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What to know about Jeff Bezos’ historic spaceflight and how to watch

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ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is set to blast to the edge of space and spend a few minutes outside Earth’s atmosphere Tuesday on the first crewed flight from his firm Blue Origin.

The milestone launch in the modern commercial space race comes on the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing in 1969, though the space-faring landscape has evolved by giant leaps since then as billionaires emerge as key players driving the new race to the cosmos.

Bezos, who holds the title of the richest man in the world per Bloomberg data, has said the spaceflight will fulfill a lifelong dream.

He has also expressed hope that Blue Origin will make space more accessible to all, though bidding for a seat on the first flight reached a whopping $28 million. The anonymous bidder who paid $28 million, however, won’t make it on Tuesday due to “scheduling conflicts.” Blue Origin has not disclosed how much the teen who replaced the initial bidder paid for his seat.

The Amazon founder will be accompanied on the historic journey by his brother, Mark Bezos, as well as the oldest and youngest people ever to go to space, Wally Funk, 82-years-old, and Oliver Daemon, 18. Funk is a trailblazing female pilot who trained to be an astronaut during the original U.S.-Soviet space race era but was told they were only sending men to space at the time. Daemon is a Dutch student set to begin classes at Utrecht University this fall, and is the first paying customer for Blue Origin after the initial auction winner backed out.

What is happening and how to watch

Liftoff of the inaugural Blue Origin flight is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET from a rural complex just north of Van Horn, Texas. In total, the flight will be 11 minutes, with approximately three minutes spent above the so-called Karman line that is defined by some as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. After re-entry, the astronauts are set to descend back to Earth in their capsule with a parachute-landing in the west Texas desert.

ABC News will carry live coverage of the event, which will also be streamed on Blue Origin’s website. The live broadcast will begin at 7:30 a.m. ET. Unlike most spaceflights, there are no on-site public viewing areas in the vicinity of the launch site. The newly-minted astronauts are set to have a press conference shortly after landing back on earth.

There is no pilot aboard the fully-autonomous capsule. While Blue Origin’s New Shepard has flown 15 test flights, Tuesday’s will be the first with humans on board.

The definition of “space” has emerged as a heated debate point in the new space race, as Sir Richard Branson took heat for not passing the Karman line (roughly 62 miles above earth) during his Virgin Galactic spaceflight earlier this month. Neither Blue Origin nor Virgin Galactic’s flights will reach Earth’s orbit, however, the way Elon Musk’s SpaceX missions have. Musk, also a billionaire player in the new space race, on Twitter has called out this “big difference.”

While the modern space race has become the arena of the ultra-wealthy at a time when a global pandemic on earth has exacerbated inequities, some argue the rise of private sector involvement has saved NASA money and accelerated technological advances — which in the long-term has the potential to open up space tourism to all who have been curious about the cosmos.

Still, the billionaire daredevils using themselves as guinea pigs for their private space tourism firms have not had the same support astronauts garnered during the original U.S.-Soviet space race. Animosity was exacerbated by reports that Bezos and Musk have avoided income taxes. A Change.org petition calling for Bezos to stay in space has garnered headlines and more than 160,000 signatures.

In an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” just one day ahead of the spaceflight, Bezos said he is curious how briefly leaving Earth will “change” him.

“I don’t know what it’s going to mean for me,” Bezos said. “I don’t know, I’m very curious about what tomorrow is actually going to bring. Everybody who’s been to space says it changes them in some way. And I’m just really excited to figure out how it’s going to change me.”

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Biden tries to clarify comment that Facebook is ‘killing people’

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Days after Facebook publicly rejected President Joe Biden’s message to the platform that it’s “killing people” by allowing the spread of vaccine misinformation, even as COVID-19 infections rise and vaccinations fall around the U.S., he tried to clean up his comment about the social media giant Monday, saying he hopes Facebook doesn’t take it “personally.”

Following remarks on the economy at the White House, a reporter asked about his comment Friday to companies and platforms like Facebook, the president interjected to answer before the reporter could finish.

“Let me say what I said. I’m glad you asked that question,” Biden began. “It was pointed out that Facebook, of all the misinformation, 60% of the misinformation came from 12 individuals. That’s what the article said.”

Biden was referring to research the White House pointed to at a press briefing last week when Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in his first advisory of the Biden administration of the threat of misinformation to public health.

Biden continued on Monday by retracing his steps, saying, “I was asked that question about what do I think is happening.”

