Hezbollah fires about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel in heaviest barrage in weeksIs Tesla’s Stock the New Goldmine? Discover What Gamers Need to Know
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democrats and Republicans agreed on at least one thing before November’s election: California would play a central role in determining control of the U.S. House. Indeed it did. Democrat Adam Gray's come-from-behind victory over Republican Rep. John Duarte in a Central Valley farm-belt district Tuesday — the final House contest decided this year — gave Democrats their third pick-up of a GOP-held seat in the state, a small victory in a tough year for Democrats nationally. While Democratic wins narrowed the gap in the House, Republicans held their ground in two other toss-up contests that helped the GOP defend its fragile majority in Washington. Republicans won 220 House seats this election cycle , with Democrats holding 215 seats. Despite falling short of a majority, Democrats stressed that the party will gain seats next year, leaving the chamber even more closely divided. “Netting three seats was a very big deal,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, who lives in Redlands, east of Los Angeles, said in Washington. Democratic enthusiasm was tempered, however, by turnout figures that lagged the 2020 presidential election in the heavily Democratic state, even with Kamala Harris leading the Democratic ticket in her home state. Also, Republicans made incremental gains in the state Legislature. Voters overwhelmingly endorsed a ballot proposal that makes shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders again and increases penalties for some drug charges amid frustration over retail crimes, a proposal opposed by some Democrats. The election showed Democrats will need to pay closer attention to issues like crime and the cost of living, even in a state where the party holds every statewide office and dominates the Legislature and congressional delegation, Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said. In the House, Democrats “were hoping that California would push them over the top to gain a majority. But their gains elsewhere were not strong enough,” Pitney added, pointing to GOP wins in North Carolina. Gray won by a margin of less than 200 votes, with election officials reporting Tuesday all ballots had been counted. Duarte captured the seat in 2022 when he defeated Gray by one of the closest margins in the country, 564 votes. He was often listed among the most vulnerable House Republicans given that narrow margin of victory in a district with a Democratic tilt — about 11 points over registered Republicans. Gray said in a statement: “We always knew that this race would be as close as they come, and we’re expecting a photo finish this year, too.” In other Democratic House gains, first-time candidate Derek Tran ousted Republican Rep. Michelle Steel in a Southern California district anchored in Orange County, while Democrat George Whitesides toppled Republican Rep. Mike Garcia is a district north of Los Angeles. In a district east of Los Angeles, Republican Rep. Ken Calvert again held off Democrat Will Rollins in a repeat of their 2022 contest. And Republican Rep. David Valadao kept his grip on a farm-belt seat, despite its heavy Democratic registration edge. The outcome will leave Republicans with nine of the state's 52 U.S. House seats next year. Although California is often seen as a liberal monolith, a string of House districts has proved volatile in recent elections, spotlighting their importance to both parties. Democrats snatched seven seats from Republicans in 2018, then Republicans seized four from Democrats in 2020. In the 2022 elections, Republicans gained one seat, from 11 to 12, while Democrats dropped to 40 seats from 42, after California lost a House seat in reapportionment after the 2020 census. Overall, the state dropped to 52 districts from 53. The state played a pivotal role in securing the gavel for Republicans in 2022 and installing Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield as speaker . Michael R. Blood, The Associated Press
Hezbollah fires about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel in heaviest barrage in weeks
In August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) began its long journey to study the Sun’s outer corona. After several gravity-assist maneuvers with Venus, the probe broke Helios 2 ‘s distance record and became the closest object to the Sun on October 29th, 2018 . Since then, the Parker probe’s highly elliptical orbit has allowed it to pass through the Sun’s corona several times (“touch the Sun”). On December 24th, 2024 , NASA confirmed that their probe made its closest approach to the Sun, passing just 6 million km (3.8 million mi) above the surface – roughly 0.04 times the distance between the Sun and Earth (0.04 AU). In addition to breaking its previous distance record , the PSP passed through the solar atmosphere at a velocity of about 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph). This is equivalent to about 0.064% the speed of light, making the Parker Solar Probe the fastest human-made object ever. After the spacecraft made its latest pass, it sent a beacon tone to confirm that it made it through safely and was operating normally – which was received on December 26th. These close passes allow the PSP to conduct science operations that will expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of solar wind. Every flyby the probe made with Venus in the past six years brought it closer to the Sun in its elliptical orbit. As of November 6th, 2024 , the spacecraft reached an optimal orbit that brings it close enough to study the Sun and the processes that influence space weather but not so close that the Sun’s heat and radiation will damage it. To ensure the spacecraft can withstand temperatures in the corona, the Parker probe relies on a carbon foam shield that can withstand temperatures between 980 and 1425 ° C (1,800 and 2,600 degrees ° F). This shield also keeps the spacecraft instruments shaded and at room temperature to ensure they can operate in the solar atmosphere. Said Associate Administrator Nicky Fox, who leads the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a recent NASA press release : “Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star. By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space, as well as learn about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.” Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), is part of the team that designed, built, and operates the spacecraft. “[The] Parker Solar Probe is braving one of the most extreme environments in space and exceeding all expectations,” he said . “This mission is ushering a new golden era of space exploration, bringing us closer than ever to unlocking the Sun’s deepest and most enduring mysteries.” The Parker Solar Probe was first proposed in a 1958 report by the National Academy of Sciences’ Space Science Board , which recommended “a solar probe to pass inside the orbit of Mercury to study the particles and fields in the vicinity of the Sun.” While the concept was proposed again in the 1970s and 1980s, it would take several more decades for the technology and a cost-effective mission to be realized. The Parker Solar Probe also made several interesting and unexpected finds during previous close passes. During its first pass into the solar atmosphere in 2021 , the spacecraft discovered that the outer boundary of the corona is characterized by spikes and valleys, contrary to expectations. It also discovered the origin of switchbacks (zig-zag structures) in the solar wind within the photosphere. Since then, the spacecraft has spent more time in the corona, closely examining most of the Sun’s critical processes. The probe’s discoveries are not limited to the Sun either. As noted, one of the PSP’s primary objectives is to study how solar activity influences “space weather,” referring to the interaction of solar wind with the planets of the Solar System. For instance, the probe has captured multiple images of Venus during its many gravity assists, documented the planet’s radio emissions, and the first complete image of Venus’ orbital dust ring. The probe has also been repeatedly blasted by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that swept up dust as they passed through the Solar System. “We now understand the solar wind and its acceleration away from the Sun,” said Adam Szabo, the Parker Solar Probe mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “This close approach will give us more data to understand how it’s accelerated closer in.” The probe even offered a new perspective on the comet NEOWISE by capturing images from its unique vantage point. Now that the mission team knows the probe is safe, they are waiting for it to reach a location where it can transmit the data collected from its latest solar pass. “The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s an amazing accomplishment.” The spacecraft’s next solar passes are planned for March 22nd, 2025, and June 19th, 2025. Further Reading: NASAIndian Hotels shares 1.03% as Sensex fallsFrankly Speaking: Will President Trump be able to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine?
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BEIRUT — Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the militant group’s heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the all-out war. An Israeli bomb squad policeman carries the remains of a rocket that was fired from Lebanon on Sunday in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, northern Israel. Ohad Zwigenberg, Associated Press Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon’s military said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military’s operations are directed solely against the militants. Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon’s military has largely kept to the sidelines. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war. Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups. The Israeli police bomb squad inspects the site after a missile fired from Lebanon hit the area Sunday in Petah Tikva, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. Oded Balilty, Associated Press Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there. In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing. The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether injuries and damage were caused by rockets or interceptors. Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later. Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts A flock of birds flies above the smoke from Israeli airstrikes Sunday in Dahiyeh, Beirut. Hassan Ammar, Associated Press Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel’s military said it targeted command centers for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north. The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was “pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.” U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week. Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group. Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate $208 million to assist the Lebanese military. But Borrell later said that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in reaching an agreement for a cease-fire” and that it seemed Israel was seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France as a member of the international committee that would oversee the cease-fire’s implementation. The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers. With talks for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war’s only hostage-release deal. “It’s hard to hold on to hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin,” said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her husband and two young sons. