NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (Aug. 30)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. I'm your host, Chris Beers. Our top story, big news for global oil prices. President Trump says the U.S. struck the biggest oil deal in world history with Venezuela. We have the details. NASA launches the Roman Space Telescope and President Trump signs an executive order to establish the U.S. Space Academy. In Nepal, rescuers race rising waters trying to free hundreds of workers trapped in tunnels. Google Maps now showing Lake America where Lake Ontario used to be after President Trump's recent executive order changing the name. And in golf, President Trump accepts an invitation to serve as the honorary chairman for the 2026 President's Cup. This is NTD Evening News, live from our global headquarters in New York City. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. President Trump says the U.S. has entered into the biggest oil deal in world history, saying the U.S. secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's oil reserves. He says the deal came through a partnership with private business at no cost to the American taxpayer. The exact terms yet to be released. But the president says the deal will double American oil reserves, greatly increase the U.S. oil supply and substantially lower gas prices for Americans long into the future. Venezuela's leader welcomed the agreement saying the public-private joint venture would boost their economy and government revenue. Venezuelan officials are preparing to sign agreements next week granting new oil exploration and production rights to a number of companies, particularly U.S. firms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the agreement as a win for both countries. For Venezuela, Rubio said the deal would bring nearly $100 billion in private investment, support thousands of high-paying jobs and help rebuild the country's economy. In Nepal, rescuers are racing to reach survivors stuck in tunnels after devastating flooding trapped potentially hundreds of workers inside. Efforts are focusing on five hydropower projects inundated by the floods, including the upper Trishuli complex. The torrent of ice, rock and debris that swept down a mountain valley on the China-Nepal border on Wednesday has killed more than 780 people and left more than 3,000 missing. This worker was rescued from one of the tunnels. I was hanging on a rung from the ceiling. The water was rising in the tunnel and it was difficult to move my legs. If I had let go from that rung, I would have fallen into the mix of water and concrete. Three months before the disaster hit, experts and officials from Nepal and China met in Kathmandu to discuss the risk of any glacial movement. But two Nepali officials say after the meeting, they received insufficient data from China and feared it could prevent them from anticipating and preparing for major disasters, just like the one that has now taken place. In the chaos of Nepal's deadly flash floods, a mother feared she had lost both her sons. Then came a phone call with news she could hardly believe. Her eight-year-old son was alive, though injured, and he was waiting for her. A mother and son reunited after Nepal's deadly flash floods ripped them apart. Eight-year-old Zoyal Gale and his brother were at school when the torrent of water and debris charged through their village in the northern district of Rasuwa on Wednesday. His mother, Matimaya Tamang, was at home and tried to head towards their school to find her sons, but she said the landscape had become unrecognizable and their school building had been destroyed. But Gale had run into a nearby forest and climbed a tree to escape, suffering a broken leg and cuts on his face. He was taken to a hospital in a neighboring district where a Reuters journalist encountered him without any family. His mother moved from one shelter and collection point to another, looking for her two missing children, with no luck. But Tamang on Thursday obtained the phone number of the Reuters journalist who had met Gale several hours earlier. The journalist told her Gale was alive and had been transferred to a Kathmandu hospital for further treatment, something she said she could barely believe. At this point, Tamang had already found her younger son alive as well. The UN Children's Agency, UNICEF, says at least 17,000 children have been affected by the floods north of Kathmandu. The agency added it was working with Nepal's government to identify, register, and reunite children separated from their families. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Israeli settlers who attacked homes near the West Bank of Kusra on Saturday. He said settlers should not get involved in military or police operations, telling them that is not your job. He said he would not allow them to enter the village and warned that their actions hurt Israel's settlement movement by attracting criticism from both Israel and the international community. The attack involved dozens of masked settlers who reportedly surrounded a Palestinian home and threw stones while seven Palestinians were trapped inside. It was the first major attack in the area since an earlier settler siege that drew international criticism. The U.S.