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| Today's top new stories include: - A Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after part of its fuselage blew out.
- Israel's military warned of "another war" after Hezbollah struck an Israeli air traffic control base on Saturday.
- The world's first commercial moon mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Monday.
Thank you for reading! Gregory
p/Gregory_Bridgman | |
| 1 | | An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 was forced to land on Friday after a piece of fuselage blew out mid-flight. The incident came as a blow to Boeing, which is facing scrutiny for manufacturing defects as it tries to increase its production rate. More: - A "mid-cabin door plug" broke off Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, leaving a hole in the side of the aircraft 10 minutes into the flight.
- The plugged door is used as an additional exit for other carriers with more densely packed aircraft configurations.
- The plane made an emergency landing near Portland, Oregon after the incident and no one was seriously injured.
- The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes with the same configuration to be temporarily grounded on Saturday.
- The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it has launched an investigation that will focus on the incident rather than on Boeing's 737 Max fleet.
- The door plug, a "key" component to the investigation, was found in the backyard of a teacher living in Portland, Oregon.
- NTSB head Jennifer Homendy said that Alaska Airlines pilots had reported pressurization warnings during three previous flights, but she said the warnings may be unconnected to Friday's events.
Zoom Out: - The U.S. grounded all 737 Max aircraft for 20 months following two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.
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What the numbers say: The total number of aviation accidents in the U.S. declined from 1,837 in 2000 to 1,805 in 2020, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The number of fatal accidents decreased from 345 to 205 over the same period. The U.S., which has the world's largest commercial air travel market, reported more fatal civil airliner accidents between 1945 and 2022 than any other country. Leading U.S. aerospace firm Boeing has faced rising scrutiny for the quality of its manufacturing processes following two deadly accidents involving its 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019. Boeing admitted guilt and agreed to pay a penalty of $2.5B in 2021 to settle criminal charges related to misleading the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). | | | |
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| 3 | | Israel's military warned of "another war" after Hezbollah struck an Israeli air traffic control base on Saturday. The escalation came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was preparing to tour the Middle East and visit Israel to discuss the war in Gaza. More: - Hezbollah launched a rocket barrage on Saturday amid an escalation in fighting across the border between Israel and Lebanon.
- Hezbollah hit an air traffic control base on Mount Meron in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.
- No Israeli soldiers were harmed and air defenses remained operational thanks to backup systems.
- Hezbollah said the barrage was an "initial response," to the killing of a senior Hamas leader Saleh Arouri in Lebanon, which Israel is suspected of carrying out.
- Israel's military said its forces are pushing Hezbollah away from Lebanon's border with Israel.
- A senior Israeli official said: "We will get to another war," If Israel's military pressure ceases to be effective.
- Blinken said after a meeting in Qatar that Israel's cross-border fighting with Hezbollah could "easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering."
- Blinken told Arab leaders on Sunday that Palestinian civilians must be allowed to "return home" and must not be displaced from Gaza or the West Bank.
Zoom Out: - Israel has been exchanging fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
- Hezbollah's military is far more capable than Hamas and its leadership faces pressure to retaliate for Israel's suspected killing of Arouri.
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| 4 | | GOOD NEWS: 13-year-old Willis Gibson has claimed to become the first human player to "beat" Tetris. Previously, only artificial intelligence had been able to advance so far in the popular game, which was released 34 years ago. More: - Gibson posted a video on YouTube on Dec. 21 that appeared to show him reaching level 157 in the game.
- The feat, which reportedly took about 38 minutes, caused the game to crash.
- "Beating" Tetris in this way was believed to be impossible until a few years ago, according to Vince Clemente, the president of the Classic Tetris World Championship.
- A newly developed quick tapping method known as the "rolling technique" allows players to be faster and more efficient.
- Gibson started paying Tetris competitively in 2021 under the name "Blue Scuti."
Zoom Out: - Tetris was created by Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984 and became popular after its 1989 debut on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
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| 5 | | A Vulcan rocket blasted off on Monday carrying an uncrewed lander bound for the lunar surface. The launch marks the first U.S. mission aiming for a lunar soft landing since NASA's last Apollo flight in 1972. More: - A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its first-ever flight at 2:18 a.m. EST.
- ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, took about a decade to develop the rocket.
- Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin provided the two BE-4 engines that powered the rocket's first stage of flight.
- The rocket launched with Astrobotic's "Peregrine," an uncrewed moon-bound spacecraft that carries 20 experiments.
- Peregrine carries five NASA experiments intended to study how water behaves on the lunar surface, DNA samples, and cremated remains intended to remain on the moon.
- Astrobotic's six-foot-tall lander is set to touch down on the lunar surface on Feb. 23.
- The company is competing with Houston-based Intuitive Machines to become the first private firm to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
- Intuitive Machines' spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-February.
- The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on Feb. 22 or earlier.
- Both flights were commissioned as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which seeks to support commercial moon deliveries in preparation for crewed missions in the future.
- NASA aims to spend $2.6B on the initiative over the next 10 years.
Zoom Out: - CLPS is intended to support NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land the first humans on the moon since the end of the Apollo missions.
- Artemis also aims to establish an ongoing lunar presence.
- Blue Origin has been developing the Vulcan's BE-4 engines since the U.S. Congress ordered ULA to stop using Russian-made engines almost a decade ago.
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| 6 | | "Oppenheimer" and "Succession" dominated the 2024 Golden Globe Awards held on Sunday. It was the first major Hollywood event since strikes by actors and writers shut down much of the U.S. film industry last year. More: - Oppenheimer, which dramatizes the development of the atomic bomb, won five honors including best drama film.
- Cillian Murphy was recognized as the best male actor in a drama for his role in the film.
- Robert Downey Jr. won for best supporting male actor for his part in Oppenheimer.
- "Succession," which follows a fictional family competing for power over a media company, won the most awards in the TV categories.
- "Barbie," which grossed over $1.4B worldwide, won the Golden Globe's first-ever award for cinematic box office achievement.
- Lily Gladstone became the first indigenous person to win the award for best drama actress for her performance in "Killers of the Flower Moon."
- Gladstone, who comes from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, started her acceptance speech in the Algonquian language Blackfoot.
- The awards show was hosted by Filipino American comedian Jo Koy, who noted that the event came at a "scary time," for the industry following major strikes by actors and writers.
Zoom Out: - The Writers Guild of America voted to end its 148-day strike on Sep. 27 after reaching an agreement that included protections against artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
- The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists ended its longest-ever strike on Nov. 9 after securing a pay increase and its own AI protections.
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| 7 | | QUICK HITS - U.S Congressional leaders have reached an agreement that will set a topline spending limit of $1.59T for fiscal year 2024. The deal marks a major step toward preventing a partial government shutdown later this month.
- China apprehended a foreign national who was allegedly working with MI6, the British intelligence agency. Beijing said the individual, whose surname was Huang, led a foreign consultancy.
- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized on Jan. 1 after experiencing severe pain. Austin has faced scrutiny because he reportedly failed to inform President Joe Biden and other senior officials about his hospitalization for several days.
- Chinese leader Xi Jinping has purged the country's military in recent months to root out corruption. Xi may be less likely to consider major military action in the coming years because the corruption could undermine the country's military capabilities, Bloomberg reports.
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 | Writer / Editor | | Gregory Bridgman is a politics and e-commerce researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Master of Science from University College London and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or drop him an email at gregory@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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