Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday claimed that ISIS “has been defeated,” just hours after four Americans were killed in an attack in Syria that ISIS later claimed. Early Wednesday, a suicide bomber in the Syrian town of Manbij reportedly killed 16 people at a local restaurant, including two U.S. troops, one Department of Defense civilian, and one contractor supporting DOD work. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, Pence told the Global Chiefs of Mission conference that “The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated,” and made no mention of the suicide bombing during his talk. Pence also backed Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the war-torn nation, arguing that “Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we’re now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners and we’re bringing our troops home.” A White House official later told CNN that “The White House hadn’t publicly confirmed the deaths at the time he spoke.”

Welcome to the Video Cheat Sheet, your source for the videos you absolutely have to see right now. Today, we have protesters in NYC urging RCA Records to drop R. Kelly amid sexual-assault allegations, a baby falling out of a moving car, a pickup-truck driver slamming into several cars while leaving a snow-covered parking lot, a spinning ice disk that has people speculating that aliens may be involved, and hundreds of elk interrupting a Washington driver’s commute.

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Four U.S. citizens were killed and three wounded in a blast on Wednesday in the Syrian town of Manbij, a U.S. official confirmed. The victims were two service members, one Department of Defense-affiliated civilian, and one contractor supporting DOD work.The attack comes just weeks after President Trump declared ISIS was defeated and ordered the withdrawal of United States forces. The blast is reported to have happened in the northern city of Manbij on Wednesday, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and is said to have killed 16 people in total. An ISIS-affiliated website, Amaq, claimed a foreign military patrol was targeted in a suicide attack, but that claim has not been verified. The attack reportedly targeted the Qasr al-Umara restaurant where American soldiers would sometimes stop to eat during their patrols of the area. 

A witness told Reuters the attack took place near a vegetable market and that a “heavy” presence of coalition military aircraft was now flying over Manbij. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “The President has been fully briefed and we will continue to monitor the ongoing situation in Syria.” Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at a gathering of American ambassadors at the State Department headquarters on Wednesday, said the U.S. still plans to pull troops out of Syria despite the attack, adding that the United States would “stay in the fight to ensure that ISIS does not rear its ugly head again.”

President Trump on Wednesday quietly signed a law guaranteeing that federal employees on furlough during the government shutdown will receive back pay once the shutdown has ended. The White House announced the move in a brief statement, noting that the “Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019” “requires the compensation of government employees for wages lost, work performed, or leave used during a lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018, and entitles excepted employees to use leave during a lapse in appropriations.” This law only applies to workers who have not been on the job since the shutdown began; workers who have been required to work to keep the country afloat were already guaranteed back pay. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) lauded the bill on Twitter when it passed the Senate last Friday, but noted that “as hundreds of thousands of federal employees get a paycheck for $0 today, they cannot afford to wait. Time to end the shutdown!”

Headphones are a dime a dozen at CES, but Dolby--the company that licenses its audio encoding technology to movie theaters and AV manufacturers--surprised us this year by releasing their own branded product for the first time. On the surface, the new Dolby Dimension wireless headphones look like any other pair of cans, but they contain a few interesting features. First, these communicate with your TV or receiver using low latency Bluetooth, so your audio isn’t out of sync with the video on your TV (a problem with many typical Bluetooth headphones). Second, they include active noise cancelling, so you can silence clatter from the world around you--but with a slider that lets you choose to let outside noise in when necessary (say, if you want to be able to hear your spouse calling you from the other room). Finally, and perhaps most intriguing, it tracks your head movements and pans the audio across both ear cups accordingly. So, if you turn your head to the left, the dialogue will come from the right earcup, still anchored to the characters on screen rather than following your ears around the room. The magnetic charging stand is a nice touch, and I found them very comfortable, which is pretty much a requirement if you expect to use them for two hours or more while watching a movie. Dolby soft-launched these headphones late last year on their own website, but they’re now available to buy from Amazon for $600. - Whitson Gordon

