Day: October 11, 2023

NASA on Wednesday showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by a spacecraft — the most ever returned to Earth.

Scientists and space agency leaders took part in the reveal at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The ancient black dust and chunks are from the carbon-rich asteroid named Bennu, almost 60 million miles away. NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected the samples three years ago and then dropped them off sealed in a capsule during a flyby of Earth last month.

Scientists anticipated at least a cupful of rocks, far more than what Japan brought back from a pair of missions years ago. They’re still not sure about the exact quantity. That’s because the main sample chamber has yet to be opened, officials said.

“It’s been going slow and meticulous,” said the mission’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona.

Black dust and particles were scattered around the outside edge of the chamber, according to Lauretta.

“Already this is scientific treasure,” he said.

Besides carbon, the asteroid rubble holds water in the form of water-bearing clay minerals, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Caroline Ellison, Sam Bankman-Fried’s confidant who has pleaded guilty to helping him take billions in FTX customer assets, testified at his fraud trial on Wednesday that she had been “terrified” the truth would come out about the cryptocurrency exchange and that its ultimate collapse last year brought an “overwhelming feeling of relief.”

Ellison, the former co-chief executive of Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, teared up describing the final days before the exchange declared bankruptcy in November 2022. Ellison said that while she felt “indescribably bad” about the harm caused to FTX customers and employees, the collapse lifted the “dread” hanging over her.

“I felt a sense of relief that I didn’t have to lie anymore,” she said through tears.

The courtroom deputy handed Ellison a box of tissues.

Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried plundered billions in customer funds to prop up Alameda, buy real estate and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns. FTX collapsed and declared bankruptcy in November 2022, shocking financial markets and destroying Bankman-Fried’s reputation as a responsible operator in the cryptocurrency industry.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ellison testified that Bankman-Fried directed her to falsify Alameda’s balance sheets to keep lenders at bay amid a downturn in cryptocurrency markets in 2022. Balance sheets sent to crypto lenders including Genesis Global Capital concealed that Alameda had borrowed around $10 billion in FTX customer funds, she said.

The 28-year-old Stanford University graduate said Bankman-Fried, her former boss and sometime romantic partner, also instructed her to draw from the fund’s line of credit on the FTX cryptocurrency exchange to repay loans in June 2022.

She is one of three former members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle who have pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy and has argued that while he made mistakes running FTX, he never intended to steal funds.

In his opening statement last week, defense lawyer Mark Cohen told jurors to question whether cooperating witnesses like Ellison were putting a new, nefarious spin on old decisions by Bankman-Fried which they had originally agreed with.

Bankman-Fried did not subscribe to rules such as “don’t lie” and “don’t steal,” Ellison testified earlier on Wednesday.

The FTX founder described himself as a “utilitarian” who thought the only rule that mattered was doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people, Ellison said.

“He didn’t think rules like ‘don’t lie’ or ‘don’t steal’ fit into that framework,” she said.

Being around that mindset made her more comfortable over time with taking actions at Bankman-Fried’s direction that she knew were wrong, she said.

Bankman-Fried also sought to cultivate an image as a “smart, competent, somewhat eccentric founder” and viewed his low-effort appearance and hairstyle as “very valuable,” she said.

As cryptocurrency prices plummeted and the value of Alameda’s assets dropped, Ellison said her awareness that the funds used to repay loans were ultimately coming from FTX customers put her in a “constant state of dread.”

“Every day I was worrying about the possibility of customer withdrawals at FTX,” she said.

Ellison said she and Bankman-Fried brainstormed multiple ways to support his companies. She said he suggested selling a stake in FTX to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and boosting its market share by getting regulators to “crack down” on rival crypto exchange Binance.

Ellison said regulators had “promised” Bankman-Fried that a Binance crackdown was coming but did not elaborate. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao in June 2023, alleging that they commingled and diverted customer funds. Binance and Zhao have denied the allegations.

Gary Wang, FTX’s former technology chief, testified that Bankman-Fried falsely tweeted that FTX was “fine” in November as the exchange faced surging demand for withdrawals. A third cooperating witness, former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh, is also expected to testify at the trial, which could last up to six weeks.

Related Galleries:

---

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Kaitlin Armstrong, the woman accused of killing professional cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in 2022, tried to escape the custody of corrections officers in Travis County, Texas, on Wednesday morning, sources have confirmed to NewsNation affiliate KXAN.

