AFP USA

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket on Thursday with NASA twin spacecraft destined for Mars aboard, and in a breakthrough stuck the landing of its booster.The launch was stalled for days over weather both on Earth and in space, but it was worth the wait: in the rocket’s second-ever flight, Blue Origin managed to recover the booster for reuse.Ecstatic cheers rang out at the launch site in Florida’s Cape Canaveral as the booster gracefully nailed its landing on a floating platform. Prior to Thursday, only Elon Musk’s SpaceX had managed to accomplish such a maneuver with an orbital-class rocket.Blue Origin’s accomplishment comes amid intensified rivalry between the two billionaire-owned private space companies, as the US space agency NASA recently opened up bids for its planned Moon mission.”Damn that was exciting!” said Jared Isaacman — a Musk ally who President Donald Trump recently nominated again to head NASA — on X, congratulating Blue Origin.A handful of figures at SpaceX also had praise for their rivals, with their VP of Launch, Kiko Dontchev, saying the feat “moves the country and industry forward.”The launch was repeatedly delayed: on Sunday over weather on Earth, and on Wednesday over weather in space.The second postponement was over “highly elevated solar activity” that NASA was worried could impact or damage its spacecraft.And multiple glitches meant delays yet again on Thursday — hold-ups Blue Origin did not explain. But at 3:55 pm (2055 GMT), New Glenn finally blasted off.The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket now has the task of sending NASA’s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft to Mars, in a bid to study the Red Planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.Applause resounded once more as the spacecraft successfully deployed.Joseph Westlake, a NASA heliophysicist, explained during Thursday’s webcast how the twin spacecraft named “Blue” and “Gold” will first finding a “benign, safe parking orbit” to make “measurements about the space weather here on Earth.”Then, once the planets have reached the ideal alignment in the fall of 2026, the spacecraft will get a boost from Earth’s gravity and begin the journey to Mars, where they will arrive in 2027.This type of launch could allow for more frequent missions in the future, because they could proceed outside the window of direct alignment of Earth and Mars that happens approximately once every two years.- ‘Launch, land, repeat’ -New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January also was marked a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, was lost during descent.Thursday’s achievement signals that Blue Origin is on its way to reducing costs by reusing boosters rather than allowing them to plummet into the ocean.”Launch, land, repeat — it starts today,” said Eddie Seyffert, among Blue Origin’s webcast commentators.And it comes as US President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with China.George Nield — a senior aerospace executive whose work promotes the commercial space industry, and who has flown with Blue Origin in the past — told AFP this launch would be an “indicator” of the company’s progress.It could show “whether they can play increased roles in near-term lunar exploration,” he said.

Colombia’s leftist president backtracked on a threat to cut decades-old intelligence ties with the United States Thursday, a move the country’s ex-spy chiefs had dubbed “unthinkable” and “absurd.” Gustavo Petro caused shock in Bogota and Washington by abruptly ordering his government to suspend communications and “dealings with US security agencies” at all levels Tuesday.His announcement deepened a bitter personal row with President Donald Trump over US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Several former US and Colombian security officials expressed shock and anger at Petro’s announcement, warning it could lead to instability at home and more cocaine being exported overseas. But on Thursday, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti — a close aide of Petro’s — said intelligence sharing would continue. He claimed there had been a “misinterpretation” of Petro’s comments.Petro then told new police officers that intelligence would be shared with the United States as long as “they commit to not using it in violation of human rights treaties.”Colombia’s security services said they were blindsided by Petro’s initial order, which was issued in the evening on social media. Petro is well known for his late-night social media posts containing typos, factual errors or announcing initiatives that never materialize. – ‘Makes no sense’ -“You know how the president is — he sends a message on X, but it’s not that easy,” one lieutenant currently serving in the armed forces told AFP. The move elicited fierce reactions from Colombian ex-military and intelligence bosses.The decision was “absurd” and “makes no sense,” according to one former head of police, who spoke on condition of anonymity.He expressed fury that Petro’s decision could aid drug trafficking groups and cause the amount of cocaine exported from Colombia to “overflow.” “How much mourning? How many widows? How many orphans? How much pain do we carry  — personally, institutionally, and patriotically — because of drug trafficking?” Forged from a decades-long war against insurgents and cartels, Colombia’s military and intelligence services are seen as highly capable. They also have close ties with US agencies, from whom they have received hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. One former US intelligence official said information gleaned by Colombian officers was often vital in supporting American eavesdropping and satellite intelligence.Petro’s announcement followed a months-long personal spat between him and Trump, who, without providing evidence, accused Petro of being involved in drug trafficking.The United States has since hit the Colombian leader and his family with financial sanctions. Petro, for his part, has gone out of his way to criticize Trump’s bombings in the Caribbean and Pacific that have sunk 20 boats and killed at least 76 people. The Trump administration is close to the right-wing opposition in Colombia, which has high hopes of winning legislative and presidential elections next year. 

