AFP USA

Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday accused each other of not respecting a halt on energy infrastructure strikes, after talks between Washington and the Kremlin aimed at ending the grinding three-year conflict.US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a 90-minute call on Tuesday, in which the Kremlin leader backed a limited 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s power grid.President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Kyiv supported the moratorium but on Wednesday Ukraine’s defence ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missile and drones struck the war-battered nation.”Today Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” said Zelensky.One person was killed and two hospitals were damaged, the defence ministry reported.Ukraine’s national railway service said the barrage hit railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.”So much for a pause in the attacks on the energy sector or an energy truce executed by the enemy!” a railway statement added.  Russia’s defence ministry reported a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack overnight on an oil depot in the south of the country which was aimed at “derailing” Trump’s attempts to broker an end to the fighting.”These attacks are countering our common efforts,” added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the US-Russian talks.Zelensky is due to speak to Trump on Wednesday to learn more about the US leader’s conversation with Putin and “next steps” in ceasefire talks.But he warned beforehand against making “any concessions” to Russia after Putin in his call to Trump demanded an end to Western military aid to Ukraine during any ceasefire.Putin told Trump that for a full ceasefire to work, Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm and must halt mandatory mobilisation.Kyiv said that would leave the nation vulnerable to further Russian attacks and wants the United States to oversee a ceasefire against energy infrastructure.- ‘Ready to end war’ -Tuesday’s highly anticipated call did not secure the breakthrough ceasefire endorsed by Ukraine last week but according to the Kremlin saw Putin order his military to pause strikes against Ukraine’s power grid for 30 days.Russia and Ukraine exchanged 372 prisoners, Moscow said Wednesday, which was planned “as a goodwill gesture”.Trump’s overtures to Putin have spooked the United States’s NATO allies and indications Washington will no longer guarantee European security have prompted calls for a steep increase in domestic defence spending.Zelensky has accused Russia of not being “ready to end this war” and in Kyiv, war-weary Ukrainians were prone to agree.”I don’t believe Putin at all, not a single word. He only understands force,” said Lev Sholoudko, 32.Trump, who says he has an “understanding” with Putin, stunned the world in February when he started direct talks with Russia to end the conflict, sparking fears among allies that he would capitulate to Moscow’s demands. Trump hailed the call with Putin as “good and productive”.The Kremlin statement after the talks referred to “energy infrastructure” whereas Trump’s interpretation is the broader “energy and infrastructure” which would include all civil infrastructure and not just energy-specific sites like power stations, transformers, and oil installations.- ‘Count on us’ -Trump acknowledged in an interview on Fox News that pressing Putin into a full ceasefire would be tough as “Russia has the advantage”.Since seizing Crimea in 2014 and launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Moscow now occupies around a fifth of Ukraine.Washington has made clear that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory in any deal.The UK and French governments have been cobbling together a so-called “coalition of the willing” to protect any ceasefire in Ukraine.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron vowed after the Kremlin statement that they would keep sending military aid to Ukraine.”Ukraine can count on us,” Scholz said.But soldiers on Ukraine’s front line remained doubtful peace could soon be at hand.”How can you trust people who attack you and kill civilians, including children?” said Oleksandr, 35, who has returned to military training in the Donetsk region after being wounded in combat.burs-phz/jm

