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Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its massive New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time early Thursday, marking a new step in the commercial space race.The rocket, whose inaugural mission had been delayed by several years, blasted off at 2:03 am (0703 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US state of Florida, a live webcast showed.The mission is seen as critical to Blue Origin’s efforts to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which dominates the commercial space industry.”LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent toward the stars,” Blue Origin said on social media platform X.”New Glenn has passed the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space!” the firm posted just a few minutes later.Blue Origin said in a statement that the second-stage engine had reached “its final orbit”, adding that the Blue Ring advanced spaceship prototype that was along for the ride was “receiving data and performing well.”The first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, was lost during descent, it added.”I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” said the company’s CEO, Dave Limp, in the statement.”We knew landing our booster… on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring.”Blue Origin had intended to land the booster — powered by liquid methane and designed for up to 25 flights — on a drone ship stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.Rival SpaceX has made such landings now routine, but this would have been Blue Origin’s first shot at the feat.Fellow billionaire Musk commended Bezos on New Glenn’s inaugural launch, offering congratulations “on reaching orbit on the first attempt” in a post on his X platform.Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX is planning another orbital test later Thursday of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket.- Repeated delays -An initial test launch of the towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of American astronaut John Glenn, had been scrubbed early Monday after repeated halts during the countdown.The company later said it had discovered an icing issue on a purge line and postponed the launch.With the latest mission, dubbed NG-1, Amazon founder Bezos was taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: fellow tech innovator Musk.Musk’s SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, which have become vital for the commercial sector, Pentagon and NASA.”SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor… this is great,” G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, earlier told AFP, expecting the competition to drive down costs.- Blue Ring -Aboard the New Glenn test flight and now in orbit is a Defense Department-funded prototype of an advanced spaceship called Blue Ring, which could one day journey through the solar system.Physically, the gleaming white New Glenn rocket dwarfs SpaceX’s 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed for heavier payloads.It slots between Falcon 9 and its big sibling, Falcon Heavy, in terms of mass capacity but holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, capable of carrying the equivalent of 20 trucks.Blue Origin has already secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard New Glenn. The rocket will also support the deployment of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation designed to compete with Starlink.For now, however, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, while other rivals — United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Rocket Lab — trail far behind.Like Musk, Bezos has a lifelong passion for space.But where Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy industry off-planet onto floating space platforms in order to preserve Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”

Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its massive New Glenn rocket for the first time early Thursday, a livestream of the blastoff showed.The rocket, whose inaugural mission had been delayed by several years, blasted of at 2:03 am (0703 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in the US state of Florida, the webcast showed.The mission is seen as critical to Blue Origin’s efforts to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which dominates the commercial space industry.”LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent toward the stars,” Blue Origin said on social media platform X.”New Glenn has passed the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space!” the firm posted just a few minutes later.And then: “Second stage engine cutoff confirmed. New Glenn’s second stage and payload are now in orbit.”An initial test launch of the towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of legendary American astronaut John Glenn, had been scrubbed early Monday morning after repeated halts during the countdown.The company later said it had discovered an icing issue on a purge line and would aim for a possible early Tuesday morning launch, but that weather conditions were unfavorable.On Monday night, Blue Origin announced that launch had been postponed.With the mission, dubbed NG-1, Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: fellow tech innovator Musk.Musk’s company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, which have become vital for the commercial sector, Pentagon and NASA.”SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor… this is great,” G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, earlier told AFP, expecting the competition to drive down costs.Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX also plans another orbital test this week of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket.- Landing attempt -Blue Origin will now attempt to land New Glenn’s first-stage booster on a drone ship stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.SpaceX has made such landings now routine, but this will be Blue Origin’s first shot at the sci-fi feat.High seas last week caused the New Glenn launch to be pushed back several days.Meanwhile, the rocket’s upper stage will fire its engines toward Earth orbit, reaching a maximum altitude of roughly 12,000 miles above the surface.A Defense Department-funded prototype of an advanced spaceship called Blue Ring, which could one day journey through the solar system, will remain aboard for the roughly six-hour test flight.Blue Origin has experience landing its New Shepard rockets — used for suborbital tourism — but they are five times smaller and land on terra firma rather than a ship at sea.Physically, the gleaming white New Glenn dwarfs SpaceX’s 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed for heavier payloads.It slots between Falcon 9 and its big sibling, Falcon Heavy, in terms of mass capacity but holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, capable of carrying the equivalent of 20 moving trucks.- Slow v fast development -Blue Origin has already secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard New Glenn. The rocket will also support the deployment of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation designed to compete with Starlink.For now, however, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, while other rivals — United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Rocket Lab — trail far behind.Like Musk, Bezos has a lifelong passion for space.But where Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy industry off-planet onto floating space platforms in order to preserve Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”If New Glenn succeeds, it will provide the US government “dissimilar redundancy” — valuable backup if one system fails, said Scott Pace, a space policy analyst at George Washington University.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced a ban on Red Dye No 3, a controversial food and drug coloring long known to cause cancer in animals.Decades after scientific evidence first raised alarm, Red 3, as it is also called, is currently used in nearly 3,000 food products in the United States, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.”FDA is revoking the authorized uses in food and ingested drugs of FD&C Red No 3 in the color additive regulations,” said a document from the Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.The decision stems from a petition filed in November 2022 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other advocacy groups, which cited the “Delaney Clause” — a provision mandating the prohibition of any color additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.Notably, the FDA determined as early as 1990 that Red 3, whose chemical name is erythrosine, should be banned in cosmetics because of its link to thyroid cancer in male rats. However, the additive continued to be used in foods, largely due to resistance from the food industry. Manufacturers of maraschino cherries, for example, relied on Red 3 to maintain the iconic red hue of their products.It’s also present in thousands of candies, snacks and fruit products — and thousands of medicines, according to a search of a government-run database, DailyMed.”Manufacturers who use FD&C Red No 3 in food and ingested drugs will have until January 15, 2027, or January 18, 2028, respectively, to reformulate their product,” the FDA said.Although the agency acknowledged a cancer link in rats, it maintained that the available evidence does not support such a link in humans, citing differences in hormonal mechanisms between the species and significantly lower exposure levels in people.- US lags behind -While the FDA determination focused on carcinogenicity, other research has also found potential neurobehavioral effects of synthetic food dyes on children, notably Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).”The body of evidence from human studies indicates that synthetic food dyes are associated with adverse neurobehavioral outcomes in children, and that children vary in their sensitivity to synthetic food dyes,” a California government report found in 2021.Animal studies indicated that synthetic food dyes caused changes in neurotransmitter systems in the brain and produced microscopic changes in brain structure, affecting activity, memory and learning.The United States has been slow to act on Red 3 compared to other major economies. The European Union banned its use in 1994, with similar prohibitions enacted in Japan, China, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.Carl Tobias, a former FDA legal consultant and now a professor at the University of Richmond, told AFP it was “hard to square” the agency’s mission of protecting American health with the prolonged delay in reaching the decision.”There’s pretty extensive lobbying, there always has been, and some of it is sometimes effective,” he said, calling the ban a “step in the right direction.”CSPI also hailed the FDA’s decision as long overdue, and expressed hope that it would pave the way for broader action on other harmful chemicals in food. “They don’t add any nutritional value, they don’t preserve the food — they’re just there to make food look pretty,” Thomas Galligan, a scientist with CSPI, told AFP. The nonprofit called on the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to take further steps to protect consumers, including setting stricter limits on heavy metals like lead, arsenic and cadmium in foods consumed by children.

First came the slow hand movements, then the tremor, and now the looming fear of what lies ahead.David Jilbert’s devastating Parkinson’s diagnosis three years ago changed his life irrevocably. It’s a condition the 65-year-old farmer believes he wouldn’t have if it weren’t for paraquat, a herbicide he once relied on to control weeds in his vineyard in the midwestern US state of Ohio.”Now it’s not just about me, I’m part of this community — let’s get something going,” Jilbert said during a recent hearing in the US Congress where he was joined by others claiming the same link. Banned in more than 70 countries — including Britain, where it is manufactured; Switzerland, home to the Syngenta company that owns the brand; and China, where the state-run conglomerate that owns Syngenta is based — paraquat remains available in the United States.The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long maintained that the herbicide is safe for use under strict regulations — something Parkinson’s advocates vehemently disagree with and are pressing to change.The agency is set to issue a final report on the issue by January 17 — this Friday — after considering 90 new scientific studies submitted by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.- Maker denies causation – “We have great sympathy for those suffering from the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease,” a spokesperson for Syngenta said in a statement to AFP.”However, it is important to note that the scientific evidence simply does not support a causal link between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease, and that paraquat is safe when used as directed.”Multiple credible studies have found that agricultural workers who handle paraquat — or live near areas where it is applied — face a higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease, which can eventually turn even the simplest movements into daunting challenges.Animal research further underscores paraquat’s toxic effects on nerve cells, although proving direct causation for individuals affected by Parkinson’s remains difficult.”I find it extraordinarily frustrating that the chemical companies have hidden behind the concept of being able to show causation, and they’ve used that as an excuse,” Australia-based neurologist David Blacker said in an interview with Pesticide Action UK.”That’s where the precautionary principle comes in,” he added. “If there is a doubt, especially if there are alternatives, it then becomes, in my mind, ethically and even morally unsound to continue.”- ‘It’s scary’ -Jilbert, a longtime environmental engineer and environmental safety inspector, dreamed of becoming a farmer after retirement.In 2011, he purchased his land and, over the following years, began using paraquat — often sold as Gramoxone — to manage his weeds. By the end of the decade, he noticed his hands moving slowly and his gait turning into a shuffle. When his Parkinson’s diagnosis finally came, he was horrified and wondered if he’d been condemned to a “death sentence.” His condition is more manageable for now, thanks to medications, but he said he feels disappointed in his own government for not looking out for him.”You think if you use the stuff in the way the label tells me to use it, then I’m not going to get sick,” he said.Like Jilbert, 85-year-old Charlene Tenbrink — who owns a 250-acre farm in Dixon, California — also trusted that the chemicals available to farmers were safe when handled properly.She sprayed paraquat on her prune trees in the 1990s and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2020.Tenbrink, Jilbert and thousands of others are now suing Syngenta in federal and California state courts.Sarah Doles, a lawyer and co-lead for that federal litigation, compared it to the cases against Big Tobacco. She contends Syngenta had an obligation to disclose harms it knew about paraquat from research going back decades, but hid from consumers.”It’s a legal duty of what they knew and then failed to do — they concealed the information,” she told AFP.Regardless of which direction the EPA rules, these legal cases will continue. Tenbrink said it’s vital to get the product off the market, and admits she’s terrified for her own future.”This is a terrible disease and we know there’s no cure, we know it’s going to get worse. It’s scary,” she said.

US officials late Wednesday announced a $1.6 billion deal with Toyota subsidiary Hino Motors to settle charges it deceived regulators about the amount of emissions spewed by its diesel engines.Hino used altered emissions test data to get approval to import and sell more than 110,000 diesel engines to the US, most of which were installed in heavy-duty trucks made by Hino, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).As part of the deal, Hino will plead guilty to engaging in a criminal conspiracy to mislead regulators and consumers, violating environmental protection laws and endangering public health, US attorney general Merrick Garland said in a release.US regulators and the state of California, which has strict vehicle emission standards, worked out criminal and civil remedies with Hino valued at more than $1.6 billion.”Hino’s actions directly undermined EPA’s program to protect the public from air pollution,” acting EPA administrator Jane Nishida said in a release.The proposed settlement is contingent on approval from a US district court judge in the state of Michigan.”Corporate crimes such as these endanger the health and well-being of innocent Americans, as well as the environment in which we all live,” said US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Dawn Ison.The deal includes a five-year term of probation during which Hino will be barred from importing diesel engines it has manufactured into the United States and implement a comprehensive compliance and ethics program, according to the EPA.Hino will also have to recall some trucks with engines violating emissions standards and spend some $155 million to replace marine and locomotive engines through the US to offset excess air emissions, according to the EPA.