US President Donald Trump plans to take his economic message on the road, a White House official said Thursday, a week after voters hammered his Republican party in elections where affordability emerged as a key issue.The senior official told AFP that Trump’s domestic travel “will continue to ramp up”, following a CNN report that the administration was weighing up more travel and speeches to seek to boost his standing on the subject.The billionaire president has faced pressure from the right wing of his party, including firebrand ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, to spend more time on the “home front” instead of foreign trips and peace negotiations.”Cleaning up Joe Biden’s inflation and economic disaster has been a top focus for President Trump since Day One,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.Desai added that Trump was “implementing a robust economic agenda” to lower prices on essentials like gas and eggs, and pointed to an announcement last week of a deal to lower the prices of some weight-loss drugs.Trump, 79, has bristled at suggestions that he is vulnerable on the issue of affordability, after Democrats won elections in New Jersey and Virginia and Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York.”The country has never been in better shape,” he said as he signed a bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history on Wednesday.But in recent days he has appeared to lean into the issue, unveiling a series of plans including a possible $2,000 dividend for Americans funded by his sweeping tariffs on other countries.Inflation has been a recurring problem for US presidents since the Covid pandemic, with Biden also having hit the road in a failed bid to persuade Americans that his economic fixes were working.

More than 3,000 striking Boeing defense workers on Thursday voted to end a strike over wage increases and retirement benefits, one of the longest work stoppages in the company’s history.”We’re proud of what our members have fought for together and are ready to get back to building the world’s most advanced military aircraft,” District 837 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a statement.Striking workers in the midwestern states of Missouri and Illinois had walked off the job on August 4.”We’re pleased with the results and look forward to bringing our full team back together on Nov. 17 to support our customers,” Boeing said in a statement.After rejecting four previous offers, workers accepted a wage increase and a $6,000 upfront payment.The average annual base salary will increase from $75,000 to $109,000 at the end of the five-year collective bargaining agreement.The Boeing machinists work on F-15 and F-18 combat aircraft, the T-7 Red Hawk Advanced Pilot Training System and MQ-25 unmanned aircraft in factories in Missouri and Illinois.Union leaders had pressed for a higher bonus more in line with the $12,000 received by IAM members in the Pacific Northwest last November, following a strike that lasted more than seven weeks.The Seattle-area strike shuttered two major Boeing commercial airline manufacturing plants.IAM representatives recognized that they were unlikely to garner a similar bonus for midwestern workers in light of the higher cost of living in the Seattle region as compared with St. Louis, leading union representatives to push for $10,000 during the talks.Ahead of the vote, IAM District 837 leaders recommended the latest proposal from Boeing.

The president of Panama denied Thursday that US military exercises on its soil were in any way a “hostile act against Venezuela.”US forces have carried out survival and combat exercises in Panama’s Darien jungle bordering Colombia this year, and at a police base on the Caribbean coast.They have coincided with a US military deployment against drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Pacific, which Venezuela claims is really a maneuver to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino insisted Thursday the Central American country was not “lending out its territory for any type of hostile act against Venezuela or any other country in the world.”US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin America have claimed at least 76 lives since September.Washington has provided no evidence the boat occupants were traffickers, and rights groups say the strikes are illegal even if they were.The US military exercises in Panama were made possible by a security agreement signed by the allies in April.It sparked protests by Panamanians who oppose any perceived infringement of their country’s sovereignty after a 1989 US invasion to depose then-leader General Manuel Noriega.The agreement allows Washington, with Panamanian authorization, to use air and naval bases for “training” purposes for a renewable period of three years. The agreement was signed amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to “take back” control of the Panama Canal that the United States built and controlled until 1999.”There is no unauthorized military presence in Panama,” said Mulino.

