“Nine Palestinian Americans sued the United States government on Thursday, alleging that it had failed to rescue them or members of their families who were trapped in Gaza after the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 2023, and Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas. The lawsuit accuses the State Department of discriminating against Americans of Palestinian origin by abandoning them in a war zone and not making the same effort that it would to promptly evacuate and protect Americans of different origins in similar situations.” (12/19/24)
“A Russian cosmonaut took a short ride at the end of a robotic arm to jettison spent equipment that he and a crewmate collected during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Dec. 19). Expedition 72 flight engineer Alexey Ovchinin secured his feet at one end of the European Robotic Arm (ERA) toward the end of his and Ivan Vagner’s seven-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) today. Fellow Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov controlled the 37-foot-long (11.3 meters) arm’s movement from inside the space station. At the desired point, Ovchinin tossed the bundle of no longer needed electrical connectors, covers and an experiment boom overboard such that it would no longer come in contact with the orbiting laboratory before burning up while reentering Earth’s atmosphere.” (12/19/24)
“The New York City mayor’s former chief adviser, her son and two real estate investors were indicted Thursday on bribery and conspiracy charges that came as the mayor himself fights a separate corruption case. Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who until recently was one of the most powerful people in city government, was brought into a Manhattan courtroom in handcuffs. She, her son Glenn D. Martin II — a DJ who once performed at City Hall — and real estate investors Raizada Vaid and Mayank Dwivedi pleaded not guilty. … Prosecutors said Lewis-Martin — who resigned Sunday — and her son raked in over $100,000 and got other help in exchange for her speeding approvals for construction projects. Lewis-Martin’s lawyer said outside court that she simply helped a constituent cut through the Big Apple’s thick red tape.” (12/19/24)
“A Georgia appeals court disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting US President-elect Donald Trump’s state election interference case. The court did not dismiss the indictment, which means another prosecutor will likely be appointed who may or may not decide to continue the prosecution — most political pundits agree that the latter scenario, where the case is dismissed, to be almost entirely certain. Willis could also move to appeal the ruling, which would further delay any trial.” (12/19/24)
“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted SpaceX the launch licence required for the Starship Flight 7 test. This decision, announced on December 17, allows the company to move forward with preparations for the world’s largest rocket at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The approval comes after a series of rigorous engine tests on the Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy booster to confirm readiness for launch. Despite this progress, SpaceX has not disclosed a specific launch date for the test, though reports suggest a possible timeline in early or mid-January 2025. According to sources, the Flight 7 test will follow a similar trajectory to previous launches, involving the launch of the stacked Starship and Super Heavy rocket, an attempted booster catch at the launch tower, and a water landing of the spacecraft in the Indian Ocean near Australia.” (12/19/24)
“A controversial deal that allows Central European nations to buy Russian gas via Ukraine will soon end, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Thursday, even as Kremlin-friendly European Union leaders scrambled to ensure their continued access to cheap fuel. Speaking at his annual marathon press conference, the Russian strongman said the transit agreement would be allowed to expire at the end of the year without a clear alternative in place. … Ukraine has refused to directly renegotiate the deal and has instead offered its own domestic gas production as an alternative for its neighbors. At the same time, at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ‘we would not prolong the transit of Russian gas’ past the terms of the contract.” (12/19/24)
“Jobless claims are the early-warning radar for the U.S. economy, and they still show no trouble on the horizon. The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits in middle of December fell to 220,000 from a holiday-exaggerated 242,000 in the prior week, the government said Thursday. New jobless claims — a rough gauge of layoffs — have hovered in the low 200,000s for the better part of the last three years. Companies have been unwilling to shed many workers because of steady economic growth and persistent shortages of labor that make it hard to fill open jobs. One big caveat about jobless claims: The government’s seasonal adjustments during the holiday shopping season, which starts around Thanksgiving, are less accurate than usual. Sometimes the adjustments exaggerate the shift in jobless claims.” (12/19/24)
“Syria will remove all references to the former ruling Baath party from its educational system as of next week but will not otherwise change school curricula or restrict the rights of girls to learn, the country’s new education minister said. ‘Education is a red line for the Syrian people, more important than food and water,’ Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri said in an interview from his office in Damascus. ‘The right to education is not limited to one specific gender. … There may be more girls in our schools than boys,’ he said. The secular, pan-Arab nationalist Baath Party governed Syria since a 1963 coup d’etat, seeing education as an important tool for instilling life-long loyalty among the young to the country’s authoritarian ruling system.” (12/19/24)
“U.S. life expectancy rose last year to its highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, while death rates fell for almost all the top causes, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years for the total U.S. population in 2023, according to the report released Thursday, an increase of nearly a full year from 77.5 years in 2022. The report showed women continue to live longer than men. For men, life expectancy increased a full year to nearly 76 in 2023. For women, life expectancy was a little more than 81 years in 2023. But while it’s rebounded, life expectancy hasn’t yet reached pre-pandemic levels after it fell off sharply from 78.8 years in 2019 to 76.4 in 2021.” (12/19/24)
“A politician has been shot dead and another wounded in a shooting inside the parliament of the [Republic of] Abkhazia. Abkhazia’s state news agency Apsnypress cited the health ministry as saying Vakhtang Golandzia had died of wounds sustained in a shooting at the parliament building on Thursday. … Apsnypress said the interior ministry had identified another lawmaker, Adgur Kharazia, as the suspect in the shooting, and that he had fled the scene. Its report did not give any indication as to a motive.” (12/19/24)
