Introduction
Over a thousand school children – all young girls – have been poisoned in Iran, and the country has erupted in protest. I’ll tell you what’s going on there.
Plus… Could this revolutionize space travel?
Those stories and more today on… Notice News.
Schoolgirls Across Iran Poisoned
Hey guys and happy Wednesday, I’m Jonathan at Notice HQQ in Brooklyn.
Our top story today – on the other side of the world in Iran, protests are raging after the unthinkable happened. News media report that since November, more than a thousand school children – all girls – have been poisoned.
Iran is a theocracy, meaning its government is run by religious leaders – in this case, ultra-conservative Muslims. Under their rule, the U.N. says women and girls are treated as second-class citizens – forced to cover their heads, dress modestly, and lack the right to divorce.
In November, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in custody of the country’s “morality police” for not covering her head properly. The country has seen widespread protests since then, and those protests have been met with resistance from the government and other independent religious groups.
Now, it’s feared that religious groups opposed to girls’ education are behind this poisoning of school girls.
This girl says she has numbness everywhere and can’t walk. 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces have reported these poisonings, leading many parents to pull their daughters out of school.
In this video, protestors are heard chanting “they are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here.”
Yesterday, Iran’s supreme leader called the poisoning of these girls unforgivable.
Sound: “If there are individuals behind this, which there must no doubt be people involved. Some are surely involved in some way. The relevant governing bodies, enforcement and information bodies, must pursue this and find the leads on this crime. The culprits must face the toughest of punishments.” 0:29
He said the people responsible should be punished by death.
Headlines
Here’s what else is making news right now…
China’s foreign minister warned this week that the U.S. and China were headed toward conflict and confrontation if Washington didn’t change course. This comes just weeks after the U.S. was forced to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
Mr Beast is taking heat on Twitter for asking his fans to clean up displays of his new candy bars at Walmart. He offered $5k to whoever cleans up the most – but is getting slammed for asking people to work for him without being paid. And…
American Samoa National Park in the South Pacific may be one of America’s most beautiful national parks… but, it’s also the least visited. According to the National Park Service, just over 1,800 people visited it last year.
The World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket
The world’s first 3D-printed rocket is set to be launched into space.
Made by the company Relativity Space, it calls the rocket the Terran 1, measuring in at 110 ft tall and 7.5 ft wide. They say they’re able to build the rocket from start to finish, with raw materials, in just 60 days.
Compare that to the nearly 2,000 days – five years – it takes to build a rocket the conventional way. It’s partly because they use 100 times fewer parts than in a regular rocket.
Sound: “So 85% of the rocket by mass that’s sitting on the pad right now is 3D printed. Now, the rocket prior to this with the highest percentage was probably, I don’t know, maybe 4% 3D printed by mass. So it’s a huge step change. And, you know, as such, we need to prove that a 3D printed rocket can survive the environments of a rocket’s flight.”
For its first mission called “Good Luck, Have Fun”, the Terran 1 is set to be launched this afternoon and if successful, it could completely change the space industry.
Sound: “There are a lot of things that are special about this. //We have the ability to demonstrate a brand new way of manufacturing large aerospace systems that has the potential to make access to space less expensive, more frequent and more reliable. And that definitely has positive impacts on people’s lives on Earth and will for years to come.”
Relativity Space says the Terran 1 is reusable and will be fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas, making it a sustainable approach to space travel.
Conclusion
That’s it for today – but let’s see how closely you were paying attention. Go take the Notice News quiz on our website noticenews.com.
I’ll be back tomorrow with more from us, Notice News.