-Iran conflict that began with Operation Epic Fury on February 28th is now six months old. After decimating the Iran regime's military and leadership, the United States now turns to shuttering Iran's economy through Operation Economic Outcast. Joining us to reflect on what's happened since February and what could come next is Lieutenant Colonel Darren Gobb. Darren, it's great to have you back on the show. What is your assessment of the situation six months from the start of Epic Fury? Yeah, hey, thanks for having me on again and great to see you. So far, I would say that there aren't a lot of big surprises. And frankly, what you're seeing is actually an expansion of the economic part of this conflict, not necessarily an entirely new phase. Because I would argue that the economic conflict or side of this actually started prior to us bombing it at the end of February. And the most noticeable event that occurred then was Venezuela. And that is more part of this than most people realize due to the fact that you've taken a significant oil supplier out of the chain of China itself. And so China is a supplier, chief trade partner, and frankly, treats Iran like a proxy that it is for China. So that's the economic warfare that started. Then you had military that followed on at the end of February, which was, of course, very visible. You saw us reduce their nuclear capability, reduce the air defense umbrella that would keep us from operating freely, which we did. And then we did operate freely to continue targeting drones and missiles and things like that to keep them from being able to strike throughout the greater region and also keep Iran from being able to operate out from underneath an umbrella of air defense artillery to keep pursuing their nuclear ambitions. So now at that point, you had the military in the lead and the economic was there, but it was in the background more. And now they've actually reversed positions again, where economics is in the lead and the military is there as an enabling force to ensure the economic conflict will continue. The challenge will be, do the Americans have the patience to let the economic side of this take effect on Iran the way it could if we just hold out and wait? Because it's not as visible and clear and as fast as military activity is concerned. So largely, I think we are where I thought we would be about now. And the challenge will be, again, how patient are we as Americans to allow economic conflict to continue? Darren, as we've been talking about Treasury Secretary Scott Besant announcing Operation Economic Outcast against Iran just this past week, using secondary sanctions to cut Iran off from its trading partners. I just wanna watch a quick clip of Besant describing this. We are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe. Around the globe. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone. How do you see Operation Economic Outcast playing out ultimately? Well, I think it can actually achieve the objectives that we've laid out to isolate Iran and continue to crush their economy to the point where hopefully the people of Iran get tired of it and take matters into their own hands, remove their dictators and establish some sort of government that can actually be a friendly neighbor for the most part to the greater region. And that's the greater challenge. I think this is what needs to be done because Iran has proven that it will take massive punishment on the military side as long as it can survive. But no conflict can go without a strong economy. That's just the nature of how war is. It's based on strong economies. It's supported by strong economies. So you have to take that part out to keep them from being able to withstand the 60-day or so military onslaught that it already went through. I think this is the right approach. I think, again, the greatest challenge will be having the American people understand that this is not loud, it's not flashy, it's not camera-ready, I guess you could say, but it is sometimes even more effective than the use of kinetic warfare on a nation than what you saw for 60 days before launching off the aircraft carriers, et cetera. So I hope we can see this through to the end, and I think it would be quite effective at doing what it aims to do. And staying with seeing this through to the end, a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll shows just 31% of Americans support U.S. military action against Iran. That's down from 37% in March. The president doesn't seem terribly concerned about that with the midterms approaching. What do you think? I think, ultimately, Iran is such a threat, not just to us, but to the globe in general, and in many ways, that we actually have been at war with them for nearly five decades, and we've finally started fighting back. That's how I see it. And most Americans really don't know what that has looked like because they haven't paid attention to it. Maybe it's not what they do. Maybe they're doing other things. But those of us who've lived in this arena day in, day out, and almost on the hour, we know what Iran's ultimate plans are, and what they've wanted to achieve all the way from Morocco to the border of China, and you can't have that. So I understand, on one side, why he's not concerned, because the threat that Iran posed directly, and by the way, through China and Russia, was so significant and had to be dealt with. But I also understand the impatience of the American people who were looking for someone who wouldn't get us into further conflict. Well, this is not us getting into a conflict that didn't exist before. It's us trying to finish a conflict that's existed for nearly five decades, and trying to remove the general Iranian influence, not only within our own borders, which is significant, but throughout this Middle East and Central Asia, and beyond. Do you think it will end up being a deciding factor, this issue, in the outcome of the midterm elections, or will it take more of a backseat to, say, the question of gas prices? Well, I think it's an important issue. I don't think it's going to be the deciding factor. Unfortunately, what I see potentially being the deciding factor is those things that are a result of this conflict, whether it should be resulted or not, like the price of the pump, the affordability crisis. We also have to acknowledge that these things are real. However, look at what we just did in striking a deal with Venezuela for oil. These kinds of things reduce our dependence, well, not necessarily dependence, but certainly reduce the ability of other nations to export from Venezuela, and reduce the expense, or will eventually be seen as resulting, reducing costs at the gas pump. It won't be immediate, but there's a lot of