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said a recent spate of attacks on Tesla property, owned by key President Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk, was akin to terrorism and vowed to impose severe punishments on perpetrators.”The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism,” Bondi said in a statement Tuesday. She said the Department of Justice has already charged “several perpetrators with that in mind,” including some cases that involve charges with five-year mandatory minimum sentences.”We will continue investigations that impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes,” she said.Billionaire Musk is one of Trump’s closest advisers, as well as top financial donor, and is spearheading highly controversial attempts to slash entire US government departments as part of what he says is a cost-and-fraud-cutting drive.Tesla share prices have plunged as the brand’s image suffers from the fallout.Bondi’s statement came after the latest incident in which a fire was started at a Tesla Collision Center in Las Vegas, damaging five vehicles, according to city police. “As officers arrived, they located several vehicles fully engulfed in flames and the word ‘Resist’ spray painted on the building,” the police said in a statement Monday.Musk also shared a video of the Las Vegas torching on his social media platform X, calling it “domestic terrorism.” “Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks,” he said.Compounding the company’s public relations woes, the Vancouver International Auto Show announced it was removing Tesla from the event on the eve of its Wednesday kickoff, citing security concerns.Politics “has absolutely no bearing on the decision,” the show’s executive director Eric Nicholl said late Tuesday. “This is purely from a safety point for our guests and our attendees.”In an interview at the White House late Tuesday, Musk told Fox News he was “shocked” at the attacks on Tesla vehicles and the “hatred and violence from the left.””Tesla is a peaceful company, we’ve never done anything harmful,” he said.Several Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations across the United States and Europe have been vandalized in recent weeks. A Tesla charging station in the US state of Massachusetts was “intentionally set” on fire in early March, authorities said, while in Colorado police said last month they arrested a woman for vandalizing a dealership “with incendiary devices.”Trump expressed support for Musk last week, saying the perpetrators would be caught and will “go through hell.” Analysts also say Musk’s political endeavors — including backing far-right parties in Europe and sharing conspiracy theories online — could badly damage Tesla’s traditionally liberal market base.

The only two Democrats on the US Federal Trade Commission have been fired by President Donald Trump, the White House said, opening the door for the Republican to appoint loyalists at the independent regulatory agency.The FTC’s primary function is to protect the American public against deceptive or unfair business practices.Speaking on condition of anonymity, a White House official confirmed that FTC commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter were dismissed.The FTC consists of five commissioners, typically representing both major political parties.”The president just illegally fired me,” Bedoya wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “This is corruption plain and simple.”Bedoya vowed to “see the president in court” over the dismissal.Layoffs of federal workers have been rampant since Trump took office in January and established a “Department of Government Efficiency” headed by billionaire Elon Musk, a senior advisor and key financial backer of the Republican’s 2024 campaign.”The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to fight fraudsters and monopolists,” Bedoya said in a post. “Now, the president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies.”Newly appointed FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson thanked the two commissioners for their service in a statement Tuesday, adding that his agency “will continue its tireless work to protect consumers, lower prices, and police anticompetitive behavior.”He added that Trump is “vested with all of the executive power of our government.””I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government,” Ferguson said.But the removal of commissioners of the opposing party in order to pack the FTC with loyalists is outside the norm.The FTC itself says on its website that while the president chooses the chair, “no more than three Commissioners can be of the same political party.”- Trump’s preferences -Under Trump and former president Joe Biden, the FTC has taken on Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook parent Meta over how they wield market power.In an interview with Fox Business in February, Ferguson confirmed that ongoing cases against Amazon and Meta would proceed, emphasizing his commitment to “holding Big Tech’s feet to the fire.”Questions have lingered, however, on whether the Trump administration will continue with the cases, given an apparent alignment between tech billionaires and the Republican since he won last year’s election.Since that victory, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made major changes at his company to bring it in line with Trump’s preferences.He has axed US fact-checking on Facebook, named Trump ally Dana White to Meta’s board, and appointed a Republican advisor as head of global policy.Amazon boss Jeff Bezos visited Trump during the transition period, and has sought to make his Washington Post newspaper less hostile to the president. The billionaire quashed the Post’s planned election endorsement of Democrat Kamala Harris, and has imposed restrictions on its opinion section.