Bad Bunny looks set for a big night on Thursday when the Latin Grammys, the biggest celebration of Spanish and Portuguese-language music, return to Las Vegas.The reggaeton star has 12 nominations, including best album, best record and best song — categories in which he is also competing at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in February.A triumph for “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” (“I should have taken more photos”) would be another chapter in a year in which the 31-year-old — whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — has swept the entertainment world.A barnstorming residency in his native Puerto Rico has just ended, with a world tour set to kick off this month in the Dominican Republic.The reggaeton breakout made headlines when he said the tour would not include any dates on the US mainland because he was concerned his fans might be targeted by President Donald Trump’s immigration raids.The one exception to his self-imposed ban will be the Super Bowl halftime show on February 8 in Santa Clara, California.The performance, which comes midway through the NFL final, is routinely one of the television events of the year, watched by well over 100 million people in the United States alone, with millions more tuning in around the world.On Thursday night, Bad Bunny faces competition from Argentinian duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, whose album “Papota” is also vying for the night’s biggest awards.They are the first nominations for the explosive hip-hop duo, who recently opened several concerts in Latin America for Kendrick Lamar, a strong favorite for the 2026 Grammys. Edgar Barrera, who as a producer and songwriter has garnered more than 70 nominations at the Latin awards, is also competing for Song and Record of the Year for his work with Karol G on “Si antes te hubiera conocido” (If I Had Met You Before). The album’s single “Tropicoqueta” also earned the Colombian singer a nomination for Best Tropical Song. Karol G is set to be one of the headliners at Coachella next year.Brazil’s Liniker, who in 2022 became the first transgender artist to win a Latin Grammy, is sitting on seven nominations for her album “Caju,” including the top three prizes.Other nominees for the award include Alejandro Sanz, Carin Leon, Gloria Estefan, Joaquina, Rauw Alejandro, Vicente García, and Natalia Lafourcade, who has a total eight nominations.The Latin Grammys return to the MGM Grand Garden Arena after editions in Spain and Miami. The show, which kicks off at 5 pm (0100 GMT Friday) will feature performances from Bad Bunny, Karol G, and Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, as well as by Alejandro Sanz, Carlos Santana, Rauw Alejandro, Kacey Musgraves, Edgar Barrera, Joaquina, Christian Nodal, Nathy Peluso, Elena Rose, and Grupo Frontera.

Hundreds of unionized Starbucks baristas kicked off an indefinite strike Thursday in cities across the United States, protesting working conditions and stalled labor negotiations.Like last year, the work stoppage came on the coffee chain’s popular Red Cup Day, when Starbucks gives reusable cups to customers who purchase holiday-themed drinks.The “Red Cup Rebellion” will see rallies at 4 pm local time in more than a dozen US cities, and a work stoppage by about 1,000 baristas, according to Starbucks Workers United.More than 65 cafes in over 40 cities are part of this first phase of the strike, which the union said could expand to include more than 550 unionized locations representing over 10,000 employees.The baristas are demanding better wages, improved working conditions, and stable and adequate hours.”It’s hard to get more than 19 hours a week, which isn’t enough to qualify for the health care,” said Dachi Spoltore, who has worked as a barista for five years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.In the United States, health insurance is commonly provided by employers, and Starbucks only gives the benefit to employees working more than 20 hours per week.For Lynne Fox, president of Workers United, which represents more than 90,000 employees across all industries in the United States, Starbucks management has refused to negotiate in good faith.Founded in 2021, the Starbucks union is trying to develop a “foundational framework” on key issues such as wages, scheduling policy and access to health care. Talks have been deadlocked since April.In the United States, Starbucks owns nearly 10,000 cafes and has more than 7,000 franchise locations. The company told AFP it was experiencing very little disruption on Thursday morning, ahead of the work stoppage.”We’re disappointed that Workers United, who represents less than four percent of our partners, has called for a strike instead of returning to the bargaining table,” spokesperson Jaci Anderson said, adding that less than one percent of cafes were experiencing disruptions.”We’ve been very clear — when the union is ready to come back, we’re ready to talk,” she added.