questions we need to be asking from the oil executives, as well, as to why prices go up immediately, but don't go down as fast. But I think it's going to be a positive thing in the end. Let's go back to Operation Economic Outcast. Of course, China is Iran's largest trading partner, but the regime there in China doesn't recognize U.S. sanctions on Iran. So what do you think that means for the effectiveness of this Operation Economic Outcast? Well, it's certainly not going to help. However, and this is why I say we started the economic pressure on Iran by way of Venezuela at the beginning. And so what you've done is you took the oil supplies away from China that Venezuela was sending their way, by the way, very inexpensively, which is the kind of crude that China needed to keep their economy going, which was already under duress in the first place. Now you take away the ability of Iran to bulk ship oil to China, as well, and you continue to reduce what Iran can import and keep their economy going. So I think it's a recognition that China wasn't truly going to play anyways, and you had to indirectly affect their economy at the same time as you were attempting to indirectly affect Iran also. So both of these things need to happen as one through different mechanisms. But the question will become, how much of a proxy to China is Iran? And at what point in will China ever cut them off because it becomes too expensive to keep it going? Yeah, and we saw China, who is supposed to be a good friend of Venezuela, just sort of walk away with the seizure of Nicolas Maduro there. Colonel Darren Gob, thank you so much for sharing your analysis with us. Thank you, have a good night. Coming up, ICE deports more than 100 illegal immigrants to third countries. DHS says the individuals refuse to go to their home countries. And internet users can now look up Lake America on Google Maps, formerly known as Lake Ontario. Its name is now changed following an order from President Trump. An important message for Americans ages 50 to 85. Have you seen that life insurance thing I got in the mail? From Colonial Pen? Yeah, that's it. It's over there. The recycle bin. I sent for this. You're buying life insurance now? Have you been to the grocery store lately? The last thing we need is another bill. That's exactly why we need life insurance. If something happens to either of us, those bills won't go away. Life insurance can help pay them. Funeral costs too. Take a look at this, it costs pennies a day. That's right. Rates for Colonial Pen life insurance start at $9.95 a month. 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The Trump administration continues to deliver on the voter mandate to carry out deportations of illegal immigrants from the U.S. CBS reported that over the last 10 days, ICE flights deported more than 100 people to third countries instead of their home countries. DHS told CBS News, quote, if an illegal alien chooses to file a claim in court refusing to go to their home country, we are required by law to find a safe and secure nation for them to go to. If an illegal alien chooses to go home, we will give them a free flight home and a $3,000 check. According to the DHS, since February, nearly 3 million illegal immigrants have left the U.S., including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 713,000 regular deportations. Google Maps has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in their app. The company confirmed the move in a statement. It follows an order made Thursday by President Trump amid a trade feud with Canada. The president posted an image of the map on Truth Social, but only internet users inside the United States will see the change. The president's order affects the U.S. geographic names information system, which sets the standards for official U.S. maps. People outside the U.S., including people in Canada, will still see the original name, Lake Ontario. The United States and China increasingly compete for influence and a military advantage across the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan remains one of the region's With fighting and instability in the Middle East still unresolved, attention is also turning to the Taiwan Strait, where any conflict could have consequences far beyond the region. On Taiwan's Penghu Islands, soldiers and civilians are now preparing for the possibility of just such a conflict. On Taiwan's Penghu Islands, preparations for a potential conflict with China are extending beyond military bases. At Ho Chi Wa's local auto workshop, civilian mechanics work alongside Taiwanese soldiers, practicing emergency repairs on military vehicles. The drills are part of broader efforts to strengthen Penghu's resilience. The archipelago sits roughly 30 miles off Taiwan's west coast in the Taiwan Strait, between Taiwan and China. Military experts and Taiwanese officials say the islands would likely face the first wave of any Chinese invasion attempt. That strategic location makes Penghu a key defensive outpost. Su Zhu Yan is a director at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. Penghu is effectively Taiwan's midway island, and the same applies from the perspective of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. If the PLA tried to attack Taiwan while bypassing Penghu, its rear could be struck by missiles from Penghu. That forces the PLA to attack Penghu before it can attack Taiwan. During Taiwan's annual Han Kuang exercises earlier this month, troops rehearsed defending the islands against an amphibious assault. Before dawn, soldiers loaded ammunition into guns and tanks and prepared armored vehicles for a drill. As daylight broke, tanks and artillery fired toward targets at sea. But military preparations are only one part of Taiwan's efforts to strengthen Penghu's defenses. Hussie Township Chief Chen Chen-cheng says residents are being encouraged to prepare for emergencies, stock supplies, and support civil defense efforts. Opinions among residents differ on how they