The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to extend its rate cut pause on Wednesday as it seeks to chart a path through the economic turbulence unleashed by President Donald Trump’s on-again, off- again approach to tariffs. Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has ramped up levies on top trading partners including Canada, China, and Mexico — only to roll some of them back — and threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on other countries, spooking US financial markets, which have slumped in recent weeks.Many analysts fear Trump’s tariffs, civil service job cuts, and immigration plans could push up inflation and hamper economic growth, and complicate the Fed’s plans to bring inflation down to its long-term target of two percent while maintaining a healthy labor market.As inflation remains too high, Fed policymakers are likely to hold rates steady at between 4.25 and 4.50 percent, and to signal they will wait for more clarity on the economic impact of the new administration’s policies before contemplating a cut. “There’ll be no change in the interest rate, and there’s a good reason for that,” former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren told AFP. “It’s quite unclear how high the tariffs will get, how widespread they will be, and how long they will last,” he said. “And it’s very hard to estimate what the impact on inflation or unemployment is going to be until they get a little more visibility into that.”Policymakers on the Fed’s rate-setting committee will also publish updated economic forecasts on Wednesday, with many analysts anticipating trade uncertainty could cause them to increase their inflation outlook slightly, and to downgrade their predictions for economic growth. – Slowing economy – Until recently, the hard economic data had pointed to a fairly robust American economy, with the Fed’s favored inflation measure showing a 2.5 percent rise in the year to January — above target but down sharply from a four-decade high in 2022.  Economic growth was relatively robust through the end of 2024, while the labor market has remained fairly strong, with healthy levels of job creation, and an unemployment rate hovering close to historic lows. But the mood has shifted in the weeks since Trump returned to the White House, with inflation expectations rising, and financial markets tumbling, since the stop-start rollout of tariffs. “We do not need to be in a hurry, and we are well positioned to wait for greater clarity,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at an event this month, alluding to the uncertainty about the effect of Trump’s economic plans. – ‘Disaster’ -While Fed officials have sought to avoid criticizing the new administration, some analysts have been less restrained. “US President Donald Trump’s management of economic policy has been a disaster,” Michael Strain, the director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a recent blog post. “Previously, it would have been unfathomable for a president –- including Trump during his first term –- to inflict so much harm on the economy deliberately,” he said. In its December economic outlook, Fed policymakers penciled in two quarter-point rate cuts for this year. Amid the trade uncertainty, economists at Barclays wrote in a recent note that they expect policymakers to dial that back to just one cut this year.”Fed officials want to be careful not to overreact,” Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic told AFP, adding she expects the Fed to pencil in two cuts this year in its forecasts, but to ultimately make just one. “There’s so much uncertainty,” she said, adding that she hoped to have more clarity on the US economy after the planned rollout of Trump’s retaliatory tariffs on April 2. 

Home at last: After an unexpected nine-month stay in space, a pair of NASA astronauts finally returned to Earth on Tuesday, concluding a mission that captured global attention and became a political flashpoint.A SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — alongside fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a gentle splashdown off the Florida coast at 5:57 pm (2157 GMT).Ground teams erupted in cheers as the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft named Freedom, charred from withstanding scorching temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) during re-entry, bobbed steadily on the waves beneath a clear, sunny sky.”What a ride — I see a capsule full of grins,” said Hague.As fast boats raced to the capsule for initial safety checks — an unlikely escort arrived in the form of a playful pod of dolphins. Soon after, a larger recovery vessel hoisted Freedom aboard. Teams opened the hatch, and one by one, the astronauts were helped out onto mobility aids, waving and flashing thumbs-up signs.Next, they will be flown by helicopter to Houston, where they will be able to meet their families in another day or two, and begin a physical rehabilitation program.”PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT,” the White House posted on X, repeating a contentious claim that President Donald Trump’s administration had accelerated the recovery timeline.- ‘Unbelievable resilience’ -The quartet left the International Space Station early Sunday, beginning their 17-hour journey home after final farewells and hugs with the remaining crew.Wilmore and Williams, both ex-Navy pilots and veterans of two prior space missions, flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.However, propulsion issues rendered the spacecraft unfit for their return, forcing it to return empty.They were subsequently reassigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a reduced crew of two — rather than the usual four — to accommodate the pair, who had become widely referred to as the “stranded” astronauts.With Crew-10 docking Sunday, Crew-9 was finally cleared to depart. Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the typical six-month ISS rotation but ranks sixth among US records. Frank Rubio holds the longest single-mission U.S. stay at 371 days, while Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov retains the world record at 437 days.Despite the challenges of prolonged spaceflight — including muscle and bone loss, vision issues, and balance readjustment — experts say their nine-month stay is manageable in terms of health risks. However, the unexpected nature of their extended mission, initially without sufficient supplies, sparked public sympathy.”If you found out you went to work today and were going to be stuck in your office for the next nine months, you might have a panic attack,” Joseph Keebler, a psychologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.”These individuals have shown unbelievable resilience.”- Political flashpoint -It also became a political lightning rod, with President Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk — who leads SpaceX — repeatedly suggesting former president Joe Biden abandoned the astronauts and refused an earlier rescue plan.Such accusations have prompted an outcry in the space community, especially as Musk offered no specifics, and the fundamental NASA’s plan for the astronauts’ return has remained unchanged since their Crew-9 reassignment.Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, confirmed during a post-mission press conference that there had been no discussions about deploying a relief crew sooner — and that the most recent scheduling delays were due to SpaceX’s own scheduling adjustments.Trump has also drawn attention for his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, who holds the US record for the second-longest cumulative time in space, as “the woman with the wild hair” and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.”They’ve been left up there — I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know,” he said during a recent White House press conference.

