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A US court on Monday ordered a white supremacist group and its leader to pay $2.8 million in damages to a Black man its shield-wielding, masked members attacked while they rampaged through Boston two years ago. In July 2022, members of the Patriot Front group pinned musician Charles Murrell against a post and then kicked and punched him, in action the US District Court in Boston ruled was meant “to promote a white supremacist agenda.”Members of the mob reportedly also used a racial slur against their victim as they made their way down the East Coast city’s Freedom Trail during the incident.While police investigated the violence, and a detective concluded that the “incident appeared to be more likely than not motivated in whole or in part by Anti-Black bias”, no one was prosecuted, prompting Murrell to file a civil suit in August 2023.Murrell was on his way to play saxophone near the Boston Public Library over the Fourth of July weekend when he saw “Patriot Front moving towards him on the sidewalk, and observed signs that read, ‘Reclaim America’,” Judge Indira Talwani said in the ruling.”The group began shoving Murrell to the group’s right, into the street. When Murrell stepped back on the sidewalk, the group pressed him up against a concrete light post, knocked him to the ground, and hit and kicked him,” the court order said.To promote white supremacy, the group led by Thomas Rousseau has separately defaced a mural and statues of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by police as well as a mural of Black tennis star Arthur Ashe.  Talwani awarded Murrell $755,000 in damages for his injuries and lost earnings, and $2 million in punitive damages.Rousseau did not cooperate with the civil case and was not represented by a lawyer.

The Grammys, slated for February 2, will “proceed as planned” despite the devastating fires scorching Los Angeles, the Recording Academy said Monday.In a letter to Academy members obtained by AFP, organizers said the 67th annual music awards gala would take place at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown LA “in close coordination with local authorities to ensure public safety and responsible use of area resources.””This year’s show, however, will carry a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honoring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours,” Academy head Harvey Mason Jr said in the letter, which was co-signed by Board of Trustees chair Tammy Hurt.”The Grammys will not only honor the artistry and achievements of our music community but also serve as a platform to amplify the spirit of resilience that defines this great city of Los Angeles,” Mason and Hurt said.The marquee televised portion of the gala will still air on CBS.Top nominees include Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar.At least 24 people have died, tens of thousands of people are displaced, and swaths of Los Angeles sit in ruins nearly a week after fires broke out when extreme winds spread flames across arid Southern California, crippling the city and razing entire communities.In response, the Recording Academy and its philanthropic arm MusiCares launched a relief effort with an initial $1 million donation supporting impacted music industry workers.The letter said additional donations had allowed for the organization to distribute more than $2 million in emergency aid thus far.Separately, LiveNation and AEG Presents, along with the Azoff Company, over the weekend announced a FIREAID benefit concert on January 30 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood.Proceeds are to go to a non-profit created for the event focused on “rebuilding infrastructure, supporting displaced families and advancing fire prevention technologies and strategies to ensure LA is better prepared for fire emergencies.”The entertainment industry in showbiz capital Los Angeles is weighing how to navigate its just-started award season, which is particularly intense for film and features a steady stream of swanky premieres and galas.The body behind the Oscars scrapped its ritzy nominees’ luncheon in light of the fires, while moving its nominations announcement online.