“Facebook isn’t killing people. These 12 people are out there giving misinformation, anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it. It’s killing people. It’s bad information,” Biden continued. “My hope is that Facebook — instead of taking it personally — that somehow I’m saying Facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation — the outrageous misinformation — about the vaccine. That’s what I meant.”

When pressed if he felt the social media company was doing enough to combat the misinformation, the president said he was unsure, because he wasn’t sure what action they had taken over the weekend.

He then sidestepped when asked how he would hold the company accountable, he replied, “When you say hold accountable, I’m not trying to hold people accountable. I’m trying to make people look at themselves. Look in the mirror. Think about that misinformation going to your son, daughter, your relative, someone you love. That’s all I’m asking.”

Biden was attempting to clean up an answer he gave when leaving the White House for Camp David on Friday afternoon when he was specifically asked, “On COVID misinformation, what’s your message to platforms like Facebook?” and said, “They’re killing people. I mean, it really — look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people.”

The controversial comment came one day after the surgeon general put out a new advisory arguing that misinformation, particularly on social media websites like Facebook, has hindered vaccination efforts, sown mistrust, caused people to reject public health measures, use unproven treatments, prolonged the pandemic and put lives at risk.

“Simply put, health misinformation has cost us lives,” Murthy said from the White House last week.

Facebook took issue with the description by the president on Friday, saying in a statement that his claim was not true.

“We will not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts,” Facebook spokesperson Dani Lever said in a statement to ABC News. “The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet. More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine. The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period.”

However, while Facebook has said how many people have viewed authoritative information on vaccines, the platform has not said how many users have viewed misinformation.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.

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Man bit by alligator after falling off bike in Florida: Officials

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Martin County Sheriff/Twitter

(MARTIN COUNTY, Fla) — A man said he was attacked by an alligator after falling off his bike in Florida on Monday, according to authorities.

The unidentified victim suffered serious injuries from the bite, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.

First responders went to the scene at Halpatiokee Regional Park in Stuart and loaded the victim into a helicopter.

Stuart is about 34 miles north of West Palm Beach.

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DOJ will no longer subpoena reporters engaged in newsgathering

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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department will no longer apply the “compulsory legal process” to journalists acting in their capacity of news gathering, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a memo released on Monday, but he did not rule out using the legal process completely on reporters, only in “limited circumstances.”

That legal process consists of subpoenas, warrants and court orders, the memo explains.

Garland said that the prohibition will not apply to reporters who are under criminal investigation for activities outside of newsgathering, such as insider trading and breaking and entering to obtain 

Garland said that in the “limited circumstance” in which DOJ has to use the legal process for records on a member of the news media, it will be approved by the deputy attorney general, and that he or she will be consulted before the process is initiated.

“The prohibition does apply when a member of the media, has in the course of news gathering, only possessed or published government information, including classified information,” Garland writes. “This does not however affect the Department’s traditional ability to use the compulsory legal process to obtain information from or records of, for example, a government employee who has unlawfully disclosed government information.”

The prohibition on using the legal process also does not apply when an entity or individual comes in contact with a foreign terrorist group or agent of a foreign power, or when there is “serious bodily harm” or an imminent risk of death.

The attorney general is also tasking the deputy attorney general with reviewing, developing and codifying the policy and will examine what is already on the books.

The memo came about because major media outlets reporters had records subpoenaed by the Trump Justice Department on stories relating to the Russia investigation.

Those three media outlets met with the attorney general earlier this summer.

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CDC under pressure to revisit guidance as pediatric group calls for masks in schools

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iStock/sshepard

(NEW YORK) — Health experts, including an influential group of pediatricians, are pushing back on federal guidance that vaccinated Americans can go without masks, warning that the honor system has failed to keep many people safe in the face of the delta variant.

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates because so many kids won’t be protected by fall and schools have no way of verifying COVID vaccine status yet.

“AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP wrote in a statement. “Many schools will not have a system to monitor vaccine status of students, teachers and staff, and some communities overall have low vaccination uptake where the virus may be circulating more prominently.”

People who are fully vaccinated – a term used to describe a person two weeks after their last shot – are still considered safe from serious illness or death, even if they are exposed to the delta variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 99.5 percent of hospitalizations are people who weren’t immunized.

Because vaccinated people are considered to be safe, the CDC has said immunized adults and teens can go without a mask, including inside schools.

The public health agency has noted, however, that local officials should still decide to enforce mask mandates if COVID cases climb and vaccination numbers are low. And the CDC notes that schools can still embrace universal masking if they can’t verify vaccinations or have large numbers of students too young to qualify.