Since avian flu turned eggs into a luxury item, pastry chef Annie Clemmons has spent countless hours in her Maryland workshop, racking her brains about how to replace them in her recipes.”It won’t taste like chickpeas!” she told AFP as she poured aquafaba — the watery byproduct of the cooked pulses — into the bowl of her electric mixer.A customer had recently ordered a meringue-based red fruit pavlova, and requested that it be delivered the same day.Instead of beating egg whites until they are stiff, as in the traditional recipe, Clemmons uses an alternative well known to vegan and egg-intolerant cooks.”It takes a bit longer,” she said, adding: “you won’t see the difference in color or taste.” And for the custard, she uses cornstarch as a thickener. “It won’t be as creamy,” she said, adding a spoonful of cardamom to enhance the flavor.- ‘Like gold’ -The increasing number of outbreaks of avian flu on US farms has made eggs an expensive — and rare — commodity. And so Clemmons has been looking for ways to replace this “foundational ingredient.” “They’re like gold,” she said, showing off the 20 eggs she still has in stock. “Never in a million years did I think it would be a luxury item.”She estimates that an egg that used to cost eight cents now costs 45 cents — more than five times the price.The 51-year-old set up Chapman’s DC — a pastry home-delivery business — in 2020, after her hotel and restaurant-sector work dried up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”I have to think really hard about when I’m going to use those eggs,” said Clemmons, whose business delivers to homes in the Washington metro area. “I don’t know next time I’ll be able to use eggs with abandon.””I’m grateful again that I have substitutes and other tools to use, but I really, really wish we could get the egg back soon,” she added. – No end point -The White House this week touted a sharp drop in wholesale prices for standard eggs “for three straight weeks.”According to the United States Department of Agriculture, this is the result of both sluggish demand in the face of high prices and a respite of avian flu, which has so far led to the euthanasia of more than 30 million laying hens.”However, these declines have yet to be reflected at store shelves,” the agency said in a recent statement. According to consumer price index data, egg prices increased by over 12 percent in February, and by close to 59 percent from a year before. Clemmons noted that President Donald Trump promised that the price of groceries would start to fall on the day after he took office.”I can’t see the end point,” she said. The single mother said she prides herself on her customers’ support when they are faced with adjusted recipes or price increases.But, she added, the new administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers has undoubtedly hampered demand for her cakes.  “I live in the Washington DC area and a huge portion of my community has suffered a disruption, this upheaval of losing their income, their jobs, their livelihood,” she said. “People are being a little more cautious with their spending,” she added. “So I don’t get as many orders.” Beyond eggs, Clemmons said she is also concerned about a potential knock-on effect from Trump’s tariff policies on another essential ingredient: sugar.If sugar prices were to rise sharply, Clemmons expects she would then reach her limit, and could be forced to start looking for a new job.

Donald Trump’s rumbling conflict with the judiciary burst into open confrontation on Tuesday as Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke of a US president over his call for the impeachment of a federal judge.”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a brief statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”Roberts’s extraordinary rebuke of the president came after Trump called for the impeachment of District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the suspension over the weekend of deportation flights of alleged illegal migrants.The White House has been sharply critical of district courts that have blocked some of the president’s executive actions.However, this was the first time Trump has personally called for a judge’s impeachment since he took office in January, saying that Boasberg was a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.” “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” he said in a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday.Hours later, Brandon Gill, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, announced on social media platform X that he had introduced articles of impeachment in the House against Boasberg, whom he described as a “radical activist judge.”Following Roberts’s rare statement, Trump said in another post: “If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!”Federal judges are nominated by the president for life and can only be removed by being impeached by the House of Representatives for “high crimes or misdemeanors” and convicted by the Senate.Impeachment of federal judges is exceedingly rare and the last time a judge was removed by Congress was in 2010.Trump, the first convicted felon to serve in the White House, has a history of attacking the judges who presided over his civil and criminal cases.Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, described Roberts’s intervention as “extremely rare” and recalled that the chief justice made similar remarks after Trump criticized the rulings of federal judges during his first term.Roberts was compelled to respond at the time by saying the federal bench “does not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges, or Clinton judges,” Tobias said.- Court hearing -Boasberg ordered a suspension on Saturday to the deportation flights taking alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador, where they were put in prison.The White House invoked little-used wartime legislation known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as legal justification for the move.However, no evidence has been made public to confirm the deportees were gang members or even in the country illegally.Boasberg held a hearing on Monday on whether the White House had deliberately ignored his orders by carrying out the flights.Justice Department lawyers told the judge the more than 200 Venezuelan migrants had already left the United States when he issued a written order barring their departure.Boasberg no longer had jurisdiction once the planes had left US airspace, they claimed.The Justice Department had previously filed a motion with an appeals court seeking to have the judge removed from the case for allegedly interfering with the president’s lawful “conduct of foreign policy.”- ‘I WON’ -Trump, in his Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, said Boasberg “was not elected President.””I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” he wrote.The Yale-educated Boasberg, 62, was appointed to the DC Superior Court by president George W. Bush, a Republican, and later named a district court judge by Obama, a Democrat.The White House has repeatedly lashed out following court rulings it disagrees with, such as the rejection of Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship.Trump’s bid to amass power in the executive has increasingly raised fears he will openly defy the judiciary, triggering a constitutional crisis.