Fire-wrecked Los Angeles got a break Wednesday as dangerous winds dropped, giving hope to weary firefighters still battling to snuff out deadly blazes.More than a week after fires fanned by hurricane-force gusts began a destructive march that has left two dozen people dead and large areas of the city in ruins, forecasters said the end was in sight — at least for now.Onshore breezes were set to bring much-needed moisture over the coming days, forecasters at the National Weather Service told AFP.There will be “a big improvement for tonight and tomorrow, though there’ll still be some lingering areas of concern,” Ryan Kittell of the National Weather Service told AFP, though he warned there was another possibly perilous drying system in the offing early next week.The Eaton Fire and the Palisades fire, which together have scorched more than 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) were still smoldering Wednesday.Battalions of firefighters from across the United States, as well as from Mexico, were working to tamp down hotspots that could still flare, Los Angeles City fire chief Kristin Crowley told reporters.”Infrared flights last night indicated there are still numerous hot spots burning within the fire footprint, and very close attention was paid to address any flare ups swiftly as to prevent any fire spread outside of the perimeter,” she said.- Back to school -With tens of thousands of people still displaced by the fires, life was far from normal in America’s second biggest city.But children whose schools were damaged or are still affected by evacuation orders were welcomed into other institutions.Stay-at-home mom Caroline Nick took Emery, 11, and Andrew, 7, to Nora Sterry Elementary on Wednesday after their own school was lost to the blaze.Nick, whose home was destroyed in the Palisades fire, said the children needed whatever semblance of normality they could get.”They don’t need to be listening to the adult conversations that my husband and I are having to have. It’s not good for them,” she told AFP.”They need to be here doing this: drawing and coloring, playing and running and laughing.”The confirmed death toll from the fires stood at 24, with Los Angeles County Coroner investigating another possible body.But the number of fatalities could still rise, as cadaver dogs continue a painstaking search of hundreds of buildings.More than 12,000 structures have been razed, including multi-million dollar homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.Estimates of the eventual cost of the tragedy have now risen to as high as $275 billion, a figure that would make it one of the most expensive in US history.The relief operation around the city was in full force, with local, state and federal bodies offering help with everything from replacing lost driving licences to footing hotel bills.A huge private effort was also taking shape, with thousands of volunteers staffing giveaways of food, clothing and baby supplies for those in need.Hollywood megastar Leonardo DiCaprio was among those stepping up with donations.”The Los Angeles wildfires are devastating our city,” the “Titanic” star wrote on Instagram.”I am committing $1 million in partnership with @rewild’s Rapid Response Program to support both urgent needs and post-fire recovery efforts.”DiCaprio’s cash comes on the heels of $1 million donations from fellow actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Eva Longoria.Federal authorities have launched a probe into the causes of the fires, as theories swirl over who was responsible.”We know everyone wants answers, and the community deserves answers,” said Jose Medina of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is taking the lead.”ATF will give you those answers, but it will be once we complete a thorough investigation.”

The Israel-Hamas deal was made possible by 18-hour days and a “remarkable” partnership between Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s Mideast envoys — but even then it seemed it might come apart at the last minute.In the final four days of talks, Biden’s pointman Brett McGurk was joined in the region by Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, to get the deal over the line, US officials said.As they did so, Israeli and Hamas negotiators were huddling on separate floors of a building in the Qatari capital Doha, while moderators from Qatar and Egypt shuttled between them with their proposals.McGurk and Witkoff were talking “multiple times a day, and Mr Witkoff actually helped clinch down some of the details. There was great coordination,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN.A senior Biden administration official said that the unlikely pairing — there is little love lost between the outgoing and incoming presidents — had been a decisive factor in reaching a deal.”Four days ago, Steve Witkoff came out to join Brett in his final push, which I think is, historically, almost unprecedented. And it was a highly constructive, very fruitful partnership,” the official said on condition of anonymity.”It was really quite, quite remarkable, and I think speaks to what can be done in the country.”Veteran diplomat McGurk has served in a number of US administrations, including in Trump’s first term. Witkoff is a businessman and real estate expert but has jumped into the negotiations — even insisting that Netanyahu break the sabbath on Saturday for a meeting in his office as he pushed to seal the ceasefire.The cooperation between the two US administrations didn’t stop them battling over who should claim credit for a deal that had seemed out of reach for so many months.Trump said the “epic” win would never have happened without his election putting pressure for a deal, while Biden said “is that a joke?” when a reporter asked which of them should get credit.- ‘Breakthrough’ -But the fact that they worked together at all underscores how crucial a deal was viewed by both presidents.The seed was planted when Biden invited Trump to the Oval Office for a meeting eight days after the Republican’s election win in November, and their national security teams agreed to meet, the US official said.The knowledge that a new US administration would be starting on January 20 then galvanized the Israeli and Hamas sides alike.”In any breakthrough diplomacy, sometimes you need a deadline,” the official said. But another key factor was the dramatic strategic shift in the region in the last half of 2024 that isolated Hamas from its Iranian backers.Biden introduced the outline of the peace plan in May, but Washington had concluded that there would “never be a ceasefire” while Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar was still alive, and while Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah still opposed a deal, the Biden administration official said.Then, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September, and Sinwar in October, while also taking out Iran’s air defenses. The fall of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December was a further blow to Hamas.Negotiations intensified after McGurk returned to the region on January 5 — “18 hours a day, sometimes longer” — but sticking points between Israel and Hamas remained.The final 96 hours were the most intense of all. One of the biggest hang-ups were the “incredibly complicated” lists for the exchanges of hostages held by Hamas with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. “All of that was not fully nailed down until the recent hours,” the senior Biden administration official said.Even then, nothing was agreed until everything was agreed.”I have to say, it wasn’t until this afternoon that we had full confidence that it’s going to come together.”Biden himself expressed relief that the deal was finally done.”At long last,” he said as he announced the deal at the White House.