would respond in a crisis. Some say they would resist. If my homeland were invaded, there's no way I could just stand by and watch them advance, is there? And the communist way of thinking is genuinely very different from ours. In their system, a single decision can determine whether someone lives or dies. That's why I believe I would resist to the very end. Others worry the islands could become isolated if China imposed a blockade. For now, Penghu is best known as a tourist destination, drawing visitors to its beaches and temples. But as tensions across the Taiwan Strait persist, both soldiers and civilians here are preparing for the possibility that these islands could one day become Taiwan's front line. President Trump says NBC's Kristen Welker falsely reviewed his endorsements of candidates, labeling it as mixed results. He says she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment. The president, in a post on Truth Social, calling her words a purposeful inaccuracy. President Trump says the recent wins of Darlene Graham and Mike Mazie in the U.S. Senate makes his endorsement rate stand at 100%, while for the U.S. House, wins recently and over the long term put it at 98%. He attached it results of the evidence. The president noted Welker is not the only one engaging in what he called fake commentary. At the end of summer recess, lawmakers will return to Washington, D.C. with a pressing to-do list, funding the government, digital asset regulation, and plans to probe birth tourism. NTD's Melina Wisecup has a look ahead. House lawmakers return to Washington next week with a top priority, preventing another government shutdown. Leadership plans to quickly tee up a vote on a temporary government funding bill. The Senate-passed stopgap would keep the government running until a month after the midterm election. Senate Republicans negotiated with Democrats on the final bill, which is supported by the White House. That's despite a provision that would block a Trump administration proposal, giving political appointees the power to approve or disapprove federal grants. It's potential to politicize the grant-making process and harm small, rural communities, our university colleges and nonprofit laboratories, our hospitals, our families, and biomedical research in general. Lawmakers are also pressed to finalize the national defense bill. Meanwhile, Senate Leader John Thune vowed to take up key issues that remained unresolved before the week's long recess, including bills to regulate cryptocurrency, kids' online safety rules, and a third party-line budget resolution. The White House's requested third reconciliation bill would include elements of the Save America Act, a grant program to incentivize states to strengthen voting requirements. Republicans are also aiming to probe birth tourism. And I believe that there's a compelling legal case to be made that these businesses that are facilitating this process, facilitating somebody coming in to the United States to give birth, lying on their immigration forms or on their visa forms, are engaging in a form of criminal conspiracy, and that's what we're gonna get to the bottom of. Chairman Gill said foreign expectant mothers traveling for this purpose come predominantly from China and Russia. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Wisecup, NTD News. Coming up, SpaceX launches NASA's new powerful telescope into space. It's designed to search for planets beyond our solar system. Jason Perry has the details when we return. The first time seeing my son, I feel like my life did a 180. I was already trying to change my perspective of life and really just be a father figure that I never had. Being present is the most important part. I'm still growing every day, becoming a better version of myself to be the better mirror for my son. I mean, he's just growing. He's becoming his own person. Man, first I saw him dance. Bro, he brings the vibes, you know what I'm saying? He brings the party, no matter what. He really a definition of like why he loves the body. And I love him to the death of me. ♪ Somehow I lost all those years ♪ ♪ Where did that time go? ♪ ♪ I don't know how I can see now. ♪ You've done the hard part. You quit smoking. Now do the easy part and get scanned for lung cancer. If you smoked, you may still be at risk, but early detection could save your life. Talk to your doctor and learn more at savedbythescan.org. When I arrived in the U.S. at 19, I struggled to find job opportunities without a high school diploma. Everything I have, my education, my career, my marriage, I owe to the Adult Literacy Center and my teachers. Your achievement has set an example for so many students, most importantly, your daughter. Education was the key that unlocked all my opportunities. When you graduate, they graduate. Visit finishyourdiploma.org to find free adult education centers near you. You can talk to me if you're feeling sad. Thanks for hearing me out, bro. Whenever you need to talk, I'm here, okay? Next, we look at some of the most unusual phenomena and unexplained mysteries our world has to offer. From the Lycurgus cup and ancient technology to the Nimrud lens and telescope lens from 710 B.C., NTD science contributor Shelby Melanson and host of Codex Legendarium explores the questions that have survived every attempt to answer them. Watch. An ancient Roman cup that tells the story of a mythical king's downfall is packed with modern nanotechnology? Inside the British Museum, the Lycurgus cup stuns viewers with its unique superpower, changing color from jade green to blood red, depending on the light that hits it. Inside the glass, unthinkably small flecks of colloidal gold and silver cause the color change. These nanoparticles are unfathomably small, thousands of times smaller than the width of a single human hair. The precise mixture scatters wavelengths of light so that your eye perceives the color differently, called surface plasmon resonance. Light that reflects off the glass looks green, but