Ep. 72: News Roundup Week of 3/29/21

A second U.S. Capitol Police Officer has lost his life due to violence since the Jan. 6 insurrection. William "Billy" Evans, an 18-year veteran, died Friday after a 25-year-old rammed his vehicle into two capitol police officers at a barricade. March was a pivotal month in the United States. A new study in the journal Cell estimates that as data catch up, they will show that B.1.1.7 became the dominant variant in many U.S. states by late March. The Biden administration joined 13 other governments to criticize the World Health Organization (WHO) report investigating the origins of the Covid-19 and called for more openness from China. The CDC director gave an emotional warning of “impending doom” with Covid-19 cases rising recently. Pfizer announced Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and strongly protective in kids as young as 12. The nationally televised Derek Chauvin trial began Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In New York, a law suit against former President Donald Trump can proceed after the New York state’s highest court on Tuesday cleared the way for a former “Apprentice” contestant’s defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump to move forward, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. Ships began moving through the Suez Canal on Tuesday morning after the 220,000-ton vessel called the Ever Given was freed. The 1,300-foot cargo ship was stuck on a sand bar for six days, blocking the waterway packed with other vessels carrying the world’s goods — including cars, oil, livestock and laptops — that normally flow easily through the canal, which is the quickest path from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and the East Coast of the United States. Ayah, who is 14 months old and has spinal muscular atrophy. She needs a drug called Zolgensma that costs $2.1 million to save her life before she turns two. Her parents are in a race against time and want to bring Ayah from Sweden to the United States for treatment. A link to their Go Fund Me page is at https://gofund.me/b5baebbe