Armstrong ran from officers while leaving a medical office building, according to a sheriff’s office spokesperson. After about 10 minutes, officers caught up and restrained her.

Officers did not lose sight of Armstrong during the pursuit, according to the spokesperson.

Armstrong’s trial is set to begin Oct. 30 in Austin, where she faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Wilson, who was shot and killed at a home in east Austin in May 2022.

Armstrong was questioned at the time, but not arrested. When a warrant was issued for her arrest days later, it was discovered she had fled the country.

In June 2022, after more than a month on the run, Armstrong was re-apprehended at a hotel in Costa Rica and brought back to Texas. It was later revealed in court documents that Armstrong was believed to have traveled from Texas to Newark, New Jersey, before taking a flight to Costa Rica using her sister’s name and passport.

Upon her arrest in Costa Rica in June, U.S. Marshals noted Armstrong’s appearance had changed, including a difference in how her nose looked. Court documents obtained by KXAN revealed that officials found paperwork that indicated Armstrong had undergone plastic surgery in Costa Rica.

In addition to first-degree murder, Armstrong now faces additional federal charges for misusing a passport, according to court records.

The sheriff’s spokesperson could not disclose any additional details of the security measures being used during Wednesday’s transport.

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office did say, however, that it is “not uncommon” for their agency to transport an inmate to a doctor’s office or hospital when they require specialized medical treatment that is not available in their clinic.

(NewsNation) – The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the attacks stands today at 123.

The number of wounded Israeli soldiers is well into the hundreds.

The international nonprofit organization known as Belev Echad, comprised of over 500 wounded Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers, has stepped up its mission to help.

This military aid organization’s sole mission is to find IDF soldiers and help them and their families however it can.

Since Saturday, the New York-based nonprofit has stepped up to help the Israeli soldiers, giving them moral support as they head to the front lines – even packaging food for the hungry and bandaging the wounded.

NewsNation spoke with Aviv Bar. She is an American, a former IDF soldier and captain in its air force and has herself been wounded.

She told NewsNation the horrors she’s seen in the last four days are unimaginable.

“This is a tough time,” Bar said. “You wake up one morning, and everything changes. In one hour, I’m going to go to a funeral. One of the beloved members was murdered in the party of the South. We couldn’t find her for the last two and a half days. We were just informed three hours ago that she was murdered. This has been a very difficult time for all of us. I’m talking not about one name, one person that’s close to my heart, one person that I worked with, that I spent time with. But we’re talking about hundreds. And I have one, but there are people who have 4,5,6,7 friends, family members, who are not with us anymore.”

The founder of the group said her name was Raz Mizrahi. She was at that party of 2,000 people or so when Hamas murdered her.

NewsNation’s Leland Vittert provides expert analysis and insight into the Israel-Hamas war in the Oct. 11 edition of War Notes.

(NewsNation) — At least on its face, it appears that Hamas miscalculated. They expected the hostages to paralyze an Israeli response, but it didn’t. It appears Hamas’s brutality and tactics not only stunned Israelis but the entire world. If you listen closely to Israeli leaders, there is very little discussion about hostage rescue or return, and instead, complete focus on the destruction of Hamas.

We need to be clear-eyed about the possibility of hostage rescue. Hamas has had years to plan for this —how to split up the hostages, how to move them undetected in tunnels, what bunkers to keep them in and teams that can be totally off the grid to guard them. The list is literally endless of their advantages. The idea that even if ordered, Delta or DEVGRU could drop in and pluck them out is not realistic. Remember, even against ISIS, we weren’t able to rescue most of the Americans. This is about 100 times harder. As we showed last night, Gaza is an armed camp two times the size of Washington, D.C. It will be impossible for a special operations team to get in or out, much less isolate a small part of the city, to stage an operation.

The question for those in the Biden administration will be if they will change their view or messaging against Iran once the beheading and execution videos start coming out.

I would caution against equating war in the north with Gaza. If things kick off with Hezbollah, we will know. It won’t be a question. Hezbollah’s arsenal of 150,000 rockets is very different than Hamas’. These are precision-guided missiles that can reach all of Israel. They can take out critical infrastructure (airports, power stations, water plants, fuel depots and military bases) that would totally change the ballgame and is why the USS Ford battle group is in position. From Iran’s perspective, forcing Israel to prepare for a two-front war is almost better than being in a two-front war. Plus, Iran maintains its insurance policy.

