A tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to lead NASA. Jared Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of a card-processing company, has been a close collaborator with Musk ever since buying his first chartered flight with SpaceX. He took along contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. If confirmed, Isaacman will replace Bill Nelson, 82, a former Democratic senator from Florida who was nominated by President Joe Biden. Nelson flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1986 – on the flight right before the Challenger disaster — while a congressman.

The body of Itay Svirsky HY’D, who was abducted by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, has been retreievd and brought to Israel. Forensic and legal teams concluded the identification process, and his family has been informed of the tragic news. Itay’s remains were brought back to Israel last night, where final confirmation of his identity was made. Svirsky, 38, was abducted from his parents’ home in Be’eri, where he was visiting to celebrate Simchas Torah. Both his parents, Orit Svirsky and Rafi Svirsky, were murdered by Hamas terrorists. His 96-year-old grandmother Aviva Sela managed to survive the attack. Svirsky had been featured in a pair of Hamas propaganda videos published earlier this year.

When SmileDirectClub shut down a year ago, scores of existing customers of the teeth-straightening company were left in limbo. Now, tens of thousands are set to get some relief. New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that her office recovered $4.8 million to distribute nationwide to more than 28,000 consumers. SmileDirectClub illegally charged those customers after it ceased operations, James said. “Dental care is expensive and SmileDirectClub promised customers that they would provide affordable, quality care without the price tag, but instead, they extracted thousands of dollars from hardworking people,” James said in a prepared statement Monday.

Rescuers contemplated the safest way Wednesday to search for a woman who apparently fell into a Pennsylvania sinkhole while looking for her lost cat, saying a crumbling old coal mine was complicating efforts and endangering workers. Crews worked through the night in the Unity Township community of Marguerite to find Elizabeth Pollard, 64. A state police spokesperson said early Wednesday they were reassessing their tactics to avoid putting themselves at risk. “The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” Trooper Steve Limani told reporters in the township near Latrobe, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh.

President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday. Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada’s economy. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump’s comments were in jest. “The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.

Countering Iran is expected to dominate U.S. Middle East policy under President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, according to a report released Tuesday by the Middle East Forum. The report, titled Reasserting American Power in the Middle East, outlines a strategic blueprint for the administration’s early actions, focusing on reversing prior policies and ramping up pressure on Tehran. The report anticipates that within the first 100 days, the Trump administration will leverage executive orders to reinstate measures such as the travel restrictions widely referred to as the “Muslim ban.” “The administration will prioritize immediate actions to reinforce border security, expand deportation programs, and strengthen oversight mechanisms,” the report states.

The Justice Department is ramping up efforts to address a crisis of suicides and systemic failures in federal prisons and jails, announcing sweeping reforms aimed at overhauling how mental health care is provided behind bars. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco outlined the measures in a memo and report Tuesday, directing the Bureau of Prisons to update suicide prevention protocols, improve mental health assessments for inmates, and adopt data-driven strategies to reduce deaths in custody. The reforms will also apply to facilities overseen by the U.S. Marshals Service, a broader effort to address chronic shortcomings across the federal detention system.

The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business. Alexander Mashinsky, 58, of Manhattan, entered the plea in New York federal court to commodities and securities fraud. He admitted illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices to pocket about $48 million before Celsius collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022. In court, he admitted that in 2021 he publicly suggested there was regulatory consent for the company’s moves because he knew that customers “would find false comfort” with that.

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning, according to a person briefed on the investigation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the investigation. Police did not release the victim’s name, but said a 50-year-old was shot around 6:45 a.m. outside a Hilton before the shooter fled. He was taken to a nearby hospital but could not be saved. UnitedHealthcare is the insurance arm of the health care giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. The company was scheduled to have its annual meeting with investors Wednesday morning in New York City, according to a company media advisory.