Thursday, December 10 top news briefs

It is Thursday, December 10. Here are today’s top news briefs.

On Wednesday, SpaceX launched a new Starship SN8 prototype rocket (with nobody inside of it).The rocket is designed to go up to an altitude of almost 8 miles and then fall horizontally down to Earth and land vertically. The test was partially successful with the rocket going up to a high altitude, then it used its fins to fall down horizontally, but when the rocket attempted a vertical landing, it had a hard landing and exploded. CEO Elon Musk said it was an awesome test because they got the data they need to continue to improve. Musk wants to use the Starship on missions to Mars.

The Attorney General of New York Letitia James and 45 other state attorneys general are suing Facebook and accusing the company of using its size, power, and dominance to either buy up or crush smaller rivals and block apps that Facebook perceives as a threat. The Federal Trade Commission filed a similar lawsuit. CBS News said it is a “parallel lawsuit” and explained that both suits are asking the courts to force Facebook to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp. NY AG James said no company should have this much unchecked power over our personal information and our social interactions. The general counsel for Facebook said the FTC lawsuit did not make sense because they previously approved Facebook’s purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp and said people and small businesses use Facebook because it delivers the most value.

A 4-year-old boy in Garceño, Texas fell down a water well at a ranch property. The well was only 8 to 10 inches wide. First responders chiseled the well for several hours and pulled the boy out. He was alert and was airlifted to a hospital, and is reported to be in stable condition. The rescue operation took six hours.

In southern Ohio, a power plant that was closed down and scheduled for demolition unexpectedly collapsed on a crew who were making preparations for its demolition. Three workers were taken to hospitals but two are still missing. It is not known what caused the facility to collapse.

On Wednesday, there was a new record for new Covid-19 deaths in a single day — 3,055. It is the first time that there were over 3,000 deaths. There were over 218,000 new cases yesterday.

At the time I’m signing this news, a FDA panel is meeting with representatives from Pfizer and BioNTech to question them about their Covid-19 vaccine before they make their decision on whether they will grant emergency authorization or not. It is possible that by the time this news is posted, a decision is made — and if so — we’ll update in the status description.

That’s all the top news briefs for today. Check out our other videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://spacenews.com/starship-prototype-makes-first-high-altitude-flight-explodes-upon-landing/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-antitrust-lawsuit-ftc-46-states-instagram-whatsapp/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/us/texas-boy-rescued-well-trnd/index.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-workers-still-missing-wake-ohio-power-plant-collapse-n1250713

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage