A German woman engineer on Saturday became the first wheelchair user to blast into space, taking a brief ride on a Blue Origin flight.The space company owned by American multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos launched its New Shepard suborbital mission at 8:15 am (1415 GMT) from its site in Texas.Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, was among the passengers to cross the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, during the approximately 10-minute flight.Benthaus suffered a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident and now uses a wheelchair.”After my accident, I really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is” for people with disabilities, she said in a video released by the company.”If we want to be an inclusive society, we should be inclusive in every part, and not only in the parts we like to be,” Benthaus added.The small, fully automated rocket took off vertically, and the capsule carrying the tourists then detached in flight before gently descending back to the Texas desert, slowed by parachutes.It was the 16th crewed flight for Blue Origin, which has for years offered space tourism flights — the price isn’t public — using its New Shepard rocket.”Congratulations, Michi! You just inspired millions to look up and imagine what is possible,” new NASA chief Jared Isaacman said on X.Dozens of people have traveled to space with Blue Origin, including the pop singer Katy Perry and William Shatner, who played the legendary Captain Kirk on “Star Trek.”These high-profile guests are aimed at maintaining public interest in the flights at a time when private space companies are vying for pre-eminence.Virgin Galactic offers a similar suborbital flight experience.But Blue Origin also has ambitions to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the orbital flight market.This year, the Bezos company successfully carried out two uncrewed orbital flights using its massive New Glenn rocket, which is significantly more powerful than New Shepard.

The release of documents related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein follows months of pressure on the Trump administration for transparency about the politically explosive case.Friday’s release, to meet a deadline set by Congress, was just the first tranche of what the administration is saying will be a massive volume of information. But it is already drawing criticism as the documents are heavily redacted.They include photos of high-profile figures, including former president Bill Clinton, and quickly provoked strong reactions from across the political divide.- What has been released? -Mid-afternoon on Friday the US Department of Justice provided a link to what it calls the “Epstein Library.” It includes four groups of documents: court records, disclosures from the DOJ -– the bulk of the new documents — freedom of information requests and disclosures from a US House oversight committee.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday there would be several hundred thousand documents released and several hundred thousand more in coming weeks.But it appeared many of the documents had been revealed previously. DOJ posted new documents on Friday totaling about 3,900 files.The release features numerous photographs not previously made public, and politicians and celebrities among those pictured. There are also video clips from inside the correctional center in New York from the day Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.- What do the files show? -In many cases, the files show little because of heavy redactions. For example, a list of 254 masseuses is entirely blacked out.In other cases there is little context provided, making it hard to interpret the significance of the information.One file contains dozens of censored images showing naked or scantily clad figures. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, with firearms.The expectation is that the files will shed light on Epstein’s network of associates — business executives, academics, celebrities and politicians, including President Donald Trump.However, it’s unclear how much the Justice Department, which controls the release, will allow to be made public and how it is selecting documents.Trump was a friend of Epstein, although he severed ties years before the financier’s 2019 arrest.- Celebrity sightings -The documents include several of Bill Clinton, taken some years ago. In one, he is pictured reclining in a hot tub with another person whose face is blacked out.Among celebrities featured are pop stars Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Mick Jagger — all pictured with Clinton.Others featured include the former prince Andrew, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, actor Kevin Spacey and British tycoon Richard Branson.- Reactions -In deeply polarized Washington, the reaction was partisan in large part.The White House jumped on the Clinton appearances.”Slick Willy! @BillClinton just chillin, without a care in the world. Little did he know…” Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X.The White House also touted the release as a show of transparency.But the top senator from the opposition Democrats, Chuck Schumer, complained that the heavily redacted documents release on Friday was just a fraction of the whole body of evidence.”Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law,” Schumer said, adding that 119 pages of one document were completely blacked out.On the Republican side, some dissent emerged. Lawmaker Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the law forcing the release of the files with Democrat Ro Khanna, accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of “withholding specific documents.”And Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime Trump ally who has shifted sides and resigned from Congress, said: “The whole point was NOT to protect the ‘politically exposed individuals and government officials’.”

The US Justice Department has begun releasing a long-awaited cache of records from its investigations into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — though much of the material remained heavily redacted.Among the trove released Friday are numerous photographs depicting former Democratic president Bill Clinton and other luminaries, including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, in Epstein’s social circle.The sweeping blackouts across many of the documents — combined with tight control over the release by officials in President Donald Trump’s administration — stoked skepticism over whether this disclosure will silence conspiracy theories of a high-level cover-up.In one example, a 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY” is entirely redacted. Also, seven pages listing 254 masseuses have every name buried beneath thick black bars alongside the note, “redacted to protect potential victim information.” Even so, the files shed some light on the disgraced financier’s intimate ties to the rich, famous and powerful — Trump, once a close friend, among them.At least one file contains dozens of censored images of naked or scantily clad figures. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, posing with firearms.Previously unseen photographs include Maxwell with disgraced former prince Andrew, pictured lying across the legs of five people.Another photo shows a youthful-looking Clinton lounging in a hot tub, part of the image blacked out. In another, Clinton swims alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. – A ‘fraction’ of the evidence -The White House wasted no time seizing on Clinton’s appearances.”Slick Willy! @BillClinton just chillin, without a care in the world. Little did he know…” Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X.Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena responded to the newly released files by saying the country “expects answers, not scapegoats.””The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves,” Urena wrote on X.Democrats — and a handful of Republicans — voiced frustration that the release fell far short of what was mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has long pushed for the release, said it “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”That law required the government’s entire case file to be posted publicly by Friday, constrained only by legal and victim privacy concerns.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would “pursue every option to make sure the truth comes out.”Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of the files linked to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.The Republican president ultimately bowed to mounting pressure from Congress — including members of his own party — and last month signed the law compelling publication of the materials by Friday.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged in a letter to Congress that the Friday release was incomplete, and that the Justice Department would complete production of files in the coming weeks.Prosecutors retain discretion to withhold material tied to active investigations, and Blanche said files had also been redacted to protect the identities of Epstein’s hundreds of victims.- ‘Democrat hoax’ -Trump once moved in the same Palm Beach and New York party scene as Epstein, appearing with him at events throughout the 1990s. He severed ties years before Epstein’s 2019 arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing in the case.But his right-wing base has long fixated on the Epstein saga and conspiracy theories alleging the financier ran a sex trafficking ring for the global elite.On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to release all the files. Yet after returning to office, he dismissed the transparency push as a “Democrat hoax.”Trump’s Justice Department ignited a political firestorm in July with a memo declaring there would be no further disclosures from the Epstein probe and his fabled “client list” did not exist before the president bowed to pressure.Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, remains the only person convicted in connection with his crimes, and is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for the former teacher and banker, whose death was ruled a suicide.