With endless perimeter fencing, all-seeing drones and some 25,000 security personnel, the US capital is preparing for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in an unprecedented protective posture after an election cycle marked by violence.Washington is used to high-profile, high-risk happenings, but rarely so many in such quick succession.Monday’s presidential inauguration will be the third top-level “national special security event” in just two weeks, following the election certification on January 6 and former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral.The city is prepping for fewer visitors on January 20 than Trump’s first inaugural eight years ago — when authorities anticipated up to a million guests.Nevertheless, a record 30 miles (48 kilometers) of anti-scale fencing is being erected around the security perimeter.The White House, Capitol, and parts of the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route are already ringed by the eight-foot (2.4-meter) metal barriers.Around 25,000 law enforcement and military personnel are converging on Washington, according to US Secret Service special agent Matt McCool.”We have a slightly more robust security plan” than previous years, he told a briefing Monday, saying attendees would experience extensive security checks and see snipers on rooftops, tactical teams on the ground, and drones patrolling the skies.”What’s different is, we are in a higher threat environment,” he said.Violence marred last year’s presidential race, with Trump narrowly surviving a July assassination attempt during a Pennsylvania rally. One person in the audience was killed.Two months later an apparent gunman was discovered at a golf club in Florida while Trump was on the course. The incidents were seen as major operational failures by the Secret Service.On January 1 two more deadly episodes — a truck ramming in New Orleans and a Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas — set Americans on edge.McCool said “a full slate of visible and invisible security measures” were blanketing Washington for Trump’s big day.According to US Capitol Police chief J. Thomas Manger, about 250,000 ticketed guests will gather for the inauguration.Authorities said there were currently no known credible threats to the ceremony.”The biggest threat I think for all of us remains the lone actor,” Manger said.- ‘Peaceful transition’ -Trump has had a contentious relationship with Washington’s Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, but this week she pledged no effort was being spared.”Every four years our city supports the peaceful transition of power. We are proud of that responsibility,” she told reporters.Thousands of demonstrators however will be on hand, including during a Saturday “People’s March” to the Lincoln Memorial. Eight years ago hundreds of thousands marched in a similar demonstration, but Trump’s latest win appears to have deflated the #Resistance movement, and authorities said up to 25,000 people are expected Saturday.Sunday will see thousands of MAGA faithful pack a downtown arena for a rally featuring Trump himself.Then on Inauguration Day, multiple smaller protests are scheduled.Police will ensure people can “peacefully protest and assemble,” Bowser said, but “violence, destruction and unlawful behavior will not be tolerated.”For those venturing outside to watch Trump take the oath, it will be a frigid affair: the forecast is for temperatures well below freezing throughout Inauguration Day.Trump supporters are filling the city’s hotel rooms — although not to the level of his or Barack Obama’s first inauguration.As of last week, downtown Washington occupancy rates for Inauguration eve were at 70 percent, lower for the moment than the 92-percent occupancy for Trump’s 2017 inauguration, data firm STR says.Several hotels have unveiled elite inauguration packages, including the famous Watergate, whose “Head of State” package starts at $73,500.It includes helicopter service, a chauffeured armored Maybach, accommodation in the Watergate’s Presidential Suite, and a tour of the “Scandal Suite” where the infamous 1972 break-in occurred.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Wednesday that plans to extend President-elect Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — which remained in place under Joe Biden but are set to expire — will add to unsustainable deficits.”The projected fiscal path under current budgetary policies is simply not sustainable,” she said, in what is likely to be her final major speech in office.”The consequences of inaction, or action that exacerbates projected deficits, could be dire,” she added in remarks at the New York Association for Business Economics, just days before Trump returns to the White House.On the campaign trail, Trump pledged tax reductions with benefits across income levels.The 2017 cuts, enacted by Trump in his first term, lowered rates for businesses and individuals. But some provisions are set to expire at the end of the year.Yellen pointed to estimates that extending provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could add around $4 trillion to deficits through 2034.While the act lowered income taxes for many in the United States, they have been criticized for being more beneficial to the wealthy.Yellen cautioned that policies like extending the cuts “could undermine our country’s strength, from the resilience of the Treasury market to the value of the dollar, even provoking a debt crisis in the future.””Misguided economic policymaking,” she added, would weigh on the next generation.Looking ahead, she urged for the US government to “give more weight to fiscal sustainability concerns when determining both tax and spending priorities.” In her speech, Yellen also said that it was critical for the United States to sustain investments in cutting-edge industries and research and development.She defended policy decisions of the Biden administration in the period of the Covid-19 pandemic as well, saying its “fiscal policy choices saved millions of jobs.”Although she acknowledged that “the prices of many everyday goods soared,” she argued that government support helped avert significant hardship, allowing Americans to return to work quickly.She also stressed that inflation in the world’s biggest economy fell earlier than in its major peers.”All policy choices entailed trade-offs, but the Biden administration made sound decisions that set the economy on a strong course,” she said.Cost of living concerns were a major voter concern during November’s presidential election, which propelled Trump to victory.

