President Donald Trump on Thursday renewed doubts over his commitment to the NATO alliance, saying countries that are not spending adequately on their militaries do not deserve defense.”If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.Trump has frequently questioned whether the United States — by far the biggest military in the transatlantic alliance and ultimate guarantor of Europe’s security since World War II — should continue its central role in NATO.The Republican, who began his second term in January, doubled down on his criticism that some NATO members do not spend enough on their defense budgets and overly rely on the United States.”They should be paying more,” he said.Trump was responding to reporters after NBC News reported earlier Thursday that he is considering a plan to calibrate US military support in a way that favors member countries which spend a higher proportion of more of their GDP on defense.The president has previously called for allies to lift annual defense spending to five percent of GDP from the current two-percent target, which NATO expected only 23 of 32 members to meet last year.Countries deemed to be underspending might not be defended if attacked, according to the reported plan.The move would weaken NATO’s core Article 5 which stipulates that any member attacked will be defended by all the others.Trump also questioned whether allies, including France, would defend the United States.”If the United States was in trouble and we called them. We said, ‘We got a problem, France. We got a problem. A couple of others, I won’t mention. Do you think they’re gonna come and protect us? Hmm. They’re supposed to. I’m not so sure,” Trump said.French President Emmanuel Macron, however, said France was a “loyal and steadfast ally.””We have always been there for each other,” Macron told reporters in Brussels after a meeting of EU leaders, where they agreed to strengthen Europe’s defense.Macron said France had shown “respect and friendship” to the United States, and “we are entitled to ask for the same thing.”burs-sms/dc/raz/ub/des

Second time unlucky: A US company’s lunar lander appears to have touched down at a wonky angle on Thursday, an embarrassing repeat of its previous mission’s less-than-perfect landing last year.Houston-based Intuitive Machines made history in February 2024 as the first private firm to place a spaceship on Earth’s nearest neighbor, though the moment was marred by Odysseus toppling over upon touchdown.For its second attempt, the company sent the hexagonal Athena lander to the Mons Mouton plateau, closer to the lunar south pole than any mission before it.The team targeted a 12:32 pm ET (1732 GMT) touchdown, but as time passed with confirmation, mission control grew visibly tense.Twenty minutes after the scheduled landing, company spokesman Josh Marshall announced on a webcast: “Athena is on the surface of the Moon.” However, teams were still analyzing data to determine the lander’s exact status, he said.Later, CEO Steve Altemus acknowledged to reporters: “We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude,” an aeronautical term for orientation. He added that the lander’s position could limit power generation and communication, impacting the mission’s success.Intuitive Machines’ share price tumbled 20 percent in afternoon trading. The company suggested that, as in its previous mission, issues with Athena’s laser altimeters, which provide altitude and velocity readings, may have played a role in the suboptimal landing.Athena, like its predecessor Odysseus, has a tall, slender build. At 15.6 feet (4.8 meters) — the height of a giraffe — it had raised stability concerns. However, Altemus emphasized that the lander’s weight distribution kept the center of gravity low, and Intuitive Machines remains confident in its design.Expectations were high after Texas rival Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on the Moon on Sunday on its first attempt.- Cutting-edge technologies at stake -Both missions are part of NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which seeks to leverage private industry to reduce costs and support Artemis, NASA’s effort to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually to reach Mars.Athena carries an ice-drilling experiment, a 4G cellular network test, three rovers, and a unique hopping drone named Grace, designed to descend into a permanently shadowed crater—where sunlight has never reached—a first for humanity.However, whether any of these objectives can be met depends on Athena’s final resting angle, which is yet to be determined.”Any time humanity puts a lander on the moon, it’s a good day,” said Tim Crain, the Intuitive Machines chief technology officer, striking a positive tone.The team hopes to use imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine Athena’s exact location and orientation, though this could take a day or two, Crain added.Despite the non-optimal orientation, NASA’s Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the science mission directorate, said the agency remains “excited” and will prioritize gathering as much scientific and technology data as possible before the mission ends.  – Sticking the landing -Lunar landings are notoriously difficult. The Moon’s lack of atmosphere rules out parachutes, forcing spacecraft to rely on precise thrusts and navigation over hazardous terrain.Until Intuitive Machines’ first mission, only national space agencies had achieved the feat, with NASA’s last landing dating back to Apollo 17 in 1972.The company’s first lander, Odysseus, came in too fast, caught a foot on the surface and toppled over, cutting the mission short when its solar panels could not generate enough power.Athena launched last Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which also carried NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer probe, a spacecraft designed to map the Moon’s water distribution.However, ground controllers have been struggling to re-establish contact with Trailblazer, adding to NASA’s challenges.These missions come at a delicate time for NASA, amid speculation that the agency may scale back or even cancel the crewed Moon missions in favor of prioritizing Mars, a goal championed by President Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor and SpaceX owner Elon Musk.

Wall Street stocks resumed their downward slide on Thursday amid uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s shifting trade policy, while European bourses advanced following an ECB interest rate cut.Major US indices spent the entire day in the red, shrugging off Trump’s moves to soften tariff actions.Trump on Thursday unveiled a temporary rollback to steep tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, broadening a step announced Wednesday that gave relief to the auto sector. Stocks had rallied after the auto reprieve, but this time all three major indices dropped one percent or more.Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management said the uncertainty around trade policy is “affecting the real economy,” dragging down consumer sentiment and business investment.”The longer that goes on, the more the economy slows,” he said.In Europe, Frankfurt’s DAX index hit a new record as plans for a massive German defense and infrastructure investment program stoked optimism for pulling the eurozone’s largest economy out of recession.France and other eurozone markets ended the day higher as the European Central Bank followed through with an expected quarter-point cut in interest rates.But ECB President Christine Lagarde said that rising trade tensions could knock eurozone economic growth.”We have risks all over and uncertainty all over,” Lagarde added.The ECB cut its growth forecasts for this year and the next while raising its 2025 inflation estimate.Meanwhile, bond yields continued to climb, and the rise extended to Asia, with Japanese 10-year yields hitting 1.5 percent for the first time in more than a decade.The increase signals expectations of higher inflation and that governments, companies and consumers will need to pay more to borrow.- Asia rises -Wednesday’s announcement of the tariff delay buoyed Asian stock markets, in particular lifting the auto sector.The move “helped reinforce hopes there may be some flexibility in the new administration’s trade policy,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.Chinese stocks responded well to Beijing announcing its 2025 growth target of around five percent, at the start of its annual meeting of the National People’s Congress on Wednesday.The meeting has heightened investors’ expectations that a huge fiscal stimulus package could be coming. China has vowed to make domestic demand its main economic driver despite facing persistent economic headwinds, and as an escalating trade war with the US hit exports.- Key figures around 2150 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 1.0 percent at 42,579.08 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.8 percent at 5,738.52 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 2.6 percent at 18,069.26 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 8,682.84 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 8,197.67 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.5 percent at 23,419.48 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.8 percent at 37,704.93 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 3.3 percent at 24,369.71 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.2 percent at 3,381.10 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at 1.0787 from 1.0789 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2882 from $1.2895Dollar/yen: DOWN 147.97 from 148.88 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.72 pence from 83.67 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at 69.46 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: FLAT at $66.31 per barrelburs-jmb/des