Another winter storm is targeting the south, the Midwest, and the northeast
A brutal winter storm will resume its rampage in the United States in the next few days, with more than 100 million Americans on its way from the southern plains to the east coast. From Minnesota to Texas, utilities have rolled out rolling blackouts to ease the load on power grids and meet extreme heat and power needs as record temperatures have been reported city by city. More than 30 people have died from the severe cold and a series of storms that have moved coast to coast since the weekend. And if the storm progresses northeast by Friday, snow is expected to fall along a 2,000-mile swath from northwest and north-central Texas to north Maine, AccuWeather said.
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Here’s what Robinhood to expect, Reddit CEOs testify before Congress
Some of the biggest players in the GameStop trading frenzy last month will stand before a congressional hearing on Thursday when the House Financial Services Committee investigates whether market manipulation was involved. The directors of Reddit, Robinhood, electronic trading company Citadel Securities and hedge fund Melvin Capital will be in attendance. The hearing will also be attended by investor Keith Gill, who spearheaded the GameStop buying spree on the r / WallStreetBets Reddit forum. Despite the turmoil, there is unlikely to be any significant piece of legislation after the hearing, experts say. “But there could be some rules that come out of regulators,” said Daniel Smith, partner at ACA Compliance Group, a financial services consultancy.
NASA’s insistence on touching down on Mars after nearly 300 million miles
After a 293 million mile hike since launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in July 2020, NASA Perseverance is slated to land on Mars at 3:55 p.m. EST on Thursday. The goal? Jezero crater, a rough surface feature that was likely once a deep lake fed by flowing water rivers. The mission? Find signs of life. Before Perseverance can orbit its target landing site at a breakneck speed of 0.1 mph, however, it must complete a series of risky landing maneuvers on its own. The $ 2.4 billion rover has to slow down from thousands of miles per hour to a gentle 1.7 mph as it lands. This seven-minute process – from 3:48 pm to 3:55 pm – is known as the “seven minutes of terror”. Since it takes 11 minutes for the signals to reach Earth, human input is impossible in the event of a mishap. Perseverance is on its own.
COVID-19 pandemic: Life expectancy in the US is at its lowest level in 15 years
Life expectancy in the United States fell to its lowest level in 15 years during the first half of the coronavirus pandemic – and even lower for Black Americans and Latinos – according to a new study published Thursday. Data through June 2020 shows that life expectancy at birth for the entire U.S. population fell by one year from 2019 to 77.8 years, its lowest level since 2006, according to researchers from the Centers for the Control and Prevention of National Health Statistics Diseases. Life expectancy among blacks declined the most from 2019 – 2.7 years to 72 years – to its lowest level since 2001. Latinos saw the second largest decline, falling 1.9 years since 2019 to a life expectancy of 79.9 years which was lower than when it was first recorded in 2006.
The SheBelieves Cup 2021 starts with Brazil against Argentina, USA against Canada
The SheBelieves Cup kicks off Thursday at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida, where the US women’s national soccer team will face Canada at 7 p.m. Brazil and Argentina will open the four-team tournament early Thursday with kick-off at 4:00 p.m. ET. The US women have only played three games since last March, and this is only their fourth training camp. This is the 61st time the USWNT has played Canada, mostly against any opponent. Fans can watch the SheBelieves Cup on FS1 – or TUDN for the Spanish-language broadcast.