transmitted light shows as crimson. It's among the earliest and most advanced examples of nanotechnology in history, the only one that isn't smashed into pieces, by the way, and it's just shy of 2,000 years old. This painstakingly crafted cup depicts the Greek myth of King Lycurgus of Thrace. After he attacked the followers of Dionysus, the Greek god of winemaking, the nymph Ambrosia transformed into a vine to trap the king, bringing an end to his violence. The incredible artifact begs the question, what other technology appeared in the ancient world that we haven't yet discovered? My fellow photographers and telescope lovers, you guys will really like this one. What if I told you that a 3,000-year-old piece of crystal might be evidence of an ancient telescope? This is the Nimrud Lens, also known as the Leonhard Lens. It dates back to the year 710 BC, or roughly 2,730 years. British historian, archeologist, and politician, Sir Austin Henry Leonhard rediscovered it back in 1850, and since then, theories about what it was made for have run wild. The lens is approximately 38 millimeters wide and has a focal length of roughly 12 centimeters, meaning it offers about three times magnification if you look through it. The British Museum says it might have been a decorative inlay in a piece of furniture or a burning glass used to start fires. Any of you ever light ants on fire with a magnifying glass? Yeah, that kind of thing. But other theories suggest it was crafted as a magnifying glass or even, according to one researcher named Giovanni Pettinato, a telescope lens. To back it up, he cites ancient writings from Mesopotamia that describe the planet Saturn as a god surrounded by serpents. Saturn is visible to the naked eye, but to see its rings, you would definitely need some kind of optical assistance of some kind. What do you think? I can totally see Saturn's rings getting interpreted by the ancients as mystical snakes, especially with less-than-crystal-clear optics to look through. Next, we'll hear from an international human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who has uncovered mass atrocities. David Mattis has exposed trafficking and exploitation globally, including China's state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting. This interview is part of the international Heroes Wanted campaign. It honors courageous leaders, survivors, and organizations working to prevent and end human trafficking. NTD Television and the Epoch Times are proud partners of this campaign. There's a lot of disbelief when it comes to mass atrocities, simply because they're so out of sync with what people know in their everyday life. And, I mean, this was true of the Holocaust, and it's been true of other mass atrocities since. I'm David Mattis. I'm an international human rights lawyer. I'm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. There was a woman with the pseudonym Annie who made a public statement in Washington, D.C. in 2006 that her ex-husband had been harvesting corneas from Falun Gong practitioners. Other doctors had been harvesting other organs. The Falun Gong practitioners were killed through organ extraction. Their bodies were cremated. Their organs were sold to Chinese and transplant tourists. The government of China denied this. There was an NGO, the Coalition to End Persecution Against the Falun Gong, that developed a list of 20 human rights people who could maybe investigate. David Kilgore was on the list. He was a former member of Parliament and a former cabinet minister. He says, yeah, I will. I know David Mattis. Myself, I'm a refugee lawyer. I have been since the 70s. I'm also used to dealing with the sort of situation that was presented here, which was that there was no evidence. Nobody to say this had happened to them. No bodies to autopsy. No witnesses other than perpetrators. The transplant volume shot way up after the persecution of Falun Gong began. We had investigators calling into hospitals, pretending to be relatives of patients who needed transplants, and asking the hospitals if they had organs of Falun Gong for sale on the basis that Falun Gong were healthy. We had admissions throughout China, taped, transcribed, translated, which you can hear today, saying, yeah, sure, come on down. Once we did our report, which came out in July 2006, we basically carried on trying to deal with the issue. We produced a subsequent report, 2007, a third version, 2009, in book form under the title Bloody Harvest. There was a journalist, Ethan Gutman, who interviewed us and then wrote his own book called The Slaughter. And we formed an NGO together, the three of us, called the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, which is still functioning today. It's quite active. The Chinese government, they really have nothing to say in response, that it's basically just a cover-up rather than a refutation. I've been talking about the issue and writing about the issue, and also I've been making a lot of parliamentary submissions. Now there's a Council of Europe Treaty against Trafficking in Human Organs. About 20 countries that have legislation now about cross-border transplant abuse, whereas when we started there was none. It's sort of, I would say, taken a long time, but I think there's a lot more awareness of the abuse now and willingness to do something about it. The relative lack of attention to the abuse, given the seriousness of the abuse, can be explained by a number of factors. One of them is people were not familiar with Paolo Ghosn, and many of them still are not. There's a lot of Chinese, of course, counter-propaganda against Paolo Ghosn. I would say there's a lot of disbelief when it comes to mass atrocities, simply because they're so out of sync with what people know in their everyday life. And there's also the factor of China being geopolitically, economically very important, and a lot of people have other agendas with China besides this. And what we've seen now, a couple decades, is the spread of the