But it’s this approach – allowing states and local communities to decide and essentially putting Americans on the honor system – that’s in question after COVID cases have risen in all 50 states.

Dr. Jerome Adams, who was Surgeon General under President Donald Trump, said he made a mistake early on in the pandemic urging people not to mask up because he feared a shortage of masks for health care workers. Adams said he’s afraid the CDC is making another mistake now by not putting more pressure on everyone to wear a mask.

“Instead of vax it OR mask it, the emerging data suggests CDC should be advising to vax it AND mask it in areas with cases and positivity- until we see numbers going back down again,” Adams tweeted.

“CDC was well intended, but the message was misinterpreted, premature, & wrong. Let’s fix it,” he added.

The Biden administration though is in a tough spot. The CDC had been under extraordinary pressure earlier this year to show skeptical Americans the benefits of vaccination, including being able to go without a mask and not having to quarantine after being exposed.

And so far, number studies have shown that all three vaccines – Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna – protect people against all known variants. The vaccines also are shown to provide more durable protection than a natural infection.

Also, any federal mandate for vaccines or masks would no doubt trigger a swift backlash among conservatives.

Responding to the former Surgeon General calling on CDC to bring back masks, conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted: “No. No. No. Hell no.”

For his part, President Joe Biden on Friday suggested he wasn’t worried about the science of the vaccinations and masks, only the people who were choosing to ignore it.

“Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” said Biden.

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Death toll in catastrophic European flooding: At least 199 dead, nearly 300 unaccounted for

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Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(LONDON) —  Europe’s death toll from catastrophic flooding rose to at least 199 on Monday with hard-hit west Germany and Belgium reeling from the devastation.

Nearly 300 people remain unaccounted for in Germany and Belgium, officials said.

There are at least 163 dead in Germany, according to authorities. The hardest-hit areas in Germany are Rhineland-Palatinate, where 117 have been killed in the flooding and in North Rhine-Westphalia, where at least 46 people died and 138 remain unaccounted for, the Koblenz Police and the German Ministry of Interior said.

​In Belgium, at least 36 are dead and 160 others remain unaccounted, according to the Belgian prime minister’s office.

Western countries in Europe have been hit with days of record rainfall that caused rivers to burst banks and triggered deadly flooding throughout Germany and Belgium and southern parts of the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Horrific images showed entire communities, some with buildings dating back to Medieval times, inundated with water, collapsed edifices and rescue workers combing through the wreckage.

The waters started to recede in some parts of Western Europe as of Saturday and efforts were launched to clean up the leftover debris and potentially discover more bodies.

Residents in many flooded areas were still grappling without electricity or telephone service on Monday.

“It’s madness,” said a resident in the hard-hit district of Ahrweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, as search-and-rescue crews rappelled from helicopters to reach people stranded in their homes.

Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported that some 17,150 houses in Belgium were without power over the weekend and roughly 30,000 households did not have access to drinking water. About 3,500 homes had no gas and officials warned that a shortage of emergency supplies may last for several weeks.

Officials said 85% of the homes inspected in the Liege region of Belgium are at risk of collapsing.

As the water receded in some parts of Germany, an ABC News crew was able to reach Ahrweiler, which had been cut off by flooding and where numerous homes dating back to the 16th century were damaged.

A large, concrete bridge leading into the Ahrweiler was destroyed by the flooding and some homes along the Ahr River were split in half. Uprooted trees littered the river.

Surrounded by medieval fortress walls, residents in the town were out over the weekend shoveling thick mud off of cobblestone street. Residents pointed out a water line that was well over six feet tall.

One man in Ahrweiler told ABC News he saved his elderly mother from the floodwaters. He said the water rose so quickly he sought refuge on the roof of his home where he watched as the flood carried cars down the street.

The severe weather triggered widespread evacuations. Some 700 people were evacuated from part of the German town of Wassenberg after the breach of a dike on the Run River. Thousands of residents in several Dutch towns evacuated Thursday and Friday were allowed to return home over the weekend morning unsure of what they would find.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier traveled over the weekend to Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne.

Caretaker Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte visited impacted towns Friday and said the region had been through “three disasters.”

“First, there was corona, now these floods, and soon people will have to work on cleanup and recovery,” he said. “It is disaster after disaster after disaster. But we will not abandon Limburg,” the southern province hit by the floods. His government has declared the flooding a state of emergency, opening up national funds for those affected.

