April 20 top news
It is April 20. I’m back from my one-week break. Thank you to Callie Frye for covering Top Stories the past week! Here are today’s news.
SpaceX rocket explodes
This morning SpaceX launched its new Starship rocket for the first time in a test flight but it exploded after flying for about four minutes. There was no crew on board.
The Starship rocket is the most powerful rocket ever built. It has 33 engines.
The launch took place from South Padre Island, Texas. Reporters said it was extremely loud.
Check out these clips.
[Clips]
SpaceX said the explosion was a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Pieces of the rocket crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX officials, including CEO Elon Musk, were very positive about the launch because it is considered a success to get the rocket flying and said they have learned how to improve the rocket for future launches.
SpaceX said it would fly hundreds more missions with the Starship before they use it for crewed missions.
Oakland Athletics to move to Vegas
The MLB team Oakland Athletics said they will be moving to Las Vegas. The team said they are purchasing land to build a new stadium with a retractable roof in a location close to the Las Vegas Strip. The move would happen in 2027.
The team has played in Oakland since 1968. Their current stadium is very old and the team previously tried to get a new stadium in the Bay Area but the team and the city of Oakland weren’t able to work out a deal.
The Athletics will be the second professional sports team to move to Las Vegas from Oakland with the first being the NFL franchise Raiders. Las Vegas also has an NHL team, the Golden Knights.
Oklahoma tornado kills 3
Local news in Oklahoma said at least three people died after a tornado hit the city of Cole on Wednesday night. This is in central Oklahoma.
News images showed a large tornado and extensive damage to multiple homes and buildings.
There were at least nine tornadoes that touched down in the state of Oklahoma on Wednesday night.
The Oklahoma Baptist University, located in Shawnee, saw many buildings damaged by a tornado but there were no injuries.
Deadly stampede in Yemen
About 80 people in Yemen died today in a crowd stampede during an event where people were giving out financial aid as a part of the Ramadan religious holiday.
There were men with guns that fired in the air in an attempt to control crowds and when a bullet struck an electrical wire and caused an explosion, people panicked and ran. Many people were tragically killed in the stampede.
This happened in the capital city of Sanaa.
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Man who shot Ralph Yarl pleads not guilty
The man who shot a 16-year-old teenager named Ralph Yarl last week when he went to a wrong house to pick up his siblings appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault. The shooter’s name is Andrew Lester and he is 84 years old.
Lester is not jailed — he is out after posting a bond. He is now unable to possess any weapons and cannot leave the state without permission. His next court appearance is June 1.
The incident happened in Kansas City, Missouri. Police said the teenager mixed up the address of N.E. 115th Street with N.E. 115th Terrace. Lester shot at Yarl’s head when he rang the doorbell. The teenager never entered the home — Lester fired through his glass door, hitting Yarl above his left eye and shot at him a second time in his upper right arm.
Yarl is Black. A prosecutor said there was a “racial component” in the shooting. Local activists and protesters have called for hate crime charges.
Yarl suffered a traumatic brain injury but he is expected to make a full recovery. His family attorney said if the bullet went an inch in any other direction, Yarl would have been dead.
MyPillow CEO ordered to pay $5M
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was ordered to pay $5 million to a person who was able to prove that Lindell was wrong about voting machine fraud in the 2020 election.
CNBC explained that Lindell previously said he had data that proved China interfered in the 2020 election in several states. He started a contest called “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” and offered $5 million to anyone who could prove that his data was wrong. A man named Robert Zeidman, who is a software developer, entered the contest. He said he saw that Lindell’s data was basically a Microsoft Word document with a big table of numbers and that it was “manufactured bogus data.”
Zeidman took legal action against Lindell after he refused to pay him. An arbitration panel found that Zeidman proved that the data from Lindell did not come from the November 2020 election and ordered Lindell to pay the $5 million prize.
Zeidman said it is great that he won but he doesn’t expect to see the money because Lindell has bigger issues with a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
Dominion recently won a $787 million settlement with Fox News for their false claims that Dominion voting machines rigged votes. Zeidman said Lindell may not have any money after the Dominion case.
IRS agent says Hunter Biden probe is mishandled
An IRS special agent said he has information that the criminal investigation on Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, is being mishandled and that he wants whistleblower protection. The IRS agent’s name is unknown and he is speaking out through his attorney.
The attorney wrote a letter to members of Congress and said if the IRS agent is granted protection, then he will share information in a nonpartisan manner.
The investigation has been going on since 2018 and it is focused on Hunter’s taxes and foreign business work. Republicans have raised suspicions about Hunter’s work and whether his father was involved.
Today the White House said in a statement that they have never interfered with the investigation.
That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/world/spacex-starship-launch-thursday-scn/index.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/20/spacex-starship-orbital-launch-attempt-live-updates.html
https://apnews.com/article/oakland-as-las-vegas-move-17c6bdd24d60d86b67921e7d736705f2
https://weather.com/news/news/2023-04-20-oklahoma-tornadoes-cole-storm-damage
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yemen-stampede-ramadan-sanaa-houthi-civil-war/
https://fox4kc.com/news/kansas-city-man-charged-in-ralph-yarl-shooting-pleads-not-guilty/
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/20/mypillow-ceo-lindell-election-fraud-debunked.html