New York’s JFK airport is an overlapping patchwork of open terminals, giant building sites and burgeoning infrastructure, wedged in by thousands of homes on one side and the ocean on the other.Passengers and project executives alike describe the $19 billion mega-project to completely overhaul the United States’ largest global aviation gateway as “organized chaos” — even as the airport remains open and passenger numbers grow.”For me, it’s the most complex project I’ve ever worked on,” said Gina Bigler, a senior engineer of construction at the JFK Redevelopment Program to entirely remodel the airport that handles more international passengers than any other in North America.Around her, temporary bridges redirected roads to make space for new permanent crossings and flyovers, while giant excavators shifted sandy earth near two brand new terminals in varying stages of completion.”There’s multiple different contractors and the fact is the passenger volume is way higher than other projects,” said Bigler, wearing a hardhat and high-vis jacket as she watched the delivery of plastic piping to the site of a new parking garage.”We have the constant push and pull of who’s going to go first. There’s tons of conversations.”A complex web of contractors, terminal tenants, investment consortiums and airlines all coordinate with the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey (PANYNJ) which oversees every aspect of the project, from what art will be displayed in terminals to the tiles selected for the bathrooms.- Political headwinds -Despite the Coronavirus disruption and the project’s scale and complexity, currently the largest of its type in the US, the redevelopment remains on budget and on schedule.Collaboration between the airport owner and private businesses guaranteed “oversight from a public oversight perspective,” said JFK Millennium Partners CEO Steve Thody, responsible for the airport’s new Terminal Six.”But it allows you to bring private money into the deal, which allows you to advance infrastructure probably at a faster pace than you could do otherwise.”PANYNJ executive director Rick Cotton said that approach — with no taxpayer money involved — meant the airport redevelopment was insulated from political headwinds as it did not depend on federal funding.The way Cotton’s agency was structured meant it could “prioritize the transportation priorities of the region — and it was precisely intended to have political considerations take a back seat.”Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from states and cities that do not bend to his will, like Illinois over immigration sanctuary policies.At the airport, the new Terminal Six is long but narrow, wedged in to the limited space available between runways and a people-mover track.The largest piece of the puzzle is the entirely new Terminal One. Measuring 2.5 million square feet (232,000 square meters), the cavernous $9.5 billion megastructure is shaped like a butterfly taking flight and used as much steel as five Eiffel Towers.Financing came from an unprecedented public-private tie-up that reportedly included a $6.5 billion bank loan.- Environmental concerns -Ultimately, the goal is to create airy new terminal space and eradicate the massive traffic jams currently plaguing approaches to the airport.Recognizing the proximity to dense neighborhoods and businesses, the airport has worked to reduce dust, noise and traffic at the sprawling construction project.But campaigners are critical of green initiatives around inherently polluting sites like airports, with aviation accounting for two to three percent of total current global human-induced carbon emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Cotton, of the PANYNJ, acknowledged that “obviously, the transportation sector generates a lot of greenhouse gasses.”But he said redeveloped JFK would offer airlines more sustainable fuel, as well as electrifying airside vehicles and installing New York’s largest solar array.It has also made use of giant barges to ship in construction material and steel for the terminals and new bridges, taking some 300,000 truckloads off the congested local roads according to project leaders.

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.