German and Belgian officials said rescue and recovery efforts are now underway and crews are working to shore up dikes and protect roads.

In Germany, more than 19,000 emergency forces are conducting rescue operations in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, according to the regional government. In the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, police said they received reports of 618 people injured, DPA reported.

Speaking alongside President Joe Biden on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock over the scope of devastation from the flooding.

“I grieve for those who have lost their lives in this disaster,” Merkel said during a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. “I fear the full extent of this tragedy will only be seen in the coming days.”

Merkel returned to Germany over the weekend and visited the hard-hit town of Schuld in the Rhineland-Palatinate region. She described the devastation as “surreal” and “terrifying” and pledged quick financial aid.

“Germany is a strong country,” Merkel told officials in Schuld. “We will stand up to this force of nature, in the short term, but also in the medium and long term.”

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report

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DOJ charges 4 Chinese nationals with state-backed worldwide hacking campaign

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FBI/DOJ

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday announced the unsealing of an indictment charging four Chinese nationals with a years-long effort to hack into computer systems of dozens of companies, universities and governments in the U.S. and at least 11 other countries.

The two-count indictment, returned by a grand jury in May but unsealed just last Friday, names four residents of China in connection to the scheme — three of whom are identified as officers with the Hainan State Security Department, an arm of China’s intelligence service.

Ding Xaioyang, Cheng Qingmin, Zhu Yunmin, and Wu Shurong had one goal, according to court documents: install malware on protected computers and steal the data on the computers.

The indictment alleges that the HSSD created a front company to “identify and recruit talented computer hackers to penetrate foreign entities (including foreign universities) and steal trade secrets, proprietary data and to recruit talented linguists to interpret the stolen material.”

Prosecutors allege that the scheme went on from July 2009 to September 2018, targeting various research universities in the United States, including the National Institutes of Health, and primarily used a phishing technique to gain access to companies and institutions data.

The Justice Department alleges that the hackers targeted infectious-disease research related to Ebola, MERS, HIV/AIDS, Marburg and tularemia.

“These criminal charges once again highlight that China continues to use cyber-enabled attacks to steal what other countries make, in flagrant disregard of its bilateral and multilateral commitments,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “The breadth and duration of China’s hacking campaigns, including these efforts targeting a dozen countries across sectors ranging from healthcare and biomedical research to aviation and defense, remind us that no country or industry is safe. Today’s international condemnation shows that the world wants fair rules, where countries invest in innovation, not theft.”

The indictment comes on the heels of the Biden administration, several allies and partners and NATO are joining forces to “expose and criticize” China for a “pattern of malicious cyber activities,” announcing on Monday that the PRC is profiting off some of the cyberattacks they’ve supported, and officially saying they were behind the Microsoft Exchange server breach in March, according to senior administration officials.

Xiaoyang Certified Indictment Unsealed 0 by ABC News Politics on Scribd

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Dow sinks more than 700 points as delta variant stokes new fears for economic recovery

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(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 775 points — or 2.25% — early Monday, as renewed fears over the delta coronavirus variant cast a shadow on the economy’s post-pandemic recovery.

The S&P 500 was down some 1.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.6% shortly after markets opened. Monday’s sell-off comes on the heels of a record high for the S&P 500 approximately a week ago.

Some of the hardest-hit stocks include companies that would be impacted the most by new virus restrictions, including hotels, airlines and travel firms. Cruise liner Carnival Corp was down 7% in early trading and Boeing shed more than 5%.

The bloodbath also comes as the more-transmissible delta variant has become the dominant variant in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the delta variant has caused over half of all recent COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S. were also linked to stoking new anxieties among investors. On Monday, the U.S. and several allies joined forces to “expose and criticize” China for a “pattern of malicious cyber activities,” announcing that China is profiting off some of the cyberattacks it’s supported and accusing China of being behind the Microsoft Exchange server breach in March.

Finally, in another worrisome sign for equity markets, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell to its lowest levels in five months in a possible sign investors were seeking safe havens.

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2-year-old killed, 4 family members in critical condition after wrong-way driver slams into their car on freeway

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ABC News/KTRK

(HOUSTON) — A 2-year-old child has been killed and their entire family has been left hanging on to life in critical condition after their car was struck by a driver going the wrong way on a freeway.

The incident occurred at approximately 3 a.m. on Sunday morning on the Eastex Freeway at North Loop 610 in Houston, Texas, when police say that a woman was driving south in the northbound lanes of the freeway when she collided with another vehicle containing a family of five, according to ABC News’ Houston station KTRK.

