These are the headlines you Need2Know:
* **Seattle Plane Thief Presumed Dead:**
An airline employee stole a 76-seat passenger plane from the Seattle-Tacoma Airport and took it on a wild ride Friday before crashing it onto a nearby island. Richard Russell, who's presumed dead after officials found human remains in the wreckage, worked as a baggage handler and did not have his pilot’s license. For more on the investigation, check out the [Seattle Times](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/live-updates-airplane-taken-from-seattle-tacoma-international-airport-crashes/).
* **Wildfires Continue to Spread:**
The fires have scorched more than 1.6 million acres in states from Washington to New Mexico, with California among the hardest hit. There are more than 100 active, large wildfires in the U.S. In some cases, smoke from the wildfires in California has traveled nearly 3,000 miles to New York. See the map [here](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/10/us/smoke-california-wildfire-reaches-nyc-wxc-trnd/index.html).
* **Tiger Woods Finishes 2nd to Some Other Guy at the PGA:**
Brooks Koepka became the fifth person to win the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in the same season. But most golf fans were focused on Tiger Woods: his second-place finish led most of the weekend's coverage. For more on Woods's comeback, [click here](https://amp.slate.com/culture/2018/08/tiger-woods-2018-pga-he-finishes-runner-up-to-brooks-koepka-in-thrilling-final-round.html).
* **Omarosa Manigault Newman Slams President Trump:**
The former "Apprentice" contestant and ex-White House aide released a recording of Chief of Staff John Kelly from inside the Situation Room. Newman, who has called Trump "racist" and "misogynist," said on "Meet the Press" she was complicit in the administration's efforts to fool the country. Hear the recordings [here](https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1028655650392485890/video/1).
Cheddar's Jill Wagner gets into the latest.
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Carlo and Baker cover the latest developments with the Omicron variant, and break down what we know and what we still don't. Plus, a relatively tame Black Friday, and more.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the nations joining in on a travel ban against several African nations after South Africa reported the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 currently worrying health experts. Adalja also added his own voice to the World Health Organization's objection to the travel ban at this time. "When you do a travel ban, you basically waste a lot of resources implementing the travel ban, you give people a false sense of security when the virus is likely already outside of the area of the travel ban, and then you punish countries like South Africa." He noted that South Africa should be praised for its transparency and not punished with restrictions, an act he thinks will lead to a chilling effect among other nations sharing data freely.
Blue Origin is gearing up for its next launch, set to blast off on December 9th. Michael Strahan is one of the six crew members who will snag a seat on the the New Shepard rocket. Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder at Phantom Space, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Donald Pettey, Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives for MassDOT, and Mohammed Siddiqui, Vice President of Public Relations at Ko-Solar, join Cheddar Climate, where they discuss their plan to test highway barriers that absorb sound and solar energy, with construction expected to begin in the first half of 2022.
Over 100 world leaders signed on to a pledge at the United Nations COP26 climate meeting with the aim of ending and reversing deforestation by 2030. Leaders agreed to conserve forests and ecosystems, support developing countries on deforestation prevention, and more. Rod Taylor, Global Forests Director at the World Resources Institute, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss the pledge, whether it will have a significant impact, whether 2030 is a suitable deadline, and how we can verify if forests are actually being protected.
President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" bill could mean cheaper electric bicycles and scooters as the nation attempts to shift away from gas-powered cars. Noa Banayan, the director of federal affairs at PeopleForBikes, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to provide some background on the E-Bike Act included in Biden's reconciliation bill that would provide tax credits for qualified purchases. "We want to make sure, from the bike industry's perspective, that this is a technology and a product that is available to the majority of Americans who want to lower their carbon footprint and get around town faster and do everything that they would normally do in a short car trip but by bike, because it's healthier, it's fast, it's efficient, you're not in traffic," she said.
It's being called the next big trend in crypto. A decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, is an internet community of different types of groups and businesses. The purpose is to allow people to commit funds to a specific cause in a safe way. Now, one social platform is creating a do-it-yourself kit for those who want to step into the space. Upstream Collective just launched the beta mode of its platform with the goal of putting all facets of running a DAO in one place. Alex Taub, co-founder and CEO of Upstream, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
A NASA spacecraft that will deliberately crash into an asteroid is preparing to launch this week. The goal of the DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is to hit the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, with the spacecraft at about 15,000 miles per hour and see how the impact changes the asteroid’s trajectory. Joey Roulette, space reporter at The New York Times, joins Cheddar News to talk more about it.
NFL Hall of Famer and "Good Morning America" host Michael Strahan will be able to add space travel to his list of accomplishments as he prepares to launch into orbit with the next Blue Origin mission.