The longest government shutdown in US history was bruising — a political knife fight that left everyone claiming victory while nursing hidden wounds.Democrats lost the end game but may end up winning the narrative. Republicans held their ground but risk longer-term scars. President Donald Trump projected strength to supporters but was exposed for policy weakness. And the public? They’re just sick of the whole show.With the drama in the rear-view mirror, here’s how the dust is settling.- Democrats: Bruised but banking on tomorrow -Yes, they folded. Yes, critics called it a cave-in. And yes, the headlines are screaming “retreat.”But, with Trump in power, most Democrats knew they were never going to achieve their stated goal of an extension for expiring health care subsidies. Instead, they were able to win a major consolation prize — turning the spotlight on an issue that fires up their base. Democrats have signaled they plan to make affordability, especially when it comes to health care, a major focus in next year’s midterms.”That will force Republicans to show their cards, keep the story alive and make Republicans scramble to introduce a health care policy of their own — something that has eluded them for 15 years,” said political analyst Donald Nieman.- Republicans: Policy win, PR defeat -In the short term, Republicans can claim a policy win. They kept extended health care subsidies off the table and dodged a messy civil war.Before Democrats let Republicans off the hook, Trump had been spoiling for a fight with his own party, demanding an unpopular overhaul of Senate rules to end the shutdown and — in the longer term — give him more power to enact his agenda. Republicans were also able to sow division among Democrats, who ought to be celebrating sweeping recent state elections but are instead at each other’s throats — with the furious progressive base berating the leadership for folding.”Because of the shutdown and the Democrats’ ultimate cave to the Republicans, I would expect that several Democrats will now get a primary challenge from a more progressive member of the party,” said Matthew N. Klink, a veteran political strategist and communications expert.But politically, it’s more complicated. Polling showed Republicans shouldered most of the blame for the shutdown as the party in charge, and the side that was digging in its heels on health care.”A year from now, no one will be voting on the memory of the shutdown. But they will be voting on affordability,” said political strategist Andrew Koneschusky. “The shutdown helped flip the script, creating real political risk for Republicans and giving Democrats momentum on the central issue driving our politics right now.”- Trump: The art of not blinking -Trump walked away looking like the guy who never flinches. He let Congress take the heat while projecting strength to his base — and taunting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when the fight was over.”He thought he could break the Republicans and the Republicans broke him,” Trump told Fox News.But the fight exposed a glaring hole: Trump still has no health care plan of his own. For now, he’s the swaggering victor — but that gap could haunt him if health care dominates 2026.And while he initially appeared unscathed, Trump’s approval rating has now reached its lowest point of his second term, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), dropping more than five points over the past two weeks to 41.8 percent. – The public: Tired of the circus -Federal workers sweated pay checks, services stalled and voters got another reminder of Washington’s dysfunction. If there’s a winner here, it’s cynicism. Americans hate shutdowns, and this one was just more proof that politics is a blood sport.And the worrying news? Americans might have to go through it all again in just a few short weeks.In the deal that broke the impasse, Congress only gave itself until January 30 to strike an agreement on funding most of the government, meaning another shutdown could be around the corner.”So who won? No one,” congressional media outlet Punchbowl News said in a cost-benefit analysis of the standoff.”This record-breaking shutdown was bad for the country, bad for the economy and especially bad for Congress as an institution.”