A 2-year-old child was killed in the accident and the mother, father and two other young children, whose ages and identities are not currently known, were immediately transported to a local area hospital where all of them remain in critical condition.

The wrong-way driver was also killed in the crash and police say it is unclear how long the woman had been driving in the wrong lane for or if there were any signs that she had been under the influence.

“A very tragic, a very dangerous scene,” a spokesperson from the Houston Police Department told KTRK in an interview following the accident. “We don’t know how long the person was traveling on the wrong side of the freeway. We will try to figure that out if we find any cameras or anything.”

Authorities also told KTRK that a police officer who just happened to be on the other side of the freeway at that time actually saw the driver headed the wrong way just before the crash happened but were unable to get to them in time to prevent the accident.

Sunday’s early morning crash was the second fatal wrong-way accident in just nine days, according to KTRK, after three people, including a 2-year-old boy as well as both drivers, were killed on the Westpark Tollway in an eerily similar collision involving a wrong-way driver in the early hours of the morning on July 9.

The investigation into the circumstances surrounding Sunday’s tragic accident is ongoing.

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Jeff Bezos says he’s curious how space is ‘going to change me’ ahead of historic flight

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ABC News

(VAN HORN, Texas) — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is set to launch to the edge of space on Tuesday, fulfilling a lifelong dream and ushering in a new era of space tourism via the first crewed flight from his private space-faring firm Blue Origin.

The billionaire, who stepped down as Amazon CEO earlier this month, opened up about the historic spaceflight in an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Monday.

“I have just been dreaming of this really my whole life, but I don’t know what it’s going to mean for me,” Bezos told ABC News’ Michael Strahan. “I don’t know, I’m very curious about what tomorrow is actually going to bring. Everybody who’s been to space says it changes them in some way. And I’m just really excited to figure out how it’s going to change me.”

“People say they see the thin limb of the Earth’s atmosphere, it teaches them how fragile and precious the planet is, how there are there no boundaries,” Bezos added. “I don’t know what it’s going to do but I’m excited to find out.”

Bezos will be joined on the historic journey by his brother, Mark Bezos. The other members of the crew include 82-year old Wally Funk, a pioneering female pilot whose dreams of being an astronaut in the 60s were deferred, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, a student from the Netherlands. Funk and Daemen are set to become the oldest and youngest people ever to go to space.

Funk told “GMA” that she trained not only in the U.S., but also with Russian cosmonauts during the original U.S.-Soviet Space Race era.

“About about two or three weeks after my training … I was told that I did better than the men,” she said. At the time, however, women were not being sent into space.

Bezos quipped that she is still “doing better than the men” when it comes to astronaut training. “She can outrun all of us, she’s 82-years-old and she can outrun all of us,” he said.

Daemon, meanwhile, said he hopes to set an example for other young people curious about space travel, but admitted it still feels surreal.

“I don’t think I’ve realized yet how special it is to become the youngest person ever, and it’s such an opportunity for me to do that,” he told Strahan. “And also to be an example for other kids.”

“It’s so amazing for me to go, I still can’t believe it,” the teen added.

With the launch less than one day away, Bezos said he is excited but not nervous, citing the successful test flights. He chose the date because it is the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing on July 20, 1969.

The inaugural crewed flight for Blue Origin is set to launch Tuesday morning from west Texas. In total, the flight is only about 11 minutes, and approximately four minutes will be spent above the so-called Karman line that is defined by some as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

Bezos said the goal is ultimately to pave the way for future astronauts and make visits to space as commonplace as flying on a commercial jetliner.

“What we’re hoping to do is to build the road to space for the future generations,” Bezos said, adding that Blue Origin’s goal has been to make reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft that make space less costly and more accessible for all.

“If we can get to that stage, then the things that the next generations will figure out how to do in space, how to benefit Earth with all those things in space … that’ll be amazing to see, so that’s the real goal,” he said.

Bezos’ flight comes on the heels of a brief, successful spaceflight from Sir Richard Branson’s firm Virgin Galactic earlier this month. The back-to-back missions are seen as ushering in a new era of space tourism that has been propelled by an emerging, billionaire-backed commercial space industry.

The modern space race from the ultra-wealthy comes at a time, however, when the pandemic has only deepened the divide between the haves and have-nots — meaning not everyone is rooting for the billionaires heading to space the way Americans got behind astronauts in the Apollo era. A Change.org petition calling for Bezos to stay in space has garnered headlines and more than 150,000 signatures.

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