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The host of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator turned himself into police this week after allegedly writing a series of bad checks to a promotional merchandise vendor, the New York Post reports. Chris Hansen, 59, reportedly had a warrant out for his arrest after he allegedly sent two bad checks for a purchase of “355 ceramic mugs, 288 T-shirts and 650 vinyl decals” from a Stamford, Connecticut, vendor in 2017. The first $12,998 check to vendor owner Peter Psichopaidas reportedly bounced, and another check he made out in April bounced again, authorities said. “I am scrambling to get it done. Please give me till the end of the day,” Hansen wrote to Psichopaidas, according to the court documents. “I sold a boat to cover the rest of this and need to pick up the payment this afternoon.” According to the Post, the promised check never came.

When investigators reached out to Hansen asking him to come to the police station and make a statement, he never showed up. After an arrest warrant was issued, he surrendered to authorities and was charged with issuing a bad check. The show, which featured Hansen luring sex predators online and confronting them, was cancelled in 2008. The newspaper reports Hansen launched a 2015 Kickstarter for an online reboot of the show. If convicted, he could reportedly face a $5,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

John Engler is planning to resign as interim president of Michigan State University, the Michigan Free Press reports. Engler, who served three terms as the governor of Michigan, has faced criticism since he first took over the position from Lou Anna Simon—who herself resigned under heavy criticism for her handling of the Larry Nassar sexual-abuse scandal. The latest round of criticism came after Engler told the Detroit News’ editorial board that Nassar victims were “enjoying the spotlight” while the university is “trying to go back to work.” Engler’s decision comes hours after the university’s board scheduled a special meeting for early Thursday morning with the intent of firing the interim president, according to the report. Once the meeting was announced, board member Brian Mosallam, the leading critic of Engler, told the Free Press the time had come for Engler to leave. “John Engler’s reign of terror is over,” Mosallam said. “Michigan State University will be returned to its people.”

Despite President Trump’s fear-mongering rhetoric, the population of undocumented immigrants in the United States fell between 2016 and 2017, according to a new report from the Center for Migration Studies. “While the president has focused the nation’s attention on the border wall, half a million US undocumented residents from Mexico left the undocumented population in 2016 alone,” the report said, noting that the population of undocumented immigrants from Mexico decreased by approximately 400,000 between 2016 and 2017. The total number of undocumented immigrants also decreased.

The report also noted that since 2010, the primary mode of becoming an undocumented immigrant has not been crossing the border illegally—it’s been overstaying legal visas. In 2016, for example, an estimated 320,000 undocumented immigrants overstayed their visas, while only an estimated 190,000 crossed the border illegally. “The disparity between current public discourse and the empirical data presented here obscures the fact that tremendous progress has been made in reducing undocumented immigration since 2000,” the report concludes. “It is time to build on that success by constructing an immigration reform package that upholds the rule of law while embracing the values that have truly made America great.”

Protesters gathered in front of Sony Music’s New York City headquarters on Wednesday to demand that the label drop rapper and producer R. Kelly following the numerous sexual-abuse allegations against him. Additionally, the organizers delivered a petition signed by more than 200,000 people demanding that label RCA Records drop Kelly as a client. Sony Music, through its label RCA Records, represents Kelly. Organizers of the protest also presented RCA with a “Record Label of Shame” award. The Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly has reignited fervor for dropping Kelly and finding justice for his alleged victims. The Mute R. Kelly hashtag has flooded social media, protests have been held outside his concerts, and some celebrities have apologized for working with the artist in the past. Some streaming services and radio stations have also pledged to no longer play Kelly’s music.

Steve Carell and The Office co-creator Greg Daniels are making a new workplace comedy, centered around the people tasked with forming a sixth branch of the armed service, Space Force. The series, which will be streamed by Netflix, is appropriately titled Space Force. Carell, in addition to c0-creating the series, will star and executive produce. Daniels will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Another Office alum, producer Howard Klein, will also serve as executive producer. Space Force will reportedly not interfere with Carell’s other starring role, opposite Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, in Apple’s forthcoming morning-show drama series.

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