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the rest of the 250 who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack were released in last year’s cease-fire. Talks for another deal recently had several setbacks, including the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who pushed for a deal, and Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation. Hamas wants Israel to end the war and withdraw all troops from Gaza. Israel has offered only to pause its offensive. The Palestinian death toll from the war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. On Sunday, six people were killed in strikes in central Gaza, according to AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. How often do you buy something online ? A couple of times a month? A couple of times a week? A couple of times a day? Everybody's answer will be different, but collectively, it's done a lot: Online retail accounted for over $1 trillion of purchases in the U.S. in 2022 and a record $277.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023 alone. Retailers ranging from titans like Amazon and Walmart, down to local small-town shops work very hard to land their share of that business. Sadly and inevitably—so do criminals and scammers. At any given moment, they operate millions of bogus sites. So how can you spot those fake online shopping sites? Spokeo provides a guide. It's Easy to Create an Online Presence In the early days of the internet , it took some genuine skills to set up a website, but those days are gone. A quick search will show that there are lots of apps and services offering websites on a prefabricated "fill in the blanks" basis, and most web hosts provide those tools as part of the service when someone signs up with them. It's even easier on social media . If you were opening a "side hustle" business tomorrow from your home, you could set up your own Facebook page tonight in under an hour, with exactly zero knowledge of websites. Once that page is set up, you just need to throw a few dollars in the direction of Facebook's advertising department, and they'll start advertising your page to users. It's no harder to promote a website, except in that case, you'd give your advertising dollars to Google. This is a simplified overview, but the main point holds: Establishing a presence online has become a very democratized process, open to anyone with minimal skills and even the smallest budget for advertising. That's been a boon for legitimate entrepreneurs, but it also makes life very easy indeed for scammers. How Bogus Websites Steal Money and Information There are multiple types of bogus websites . Some are imposters, created to look very much like a legitimate commercial or government site that you're familiar with, such as Amazon or Netflix. Others don't imitate a specific site, but instead attempt to capture the look and feel of those sites in general (whether that be a retail site, a government or bank page, or even something relatively shady like a gambling or porn site). Next, scammers find ways to drive traffic to their site. Often that's through phishing texts or emails, but deceptive ads on social media or search engines like Google and Bing work just as well. Once a browser arrives at the criminals' site (or, in some cases, downloads their app), any number of bad things can happen. One is that they'll download malware onto your devices, which can capture passwords or steal personal information. A more straightforward risk is that the browser will cheerfully enter their personal and banking/credit card information, thinking they're making a legitimate purchase. That's largely why fake online shopping sites are so dangerous, and so useful to scammers and identity thieves. How Fake Online Shopping Sites Work Most bogus sites share some or all of those characteristics, but shopping sites are a very specific type of bogus site with some quirks of their own. One characteristic to count on—whether the website directly impersonates a major retailer like Amazon, a niche retailer like MEC, or just positions itself as an anonymously general retail site—is that it will offer unusually low pricing on high-demand products. That might be a mass-market item like the latest gaming console, a suddenly in-demand item that's unavailable through normal channels (remember trying to get masks and sanitizing wipes during COVID-19?), or something as mundane as disposable diapers or high-capacity computer drives. Whatever the product, the advertised price will be low enough to get attention. The bogus site will have any number of ways to transfer a browser's money to its coffers, depending on the scammers' intentions and skillset. A few of the most common include: Products that are damaged, refurbished, low-quality fakes, or otherwise not as described (and therefore, not worth nearly what was paid for them). Products that never arrive at all after they've been paid for (this is the most common variation.) Hidden fees, surcharges, or shipping charges that dramatically inflate the price of the (usually substandard) product. Charging a "restocking fee" before processing a refund or return (which, of course, they subsequently don't do). These are all aside from the potential to infect devices or steal payment information . Sites focused on identity theft might consider a faux purchase to be just the added gravy. Fake Online Shopping Sites are a Big (and Year-Round) Problem How common is online shopping fraud? Well, the news is pretty bad. The FTC's 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book recorded over 327,000 online shopping complaints, the fourth-highest category for overall complaints and second among fraud categories. You would expect these sites to be more prevalent during the final quarter of the year, corresponding to the holiday gift-giving season—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas itself—and they are, but that doesn't mean you can relax during the other nine months of the year. