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Social Media Buzz: BTS Attends UN, Haitian Migrants, Van Couple

Social Media Buzz: BTS Attends UN, Haitian Migrants, Van Couple

What’s trending on social media this morning: 

The K-pop group BTS is traveling to New York as South Korea’s special envoys for the annual United Nations General Assembly, which will be held in-person after going all-virtual in 2020. 

  • Heads of state scheduled to attend the Sept. 20-27 event include U.S. President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
  • Expanding access to Covid-19 vaccines and confronting the rising dangers of climate change will dominate the week-long gathering.

Thousands of Haitian migrants arrived in the U.S. and camped under a bridge in the small Texas city Del Rio this week, part of a sudden surge of asylum seekers at the southern border. 

  • U.S. officials plan to expel a “massive” number of migrants to Haiti on flights starting Sunday, according to the AP.

The first private flight of SpaceX, which launched four civilians on a three-day orbital excursion on Wednesday, is set to return to the Earth tonight, with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. 

  • The flight, dubbed Inspiration4, is at its core a promotional event to make the public, and wealthy people in particular, more comfortable with the idea of taking a space jaunt.

Robert Durst, 78, the New York real-estate heir accused of at least three murders, was found guilty Friday of killing a long-time friend 21 years ago in California.  

  • Prosecutors allege he killed Susan Berman because she helped him cover up the murder of his wife almost four decades ago, and he feared she might expose him to authorities.

A “van couple” is trending on social media as the man, Brian Laundrie of Florida, has been declared a “person of interest” in the disappearance of his fiancée, Gabrielle Petito, after their cross-country van trip. 

  • The man’s parents told the police on Friday evening that they hadn’t seen him since Tuesday, the New York Times reported.

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