abuse. I mean, we did a report, it was primarily Paolo Ghosn, with Uyghurs, Tibetans, and house Christians in smaller numbers. The numbers of Uyghurs shot way up after 2017. It's going to other countries. It's going to other populations. There's people disappearing off the streets in China. There's infants being sourced for organs now. It's like any other human rights violation. You don't stop it, it spreads. I mean, you can't wait for someone to come and try to kill you for your organs to start objecting. They're not just crimes against those groups, they're crimes against humanity, and crimes against humanity are crimes against us all. My name is Rocio Rosco, a former congresswoman from Mexico who fought against the cartels and human trafficking. This year, we're launching the Heroes Wanted campaign, shining a light on extraordinary people fighting in the front lines. So go to collato.charity.com slash heroeswanted, watch their stories to help amplify their impact, and vote for the hero who inspires you the most. SpaceX has launched NASA's new powerful telescope into space. It's designed to investigate cosmic enigmas and search for planets beyond our solar system. NTD's Jason Perry has the details. Three, two, one, ignition, and liftoff. One of NASA's most powerful telescopes launching into space from Florida on Sunday on a mission to probe some of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics and cosmology. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was carried into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket. The telescope will travel toward an orbital location situated about a million miles from Earth, and it's designed to investigate cosmic enigmas such as dark energy and dark matter while also searching for exoplanets, which are planets beyond our solar system. Why do we care so much about exoplanets? An associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate explains. Because one of our main goals at NASA is answering the question, are we alone in the universe? Whether you like space, whether you like technology, whatever it is, people look up at the sky and they think, you know, am I alone? Are we alone? Is there another Earth 2.0 looking back at me? And she says Roman will allow them to look at distant worlds and know whether they could be habitable. You're live, Mr. President. President Trump calling NASA administrator Jared Isaacman during the press conference to congratulate them. Jared's doing a fantastic job. You are doing a fantastic job, and I'm supplying you all that money. Well, Mr. President, you got a lot of smiling people in the room right now that are very happy to hear those words, and we will put it to excellent use. NASA says that the Roman Space Telescope will have the potential to reveal more than 100,000 planets beyond our solar system. Roman's mission is planned for five years, though the U.S. Space Agency says the telescope may have enough fuel for five additional years. Jason Perry, NCD News. Joining me now to discuss this historic week for NASA is former NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman. He was part of the crew that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope, and he's also professor of the practice of aerospace engineering at MIT. Jeffrey, welcome to the show. It's great to have you. Let's start with the most recent news. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, as we were just discussing, was launched Sunday, today at 7.26 a.m. Eastern time. It will have a field of view 100 times larger than the Hubble Telescope. What does that mean for space research? Well, Hubble has done incredible work. Interestingly, the main mirror of the Roman Space Telescope is exactly the same size as the mirror of the Hubble Telescope. And remember, that original mirror was made slightly out of order, and I was one of the spacewalkers who put in the corrective optics. The Nancy Roman Telescope is gonna have good optics, and they changed the focal length in just such a way that they have a much larger field of view. So the Roman Telescope will be able to look at many, many, many more objects than Hubble can with the precision of the Hubble Space Telescope. And when it finds something that looks interesting, then Hubble and, of course, the Webb Space Telescope can train their full attention on it. So it's a real powerful addition to our orbiting observatories. Yeah, it will be so amazing to see the photos coming out from that, and I guess we're supposed to be seeing the first in 2027. Now, President Donald Trump was at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas on Friday, making this announcement. Watch. It's clear that we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators, and everything else to do what we have to do and what we're right now doing the best, and we'll continue, and I think, by leaps and bounds. And that's why, in a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin the process of creating a new national academy. It's called the U.S. Space Academy. Jeffrey, this U.S. Space Academy will train the next generation of civil, military, and possibly even commercial space leaders. Can you explain the need for this kind of institution? Well, of course, all we have right now is the president's statement, and he has asked, I think, well, basically, I mean, look, the Army has West Point. The Navy got Annapolis. For a long time, Air Force officers were trained in West Point, but then the Air Force got its own academy. Well, now the Space Force is another, and the Coast Guard has a Coast Guard academy. So, I mean, if the Space Force is really going to be an equal part of the U.S. Armed Forces, then I guess they want their own academy, and that seems to be what Trump is talking about. Now, what that academy should do, who it should train, and how it should interact with schools like MIT, where I work. I mean, we've trained an awful lot of Air Force and Space Force officers, and it will be interesting to see how this