TV News LIES

SpaceX launched its Starship rocket on its latest test flight Thursday, but the spacecraft was destroyed following a thrilling booster catch back at the pad.

Elon Musk’s company said the spacecraft’s six engines appeared to shut down one by one, with contact lost just 8min 30sec into the flight.

“We did lose all communications with the ship – that is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said, confirming minutes later that the ship was lost.

The spacecraft was supposed to soar across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas on a near loop around the world similar to previous test flights. SpaceX had packed it with 10 dummy satellites for practice at releasing them. It was the first flight of this new and upgraded spacecraft.

More...

At last! The yearned for Israel-Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages deal is finally happening. It is welcome. Like thin ice covering deep waters, it is scarily fragile, prone to crack under the slightest pressure. And it is desperately, lethally overdue. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, and many Israelis, have died since last May, when the US president, Joe Biden, first set out the parameters of this agreement. Civilians are still being killed in Israeli airstrikes that have actually intensified since the two sides grudgingly initialled the deal in Qatar.

Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are naturally relieved that these merciless Israeli bombardments will soon stop. But celebrations are tempered by fears about the future, and by deep grief and anger over the still terrifying present and immediate past. According to Gaza health ministry figures, more than 46,000 people have died there since the 7 October 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks killed over 1,200 people. The true Palestinian death toll may be even higher.

More...

If you can read cursive, the National Archives would like a word.

Or a few million. More than 200 years worth of U.S. documents need transcribing (or at least classifying) and the vast majority from the Revolutionary War era are handwritten in cursive – requiring people who know the flowing, looped form of penmanship.

“Reading cursive is a superpower,” said Suzanne Isaacs, a community manager with the National Archives Catalog in Washington, D.C.

She is part of the team that coordinates the more than 5,000 Citizen Archivists helping the Archive read and transcribe some of the more than 300 million digitized objects in its catalog. And they're looking for volunteers with an increasingly rare skill.

Those records range from Revolutionary War pension records to the field notes of Charles Mason of the Mason-Dixon Line to immigration documents from the 1890s to Japanese evacuation records to the 1950 Census.

More...

As the battle against the deadly fires in Los Angeles county enters its 10th day, officials are warning evacuees against returning to their homes due to the presence of toxic, hazardous waste and exposed power and gas lines.

During a Thursday press conference, Yonah Halpern, principal engineer with LA county public works said that toxins such as asbestos, and mercury can be found in fire debris and that the US Environmental Protection Agency and county fire department will be going house-to-house to assess and remove hazardous materials at no cost to the property’s owner.

The extreme winds behind the disastrous fires in Los Angeles are forecast to calm the rest of the week into the weekend, making it easier for firefighters to further efforts to put out the massive Palisades and Eaton fires that have been ablaze for over a week.

More...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday booted Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) from his position as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not attend President-elect Donald Trump's historic inauguration on Monday, her spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY.

Her office did not say why she planned to skip the ceremony. But she is among several Democrats who will be absent after a bruising election season in which Republicans swept the White House as well as the House and Senate.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat and vocal Trump critic, told USA TODAY in December "I won't pretend to normalize who or what he stands for."

The inauguration also takes place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and several lawmakers have said they will be attending celebratory events in their states or districts.

More...

Republican Sen. Colton Moore, was trying to enter the chambers during Gov. Brian Kemp’s State of the State Address, according to multiple media reports including FOX 5. In a video posted on social media following his arrest by Georgia State Police, the senator said he was reporting from a local hospital after taking a “bit of a beating on his hand.”

“Thank you to all the patriots who have shown their support today. I have a Constitutional duty and will be back in the legislature tomorrow,” Moore said.

According to Fulton County Court Records, Moore was taken to the Fulton County Jail on a misdemeanor charge of willful obstruction of law enforcement officers. Records also show that Moore posted a $1,000 bond.

More...