Friday, December 11 top stories briefs

Hello! I’m Renca and will take Alex’s place for today’s top news briefs. Today is Friday, December 11. Ready for our top news?

Yesterday, a Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A) advisory board formally recommended FDA to authorize the Covid-19 vaccine, called the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The vote was 17-4 with one abstention. So, this means likely within a few days F.D.A. will proceed giving the vaccine shots. This vaccine was already given to people in Bahrain and Britain. On Wednesday, Canada approved this vaccine. About 6.4 million doses will be shipped from warehouses. The vaccines will be given to those who are a priority: health care workers, nursing home residents, and emergency use for those 16 years old and up. Pfizer Inc. said the vaccines probably will not be made available to the general population until possibly springtime of 2021.

Yesterday, a federal execution happened in Indiana. Brandon Bernard (40) was put to death by lethal injection. The crime that he did, happened more than 20 years ago. He was 18 at that time when he and four other people in Texas abducted and robbed an Iowa couple, placed their bodies in the back of a car’s trunk, doused the car with lighter fluid, and set the car on fire. This is a rare execution because of a crime that happened when Bernard was a teenager. Bernard’s lawyers and even some celebrities such as Kim Kardashian West did try to convince the Supreme Court to delay the execution. It did not work so they tried to appeal to the Trump administration to move Bernard to prison for life instead of death row. It did not happen. During Bernard’s process of lethal injection, a witness, who mentioned in The Associated Press said Bernard was so calm when the IV was placed in his arm. The couple (that died)’s family was there and his family was there too. Through the window, he remained calm and his last words were statements of apologies and said he wished to go back in time to take it all back. He said he was really sorry and then he died. Kardashian West did tweet that she talked to Bernard before the execution and it was the hardest call she ever had. There are four more federal executions planned before President elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Chadwick Boseman, who was known for his role with Marvel’s “Black Panther” movie as T’Challa, passed away last August. Many fans have wondered if Marvel would find a replacement for T’Challa’s role. Just now, Marvel’s president, Kevin Feige, announced that the character will not be recast. They will move forward without this character. The Black Panther sequel will begin shooting in July 2021.

Time magazine has announced who they have chosen for “Person of the Year.” It is President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The Times Editor-in-Chief said they were chosen as “Person of the Year” because they changed the American story and for helping the process of healing in a grieving world. The other candidates for “Person of the Year” were President Donald Trump, front line health care workers and Dr. Anthony Fauci, and movements for racial justice.

NASA is aiming to send a group of astronauts to the moon again in 2024. Right now NASA is training 18 astronauts and 9 of them are women. NASA said this group of 18 astronauts is the most diverse team that NASA has ever put together. When it is time for the Artemis mission, NASA will select from the 18 astronauts who will go to the moon. NASA has promised that they will be sure to pick a woman to be part of that group and send the first woman to walk on the moon.

That’s all for now. Have a great weekend. Check out our Deaf news stories and don’t forget to stay with the light.

https://apnews.com/article/us-experts-convene-pfizer-vaccine-virus-4a798b8073c845e60305479e4d94b786

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/health/covid-vaccine-pfizer-fda.html

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-prisons-killeen-13044e3f1ab9e0e140c57d8012b67abb

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/chadwick-boseman-black-panther-tchalla-will-not-recast-marvel

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-astronaut-artemis-program-first-woman-walk-moon-landing/

https://time.com/5919489/time-person-of-the-year-shortlist-2020/