evolves. But right now, we'll wait and see what the NASA administrator and the Space Force had come up with and what they suggest. There's certainly a need to train people in working in space, because that's gonna be very important, both militarily and for our civil economy. Yeah, and expanding on that importance, Jeffrey, what are the potential economic and technological fringe benefits, so to speak, of America's space ambitions? I was a young astronaut back in 1978 when we were out at Rockwell where the space shuttle was built. But at the end of the presentation on the shuttle, he brought out this little satellite, and he said, this is going to revolutionize civilization once we get enough of them launched. And that was the very first GPS satellite. And just think what orbital navigation capabilities has done to human civilization. Without space, we wouldn't have any of that. That's just one example. Yeah, and there's so much more. Also on Friday, the president awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of Artemis II, which went further from Earth than any other crew in human history. So what's next for the Artemis program, and where do you see it heading? Well, we should put Artemis in the right perspective. Artemis has set for itself a goal more ambitious than the old Apollo program. Apollo wanted to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely. And of course, we did a lot more than that with six missions. But Artemis wants to establish a permanent scientific base on the moon, much harder than the Apollo missions. And they have to do it for a lot less money. So it's a real challenge. And you can see the rate of progress is much slower than during Apollo, where we had flights every few months, now every year or so. So, you know, they've got to do it with somewhat less testing than Apollo did, but hopefully it's gonna be done safely. And with that in mind, the NASA administrator said that Artemis III, we're not gonna go land on the moon, which was the original plan. No, we're gonna do some testing in Earth orbit. And I think that's definitely the right decision. And if all that goes well, then we'll make a decision. Are we ready to actually go land on the moon? Remember, we don't have a tested lunar lander yet. Both Blue Origin and SpaceX are working on that. And hopefully at least one of them will get a lander tested and demonstrated for the Artemis IV mission. So there's a lot of work to be done. Not as much money as we'd like, but still a lot of good, qualified people working on it. So I hope we can get a person on the moon, you know, before the end of this decade. Yeah, a lot of question marks and quite the ambitious goal, you know, a settlement on the moon. I know you said it's important- Very much so. Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine what goes into that. You said that it's important for human beings to be able to eventually leave and live off of Earth. Can you expand on that? Well, the kind of living off Earth we're talking about is sort of equivalent to living at the South Pole in Antarctica. I mean, it's not, we're not talking about setting up a household and raising kids and going to school, that sort of living. But no, a permanently inhabited scientific base on the moon I think is a wonderful goal. Again, there's so much to be learned on the moon. It's a laboratory for the early condition of our solar system, how our Earth came from. We think that probably the moon was a big piece of the Earth which got knocked out in a big collision when the solar system was forming. And there may be commercial potential there. I mean, you know, right now Earth orbit is part of the Earth's economic sphere. And someday I suspect that the moon will be part of the Earth's economic sphere. But there's a lot to be developed and explored before we get to that point. And whoever gets, you know, we can stake out some interesting areas to explore. And, you know, whoever gets there first has certain rights on not to own the territory but at least to control the use of that territory. So there is a certain, you know, motivation not to waste time. Let's, you know, get there sooner rather than later because we're not the only people who are working to get to the moon, as we well know. Yeah, yep, that's right. It's certainly an exciting time for space exploration. Former NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, thank you so much. Been a pleasure. And coming up in golf, President Trump accepts an invitation to serve as the honorary chairman for the 2026 President's Cup. ♪ You are not hidden ♪ ♪ There's never been a moment you were forgotten ♪ ♪ You are not hope you have been forgotten ♪ On streets across America, homeless young people are cold, abused, in danger. Covenant House is helping young people with nowhere else to turn. Please call or go online now with your gift of $19 a month. You'll help provide hot meals, safe shelter, medical care, and love. We'll send you this comforting blanket as a reminder of the love you're showing a young person this holiday season. ♪ I will rescue you ♪ Call or go online now to safeplacetosleep.org and your first month's gift will be matched. Dreamed of stepping into the timeless world of classical Chinese dance? Now you can join the Shen Yun Arts Proficiency Assessment Center. Build strength, flexibility, and expressive movements with expert guidance. It's more than dance. It's sharing the true beauty of Chinese classical art. Enroll today at exams.xinyuncreations.com. Looking for a healthy and smooth-tasting brew? Drop by Day's Coffee Roasters today and explore our wide selection of specialty-grade small-batch roasted coffee. Home to North America's first enzyme-fermented coffee, we source a wide selection of specialty-grade coffee beans from around the world, and our baristas are ready to craft your customized brew. Visit Day's Coffee at 28 North Street, Middletown, New York. Come experience a brew like no other. With Select Specs £6 Specs, you can get 10 pairs