A private US lander has captured eerie high-definition images of a lunar sunset, which NASA hopes will help unravel the mystery of a strange haze first observed on the Moon in the 1960s.Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which published the pictures on Tuesday, became the first private company to land a robotic spacecraft upright on the Moon earlier this month. Its Blue Ghost lander — roughly the size of two rhinos side by side — touched down on March 2 at Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature within Mare Crisium on the Moon’s northeastern near side, and operated until March 16 when it powered down with the onset of the lunar night.One of the new images shows the Sun glowing just above the horizon, its halo tinged with green. Above it, a small dot marks Venus, while Earth’s bright reflection appears almost as large as the Sun at the top of the frame. Another view reveals the setting Sun bathed in a green glow, as seen from a west-facing camera.”We are taking time to have scientific specialists go over all the imagery,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “One of the things they will be looking for is to see if they can identify ‘horizon glow’ or a mechanism called ‘dust lofting.'”Scientists believe lunar dust particles may become electrically charged due to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, causing them to levitate above the surface. The phenomenon was first spotted by NASA’s Surveyor probes in the 1960s and later observed by Apollo astronauts.Kearns noted that scientists will compare the images with complementary readings from Blue Ghost’s instruments, including electromagnetic field and radiation sensors, to refine existing theories.”The images themselves are beautiful, they’re really aesthetic,” he said.The west-facing image, in particular, shows soil in front of the lander illuminated by light reflected from mountains behind it. The picture’s level of detail could help scientists refine models of how light scatters on the lunar surface.Earlier in the mission, Blue Ghost also captured high-definition imagery of a total solar eclipse from the Moon on March 14.The mission was part of a NASA-industry collaboration aimed at cutting costs and supporting Artemis, the program to return astronauts to the Moon and use lessons learned there to go to Mars.Firefly Aerospace’s spaceflight program director, Ray Allensworth, said the company is already applying lessons to future flights, including Blue Ghost-2 and Blue Ghost-3.”The lander is absolutely not designed to survive the extreme cold of lunar night, so I think the probability is very low that we will power back on — but this lander has surprised me,” she added.

The US National Archives on Tuesday released the final batch of files related to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy — a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.The move follows an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January directing the unredacted release of the remaining files related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother, former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.”In accordance with President Donald Trump’s directive… all records previously withheld for classification that are part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection are released,” the Archives said in a statement on its website Tuesday evening.The National Archives has released millions of pages of records over the past decades relating to the assassination of then-president Kennedy in November 1963, but thousands of documents had been held back at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing national security concerns.The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.Kennedy scholars have said the documents that were still held by the archives were unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.Oswald was shot by a strip club owner, Jack Ruby, on November 24, 1963 — two days after the Kennedy assassination — while being moved to a county jail.Many of the records already released were raw intelligence, including scores of reports from FBI agents following up leads that led nowhere.Much of what they contain was also previously known, such as that the communist-obsessed CIA cooked up several outlandish plots to murder Cuba’s Fidel Castro.Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 but returned to the United States in 1962.Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK” have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals the Soviet Union or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon Johnson.The release of the documents follows an October 26, 1992 act of Congress which required that the unredacted assassination records held in the National Archives be released in full 25 years later.