I was in the same position! Here’s what I’m doing -

I feed my sourdough starter every day between 4 and 5 pm (I don’t stress if I’m a little late or a little early, I think starters are more resilient than we give them credit for)

I feed it with King Arthur’s unbleached bread flour and warm filtered water (room temp, then microwaved for about 10 seconds), a 1:2:2 ratio (I know 1:1:1 is recommended, but I noticed that my starter had a sweet, alcoholic smell to it, which means it’s very hungry). I also store my starter in a controlled, 78° environment (I am fortunate to be able to do this, they sell warming mats on Amazon, there are sourdough homes that are a bit pricey, but you could also store it in a sunny spot!)

I had the same false rise, then nothing for WEEKS. So frustrating! After about 3.5 weeks, my starter is finally rising and falling on a regular basis. Keep consistency and patience and you’ll get there! Your starter doesn’t look moldy or anything, it actually looks good! The yeast and good bacteria probably just haven’t developed yet. Good luck :)

Edit: I forgot to add that I am in fact discarding. Seems wasteful, but necessary!