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, or APWG, identified nearly a million fake or phishing websites during the first quarter of 2022 alone (not a busy time of year for shopping), for example. To be clear, only 14.6% of those were eCommerce sites, but that still translates to well over 140,000 bogus shopping sites. The true number is almost certainly higher because the APWG only tracks the ones that use a phishing approach. Many opt to simply buy advertising instead (or as well), and those won't be captured in the APWG's statistics. However you slice it, there's a definite risk of encountering these sites when you shop. Recognizing Fake Online Shopping Sites The good news is that bogus shopping sites aren't hard to spot, once you're aware of the risk. They aren't built for permanence; scammers pull them together quickly and cheaply and then abandon them once they stop producing.That "just good enough" approach leaves plenty of visible signs you can detect. Below, here's what to look for when recognizing fake online shopping sites. Bad images Bogus sites don't have direct access to the real products' manufacturing images, so they resort to copying and pasting from legitimate sites. \That means bogus sites' product images (and often their fake logos, if they impersonate a legitimate site) are fuzzy and low-res. A URL that's slightly "off" Imposter sites obviously can't have the same URL as the legitimate site, so they'll usually have a URL that looks right, but isn't quite. They might have a typo in the name, or incorporate the real company's name into their URL in a non-standard way ("myfakesite.amazon.com.123xyz.com"), or—sneakiest of all—use a letter from a different language's character set , which looks the same to the eye, but not to the computer. Broken links The scammers may have simply copied and pasted user interface elements from a legitimate site, in which case many links on the site may be broken (or simply not clickable). Lots of missing elements A legitimate retail website will have several pages of legalese, often starting with a pop-up about its cookie policy or privacy policy. You should certainly expect to see a detailed document spelling out shipping policies, return and refund policies, and similar details. If those are missing or brief and vapid, it's probably a fake site. Limited options for payment Sites that plan to take your money and run will often show oddly specific payment options, from wire transfers to gift cards to cryptocurrency. The thing those payment methods have in common is that it's very difficult to get money back once it's spent. Sites geared around capturing your personal or payment information, on the other hand, may insist on getting your credit card. Typos, grammar, and linguistic errors Simple, silly language errors are often a red flag. Scammers may not be native English speakers, and it shows up in awkward or sometimes inappropriate phrasing. Errors in actual product listings aren't necessarily a smoking gun—you'll see them frequently on real Amazon pages—because they come from the manufacturers, who are often not English speakers. Language errors on the rest of the site are more of a concern. HTTP vs. HTTPS In the address bar of your browser, a legitimate retail site's URL will start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP, and will show a closed lock symbol. The majority of fake sites now also have an HTTPS URL and will show the lock (so this isn't as helpful as it used to be), but less-sophisticated scammers may miss that detail. You can automatically rule those ones out. And, of course, the biggest red flag of all is an unrealistically low price on the product you're looking for. We all want to get a really good deal, but that impulse will often lead you astray. What to Do if You Think a Shopping Site Is Fake If a shopping site fails those basic "eyeball" tests, the smart thing to do is just close that browser tab and walk away. If you want to dig deeper, or if you aren't sure, there are a few quick and easy ways to verify a site's legitimacy. Use a URL/website checker Remember those really sneaky fake URLs that use a letter from another alphabet? The best way to check those (and other problematic elements in a URL) is through a URL verifier/website reputation service, like the ones from URLVoid and Google . Just copy (don't click!) the link, and paste it into the checker. If the site is sketchy, they'll tell you. Look up the site on a registry Domain names all need to be registered and there are several lookup tools to check this, like ICANN's registration lookup (think of it as Spokeo for websites). If a site claims to be Amazon but was registered just a few weeks ago, that's a really big red flag. Similarly, if the site isn't located where it should be, or if the ownership data is obscured, that's grounds for concern. Turn to Google If you have a bad feeling about a particular site, do a quick Google or Bing (or whatever) search that pairs the site's name with keywords like "scam," "fraud," "bogus" or "ripoff" and see what comes up. If you get a lot of hits, that's definitely grounds for concern. Go Forth and Shop (Safely) If a given site fails any or all of those tests, then keeping your wallet in your pocket is definitely the smart choice. Instead of making the purchase, report the site instead to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC's Report Fraud website. That will get the investigative wheels turning and may help protect someone less wary from falling victim to the scammers. As always, wariness and skepticism are your friends when it comes to avoiding scams. Don't click on links in emails, texts , or social media messages; instead, go to the company's site by typing the URL directly. If you search a company's page on Google, scroll down through the actual search results until you find it instead of clicking on the sponsored results or advertisements at the top. Most of all, remember the golden rule of scam avoidance: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Keeping those principles in mind, and using the tips given here to screen out dubious sites means you'll be able to shop 'til you drop (safely), despite the vast number of scammers out there. And that—as the credit card ads like to say—is priceless. This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Rawpixel.com // Shutterstock