Mexico’s car assembly industry, one of the biggest in the world, fears US President Donald Trump’s tariff war will impede access to an increasingly indispensable component: digital dashboard touchscreens for which parts are sourced mainly in China.As Washington has engaged Beijing in a commercial tug-of-war, Mexico has come under pressure to act in step with its wealthier northern neighbor, and its Congress is considering hiking tariffs on Chinese imports.President Claudia Sheinbaum insists the measure is meant to boost domestic manufacturing.One problem: Mexico does not produce most of the electronic parts used in car assembly — particularly for the dashboard screens that provide drivers with real-time navigation and music at their fingertips. China does.And even if alternative sources could be found, it would take time while prices go up in the short term, undermining a mainstay of the country’s export economy, industry players told AFP.One company that has expressed concern is Germany headquartered Aumovio, which assembles dashboard displays in Guadalajara in Mexico’s west for car companies including Ford, and General Motors and Stellantis.”We have had talks with the Secretary of Economy as a group, not just Aumovio but the entire automotive industry, and we…explained to them the dependence we have” on Chinese parts, Aumovio purchasing director Carlos Gomez told AFP.He said building an alternative supply chain would require a significant investment in machinery and skills training and would take years.- ‘An opportunity’ -Amapola Grijalva of the Mexico-China Chamber of Commerce told AFP the government risked harming the car industry, which has thrived under the USMCA free-trade deal between Mexico, the United States and Canada.”There are components such as electric batteries and electronic components that we believe are very difficult to obtain from other places,” she said.”Nowadays, especially…electronics, photovoltaic generation, and batteries for all kinds of applications, including motorcycles and motor vehicles, come from China because they are truly very efficient.”The Trump administration has said Chinese producers are abusing the USMCA to send goods northward over the Mexican border tariff-free.Many interpreted Sheinbaum’s proposal of a tariff hike on China and other countries with which Mexico has no free-trade agreements as a capitulation to her powerful northern counterpart.According to Luis de la Calle, a Mexican economist who was involved in negotiating the NAFTA trade deal that preceded the USMCA, Sheinbaum’s tariff increases were at least partly driven by a desire to protect the domestic industry. Mexico’s trade deficit with China rose to a record of nearly $120 billion last year.”Not all the increases made were for reasons related to the United States,” de la Calle told AFP.One company that could benefit, for example, is Kold Roll, a manufacturer of steel bars used in cars and other products.”We see it as an opportunity,” said general manager Eric Gonzalez.Mexico replaced China in 2023 as the largest trading partner of the United States, which bought more than 80 percent of its exports.Mexico sends nearly 3 million automobiles to the United States every year, including cars and trucks assembled on its soil by US companies.

With NASA’s International Space Station set to come out of service in 2030, American aerospace firm Vast has stepped into a frenzied race for the world’s first commercial space station.Haven-1 — a mini station scheduled for launch in May 2026 — has been designed for comfort, according to Andrew Feustel, a former NASA astronaut now an advisor at Vast.”It has a three-year lifespan, and over that period of time, we plan to visit the spacecraft with multiple crews of four, four at a time,” he told AFP on the sidelines of the Web Summit in Lisbon.The California-based firm, founded in 2021 by billionaire Jed McCaleb, aspires to replace the International Space Station with Haven-2, a larger version of the first model.But Vast faces fierce competition from other contenders, including Axiom Space, Voyager Space in partnership with Airbus, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.  Hopes rest on securing funding from a NASA budget of up to $1.5 billion for the development of commercial space stations, which is set to be awarded in April 2026.- ‘Aggressive timelines’ – “Space agencies no longer want to manage the infrastructure” of the ISS, said Ugo Bonnet, director of the Spaceflight Institute, which offers training for commercial human missions.Locked in competition with China, NASA wants to focus more on crewed mission projects to the Moon by the end of the decade and eventually build a base on the lunar surface.In replacing the ISS, NASA plans to purchase services rather than manage programmes itself — a real boon for private companies in the space market.”There are a lot of players that are coming with very aggressive timelines, and we cannot do things in the same way we did in the past”, said Roberto Angelini, director of the Exploration and Science Domain of Thales Alenia Space.The French-Italian joint venture is set to deliver the first two pressurised modules for Axiom’s planned commercial space station, which could be operational as early as 2028.It has also manufactured half the pressurised modules for the ISS. The company’s main challenge, however, is to “remain competitive in terms of prices”, according to Angelini.- Changing business models – NASA spends up to $4 billion a year on the ISS, roughly a third of the US agency’s annual human space flight budget.SpaceX’s reusable launch vehicles has revolutionised the sector, lowering transportation costs and paving the way for these private projects.Vast plans to send Haven-1 into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, while Axiom’s private mission will see astronauts aboard one of their Crew Dragon capsules.”Just 15 to 20 years ago, sending a kilogram into space cost $60,000,” Bonnet told AFP. “When Starship, SpaceX’s launcher becomes operational in 2030, the cost will be less than $200 per kilogram,” he added.But operating a commercial space station will still cost a hefty sum.  “I’m not sure about their long-term profitability,” said Beatrice Hainaut, a space policy researcher at the Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School.Companies are counting on increased demand from governments and the private sector to generate revenue.Vast predicts that 85 percent of its crewed mission revenues will come from state agencies, and 15 percent from private clients.Feustel said the company wanted to be a “service provider to not only the US government”, but all countries seeking to send their astronauts into space for training and research.”For less than $100 million, you can put an astronaut in space on a VAST spacecraft.”