Cuba began releasing people Wednesday who had been jailed for protesting against the regime under a deal that saw departing US President Joe Biden remove the communist island from a list of terrorism sponsors.Biden’s eleventh-hour outreach to Cuba is part of a series of actions designed to cement his legacy before handing power next Monday to Donald Trump.The agreement brought joy to the families of Cubans held since 2021 for demonstrating over recurring power blackouts, food shortages and soaring prices. A first group of around 20 prisoners were released on Wednesday, their families and NGOs told AFP.The delisting paves the way for increased US investment in the Caribbean island, which has been under a US trade embargo for over six decades.But in a sign that the thaw may be short-lived, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, suggested he could reverse Biden’s decision.- ‘Literally collapsing’ -Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, who is vociferously opposed to Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, said Trump’s incoming administration was not bound by Biden’s policies.”Cuba is literally collapsing,” Rubio told his US Senate confirmation hearing, calling it a “fourth-world country” run by “corrupt” and “inept” Marxists.”There is zero doubt in my mind that they meet all the qualifications for being a state sponsor of terrorism,” he said.Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez admitted that Biden’s decision to undo the terror designation levied by Trump during the last days of his first presidency could be reversed.But he argued that the repeated addition and removal of Cuba to the list by successive US administrations had robbed it of its meaning, turning it into a “vulgar instrument of political coercion.”- Families’ joy -Under the deal brokered by the Vatican, Cuba promised to release 553 prisoners, which a senior US official said included “political prisoners” and others “detained unjustly.”Vatican number two Cardinal Pietro Parolin said it was “significant” that Havana had responded to an appeal by Pope Francis for clemency.Social media in Cuba lit up on Wednesday morning with relatives and friends of prisoners confirming their loved ones had been released.”We received a call yesterday evening to go to the prison today,” Rosabel Loreto, daughter-in-law of prisoner Donaida Perez Paseiro, told AFP. Perez Paseiro had been sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for participating with thousands of others in the 2021 protests — the biggest in Cuba since the revolution, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.In a video posted on social media, she vowed to continue to “fight for Cuba’s freedom.”In Havana, a woman who asked to remain anonymous said her husband remained behind bars for demonstrating against the government, but her daughter — who had been arrested on the same charges — was freed Wednesday.The Miami-based Cuban NGO Cubalex said it had confirmed the release of 20 people, all jailed. According to official Cuban figures, some 500 protesters were given sentences of up to 25 years in prison, but rights groups and the US Embassy say the figure is closer to 1,000.- ‘Detained unjustly’ -With authorities providing no list of those due for release, many prisoners’ families were still anxiously waiting for news of their relatives.Liset Fonseca, mother of 41-year-old Roberto Perez, who is serving a 10-year jail term for joining the 2021 protests, said she had no news of his possible release.Havana on Tuesday had welcomed its removal from the terrorism sponsor listing as a step in the “right direction,” but lamented that the trade embargo was still in place.Cuba blames the blockade for its worst economic crisis in decades, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people emigrate to the United States in the last two years, either legally or illegally, according to US figures.Trump’s first presidential term from 2017 to 2021 saw a tightening of sanctions against Cuba that had been loosened during a period of detente under his predecessor Barack Obama.Before assuming office, Biden had promised changes in US policy towards the island, but held off after Havana’s 2021 crackdown.