Tuesday Scoop: Mars Landing

Mars, Outer Space. (image: Wikimedia Commons)

The big story…

InSight Lander Touches Down on Mars

The NASA InSight mission has landed on Mars after seven months of traveling in space. Following its landing, the probe sent NASA an official “beep” to signal it landed safely on the planet, including sending a photo of Mar’s surface. NASA reported that the InSight Lander touched ground on the red planet at 2:53 p.m. yesterday afternoon. After a perilous journey 100 million miles from Earth to Mars, the spacecraft became NASA’s eighth successful landing on Mars with a 40 percent success rate. During its two-year mission the InSight will explore the interior of the planet by monitoring “Marsquakes” and providing information that will later assist in getting humans to the red planet.

In business…

General Motors to Cut 14,000 Jobs

General Motors will be laying off up to 14,000 employees and closing 5 plants amid plans to restructure the company. The automaker announced it will be shifting away from traditional car production, abandoning some of their current models, to focus on electric and autonomous vehicles. This job reduction could make up as much as 8 percent of the company’s international workforce.

Also in business…

Microsoft Becomes World’s Most Valuable Company

Microsoft surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company yesterday.

In science…

Chinese Researchers Claim First Genetically Edited Babies

Researchers in China have reportedly genetically engineered two twins with immunity to small pox, cholera, and HIV. Researchers hope this will lessen the risk of genetically-transmitted conditions — as in the case of the twins whose father has HIV. However, the feat is bringing with it many ethical concerns including risk for the children and fear that this will lead to designer babies.

In Ohio…

Ohio Becomes First State to Accept Cryptocurrency

Beginning this week, the state of Ohio became the first to allow businesses to pay taxes with cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin.

In Mississippi…

Mississippians Are Heading Back to the Polls

Today, voters in Mississippi will be heading back to the polls to choose a senator in the state’s runoff election. The race has been contentious to say the least in a fight between Democratic challenger Mike Espy and Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has been criticized for her comments about wanting to attend a public hanging.

Trending today…

Taylor Swift’s New Label

Taylor Swift announced in a Tumblr post that she was never ever getting back together with Big Machine Records, but no bad blood. Now she’s saying you belong with me to Universal Music Group. It’s a love story.

Last but not least…

Taiwanese Progressives Suffer Losses in Recent Elections and Referenda

Liberal progressives in Taiwan experienced major setbacks in recent local elections. Read more in Duane Paul Murphy’s report for CMN.

Today’s Morning Scoop was made possible by Duane Paul Murphy, Natalia Kolenko, and the CMN Staff. Hasbro Gaming has just released a version of Monopoly for Millenials where instead of buying railroads you can purchase vegan bistros and week-long meditation retreats. Needless to say, some think it’s funny, while others (i.e., millenials) do not.