of prescription glasses for just £60. That includes frames, prescription lenses, and delivery free to your door. And what makes this really special is each pair can have a different prescription. So it's glasses for everyone. Selectspecs.com slash £6, 10 frames, all with prescription lenses, and delivery for just £60. You don't get that on the high street. Right now, you can save an extra 5% with offer code CG5OFF. Welcome back. President Trump will be the honorary chairman for the upcoming President's Cup PGA Tour Golf Tournament. The competition will take place next month near Chicago. The tournament sees a team of international competitors take on a team of U.S. players. They'll compete at Medina Country Club in Medina, Illinois, September 22nd through the 27th. U.S. team captain Brent Snedeker will lead a group against international team captain Jeff Ogilvie. President Trump announced his acceptance of the chairmanship on Truth Social and on X, saying it's his honor to accept being the honorary chairman of the upcoming event. The president says it will be particularly exciting and that both teams are loaded with talent. President Trump is among a small group of U.S. presidents to hold the honorary chairman role, and he himself first held it back in 2017, when the U.S. team beat the international team 19-11. In years where the tournament was hosted overseas, the leaders of other countries have also held the role. Besides President Trump's upcoming second chairmanship, the only world leader to host the event more than once is former President Barack Obama. The U.S. team has won the competition 10 straight times and has never lost when the competition was held in the U.S. The teams tied once in 2003 in South Africa and the international team won once in 1998 in Australia. The tournament goes back to 1994 when former President Gerald Ford was honorary chairman. It's held every two years. Next, the U.S. Open opens in Queens, New York. Fans are ready for the star players and great rivalries. I'm looking to see how some of the veteran tennis stars fare against fresh competition. Carlos Alcaraz returns to defend last year's U.S. Open title. He's returning from a wrist injury that caused him to miss Wimbledon and the French Open after winning the Australian Open. Alcaraz also won the 2022 U.S. Open. On the women's side, Irina Sabalenka returns after winning two previous years of the U.S. Open. She hasn't won any other recent major tournaments. Veteran favorites like Novak Djokovic and the Williams sisters are also in the competition. I think that all the players really are very special to everyone and they're really great influences, especially like historically, like Roger Federer, Nadal, Djokovic is still playing in his age. Like, I think all of them, historically to now, they're just really, really great inspirations to the sport. We are very excited to see Venus Williams play today. We also are going to check out Jessica Bagula. And then as well as Serena Williams, Vin Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, they are all practicing this evening. So we're just looking forward to having a great time and enjoying this wonderful event. I hope Novak Djokovic wins because I want him to go out with a bang. But at the same time, since he's not at his peak anymore, I think maybe someone else like Carlos Alcaraz. The event is taking place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York. The stadium opened in 1997. The already grand stadium is undergoing a modernization upgrade to be completed by the 2027 US Open to welcome even more fans of the sport and perhaps bring in even more people who want to make tennis a part of their life. This is my second year coming. The last year was fabulous and we decided to make it an annual tradition. And of course, we're excited about Coco, the Williams sisters, just excited. Next, we take a look at some of the unusual stories making waves this week. A thousand people teaming up to move a Japanese castle, a stranded climber getting a daring rescue and one bug-eyed, bomb-sniffing tug winning over the internet. Check it out. A more than 400-year-old Japanese castle was carefully picked up and moved with the help of a thousand people playing tug of war. Over a decade ago, Hirosaki Castle in the Omori Prefecture was lifted and moved so work could be done on its foundation. Now it's being moved back, but with the help of good old-fashioned muscle. 1,000 people were selected by lottery to pull the castle tug-of-war style and reportedly ended up moving the structure about three feet by hand. A structural project in Boston made waves, not because it's taking shape, but because of the shape it's taking. The framework, resembling a very specific gesture, is part of an ongoing project to reposition a giant Sitco sign that has adorned a building near Fenway Park for decades. The work will soon be completed, but in the meantime, the framework is bringing chuckles aplenty to folks on the streets and online. A dizzying rescue unfolded high up on a Georgia mountain after a climber became stranded, desperately clinging to a cliff face. It happened on Mount Yona, where officials say the man called 911 from the mountain ledge saying he'd become stuck there during a free-climb attempt. Rescuers located the climber, set up a rappelling rig, and sent down a tethered team member whose name was, and I swear I'm not making this up, Will Roper. Finally, after weeks of online voting, the verdict is in. Bolt was voted the Transportation Security Administration's cutest canine. Working at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, this boisterous, bug-eyed bomb sniffer looks like he's seen a thing or two on the job. The annual contest started with a field of 85 nominated dogs whittled down to four finalists, but in the end, it was Bolt's wide-eyed confidence that won the day. That's all for today's news. For round-the-clock original coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Chris Beers. Good night.