She’s Mexican but looks white,” said West, who attended a CNBC Invest in You Town Hall last summer.

“I just felt like we should take the best shot when we get out of the gate,” she added. “We have a lot of competition.”

Today, the company receives calls from customers trying to hire a black-owned company.

“Nobody has said that before,” said West. “I can see the world changing.”

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