President Biden should rightfully be called out for saying very little about the hostages and for making no promise to hold Iran responsible for their safety — even if you buy into the administration’s ridiculous position on Iran’s “involvement” in the attacks. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan admits Hamas works for Iran; therefore, it is unclear why putting pressure on Iran is a path the administration won’t even explore.

Furthermore, where is the public pressure on Qatar? Hamas’ leader lives in a luxury villa supplied and protected by the Qataris. Why is there no naming and shaming? Why are there no demands of extradition for a man so clearly responsible for the deaths of Americans?

President Biden’s speech Tuesday included a line about pressuring Congress to pass an aid package not for Israel but for all of our partners. That means they are going to tie Ukrainian and Israeli aid together. As pointed out in the previous note, there are points toward the political team at the White House here; this is a shrewd move. However, it’s important to remember that Congress doesn’t need to pass anything for Israel; the War Powers Act gives Biden vast latitude for 30 days.

As the focus shifts to “What about the civilians in Gaza?” our focus should shift to “What about Hamas and Iran?” Hamas controls Gaza, and it thinks slaughtering Israeli civilians and eradicating Israel is more important than the lives and well-being of those in Gaza — same for their backers in Iran. It’s widely reported that Hamas is forcing civilians of Gaza to remain in areas where Hamas fighters will use them as human shields. For all the talk about “international law,” we should point out that Hamas is actively using its own women and children as human shields — that alone is a war crime, and Iran could put an end to it.

Also, what about Egypt and the other Arab countries that could provide safe passage and asylum to Gaza civilians?

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of NewsNation.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir supports the formation of an emergency national unity government due to the ongoing war with Hamas, but reiterates that he blames opposition MKs Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot for the current situation, Israeli media reported.

“For nine months, he warned them about Hamas and stressed the need to deal with it,” sources from Ben-Gvir’s party said. “If they had listened to Ben-Gvir, maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

function addVidazooScript(){ console.log(“render vidazoo script”); const div = document.getElementById(“divVidazoo”); let scp = document.createElement(“script”); scp.src = ‘https://static.vidazoo.com/basev/vwpt.js’; scp.setAttribute(‘data-widget-id’, ‘6230c3985d5d60e5cdb4ac0c’); scp.setAttribute(‘defer’, ”); div.appendChild(scp); } const isSafari = /^((?!chrome|android).)*safari/i.test(navigator.userAgent); if(isSafari === false){console.log(“vidazoo yes, no safari”); addVidazooScript(); }else{console.log(“vidazoo no, yes safari”);}

Those sources also said Ben-Gvir opposes the formation of another forum aside from the security cabinet to deal with the ongoing war.

Coalition members blame Ben-Gvir for holding up unity government formation

Ben-Gvir’s comments sparked backlash from several coalition members, who blamed him for delaying the formation of a unity government.

“This isn’t the time for politics, it’s time for an immediate and unconditional unity government that will lead Israel to a decisive victory against the scum in Gaza,” Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar (Likud) said. “Enough wasting time on nonsense, the people of Israel are fighting for their existence.”

Likud parliament member Miki Zohar reacts during an arrangements committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, January 13, 2020. (credit: HADAS PARUSH/FLASH90)

“Itamar Ben-Gvir, stop” wrote Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud) on X, formerly Twitter. “The time has come for unity until victory.”

“Itamar Ben-Gvir’s statement is unacceptable,” Education Minister Yoav Kisch (Likud) said. “Unity government now!”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense chief and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz have agreed to form an emergency government, a joint statement from Gantz’s National Unity party said on Wednesday.

Terrorists from Islamist group Hamas invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday in a surprise assault that killed at least 1,200 people, the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israeli history.

Israel has responded with a massive bombardment of Gaza that has killed 1,055, and deployed thousands of troops around the enclave amid growing expectations it will launch a ground invasion to destroy Hamas.

The sides agreed to form a war cabinet comprising Netanyahu, Gantz, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the statement said, and during the fighting with Hamas in Gaza will not promote any unrelated policy or laws.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid was not expected to join the emergency government at this stage.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; editing by Alison Williams and Alex Richardson)

The post Israel Agrees to Unity Government To Wage War on Hamas appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.