The Los Angeles wildfire disaster has cast a shadow over preparations for the 2028 Olympics, raising questions over whether the city can deliver a safe and successful Games.So far, none of the more than 80 venues due to stage Olympic competition in Los Angeles have been directly affected by the infernos that have left at least 24 people dead and reduced entire neighborhoods to smouldering ruins.But experts say the ongoing disaster has underscored the challenges of staging the world’s largest sporting event in a region increasingly under threat of wildfires.”The situation is clearly grave and given the prospect of significant climate change, you do have to wonder whether the current situation might be repeated, possibly even during the Games,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris told British daily The iPaper. “This raises very serious questions, not least about insurance, and whether Los Angeles’ big-ticket 2028 attraction might be about to become an uninsurable mega-event.”While the flames that razed Pacific Palisades came uncomfortably close to the Riviera Country Club — which will host 2028’s Olympic golf tournament — the overwhelming majority of venues are situated outside what would be regarded as high-risk fire zones.Historical data, meanwhile, indicates that the chances of a similar disaster erupting during the 2028 Olympics are highly unlikely. Prior to last week, no fire in Los Angeles County had appeared on a list of the 20 most destructive fires in California history, according to statistics provided by CalFire, the state’s fire agency. The 2028 Olympics will also be taking place in July, a time of year when there are no Santa Ana winds, the powerful seasonal gusts widely seen as the biggest factor behind the unprecedented scale and scope of last week’s carnage.And Los Angeles has already staged the Olympics successfully on two occasions — in 1984 and 1932.- ‘Wake-up call’ -Nevertheless, Dan Plumley, sports finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, said the fires would have set alarm bells ringing among Olympic organizers.”Organising committees will have factored these events into their planning but you’re very much working on a contingency basis — how much do you reasonably budget for this and how cautious or not cautious are you going to be?” Plumley told the iPaper.”How much risk they want to build in, we’ll have to wait and see but these fires will have acted as an enormous wake-up call.”Pennsylvania State University professor Mark Dyerson meanwhile floated the idea of the Olympics being moved to 2024 hosts Paris if LA was unable to deliver the games.”They could go back to Paris,” the academic told the New York Post. “It would be unfortunate, but I’m sure they have some kind of committee — the IOC is a huge bureaucracy — that allegedly looks at contingencies.”California Governor Gavin Newsom however told NBC’s “Today” morning program that planning for the 2028 Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in 2026 — where eight matches take place in Los Angeles — was on track.Newsom said the flurry of major sporting events in Los Angeles over the next few years — the city will also host the Super Bowl in 2027 — should be seen as an opportunity.”My humble position, and it’s not just being naively optimistic, (is) that only reinforces the imperative (of) moving quickly, doing it in the spirit of collaboration and cooperation,” Newsom told NBC.Conservative pundits however have wasted no time in demanding that Los Angeles be stripped of the Olympics.”The Los Angeles Olympics should be cancelled,” right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk wrote on X last week.”If you can’t fill a fire hydrant, you aren’t qualified to host the Olympics. Move them to Dallas, or Miami, so the world’s athletes can compete in a place capable of actually safely building and running something.”Los Angeles 2028 organizers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Joe Biden said Monday that America was stronger on the global stage than it had been for decades, in a swansong foreign policy speech one week before Donald Trump’s White House comeback.The outgoing US president took aim at Russia, China and Iran, and urged the West to maintain support for Ukraine in an address at the State Department setting out his international legacy.But Biden’s unspoken target was Trump as he touted his rebuilding of international alliances over the last four years after his Republican rival’s chaotic first term.”The United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago,” said Biden, after diplomats at the State Department gave him a standing ovation.”America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker.”The Democrat added that America’s ties with its allies were the strongest “in decades,” and said partners in the NATO military alliance were now “paying their fair share.”Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO countries, at one point saying he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell it wants” to allies that did not pay their way.The incoming president has also previously expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin — but Biden mocked Putin over the progress of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.”When Putin invaded, he thought he’d conquer Kyiv in a matter of days. The truth is, since that war began I’m the only one that stood in the center of Kyiv, not him,” said Biden.Biden became the first sitting US president to visit a warzone not controlled by American forces when he made a top secret visit to Ukraine’s capital in 2023.He said the United States and its allies “can’t walk away” from Ukraine, to which Washington has sent billions of dollars in military aid since the war started in 2022.- China won’t ‘surpass’ US -“There is more to do,” said Biden.Trump has vowed to get a Russia-Ukraine peace deal “in 24 hours” and there are fears in Kyiv he may force a ceasefire that sees Ukraine cede territory to Moscow.Biden meanwhile insisted that China would “never surpass us” and that the United States would remain the world’s dominant superpower.”According to the latest predictions, on China’s current course they will never surpass us — period,” Biden said.He added that Washington managed its complex ties with Beijing and that the relationship “never tipped over into conflict” in his four years as president.Biden’s speech was more restrained on Israel’s war in Gaza, with his administration facing criticism from within his own party for its unstinting support of Israel.But he said a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal was “on the brink” of “finally coming to fruition.”The Democrat also defended another major foreign policy fiasco — the fall of Afghanistan’s US-backed government to the Taliban and the bloody US withdrawal of 2021.”Ending the war was the right thing to do. And I believe history will reflect that,” Biden said.The 82-year-old president finally urged the Trump administration to continue Biden’s green energy policies, saying climate deniers under Trump were “dead wrong” and “come from a different century.”Biden’s foreign policy speech will be followed by a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office in primetime on Wednesday.

The body that awards the Oscars said Monday it was cancelling its ritzy nominees’ luncheon, as Los Angeles grapples with enormous wildfires that have crippled the city.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also moved its nomination announcement online, as Hollywood tries to navigate the sombre mood at a time it would usually be in full red carpet throttle.”We are all devastated by the impact of the fires and the profound losses experienced by so many in our community,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang.”The Academy has always been a unifying force within the film industry, and we are committed to standing together in the face of hardship.”The names of Oscar finalists will now be announced in a virtual event on January 23, while the nominees’ luncheon — a Champagne-swilling celebration of all those up for statuettes — is off, the Academy said.Huge fires have razed whole communities around Los Angeles, killing at least 24 people and destroying thousands of structures.Seven days after the blazes erupted, 92,000 people remain displaced, with widespread evacuation orders still in place.Stars including Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson and Billy Crystal lost their homes to the fires, and production was halted for TV and film.The industry is weighing how to navigate its just-started award season — an endless series of swanky premieres, galas and prize-giving ceremonies.Hollywood insiders are wary of appearing tone deaf to the suffering of a city that is home to many of the 680,000 people who work in TV and film.”Hacks” actress Jean Smart has advocated scrapping the entire season.”With ALL due respect, during Hollywood’s season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to the victims of the fires and the firefighters,” Smart wrote on Instagram.But the Academy said Monday that it would go ahead with its gala evening, the traditional finale to the season of gong-giving, hinting first responders would be present at the Dolby Theatre on March 2.”Our members always share how important it is for us to come together as a community, and we are determined to use this opportunity to celebrate our resilient and compassionate industry,” a statement said.”We also look forward to honoring our frontline workers who have aided with the fires, recognizing those impacted, and encouraging people to join the Academy in supporting the relief efforts.”

Megastar Bad Bunny announced on Monday a 21-concert residency in his homeland Puerto Rico, with the first nine shows limited to residents of the island.The announcement follows the successful release of his latest studio album, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which dropped earlier this month and immediately soared to top the albums chart.It was the largest streaming week for a Latin title in more than a year, according to Billboard, which runs the US charts.The concert residency at San Juan’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico — entitled “No Me Quiero Ir De Aqui” — is slated to begin July 11 and take place over subsequent Friday-Sunday three-day weekends.Known colloquially as “El Choli,” the arena can accomodate more than 18,000 attendees.That the first nine shows are available exclusively to Puerto Rican residents is an extension of the album that is a staunch affirmation of Bad Bunny’s roots on the Caribbean island.The album is a history lesson in Puerto Rican music and rhythms as well as a rallying cry that magnifies its colonial past and present and gentrification that favors luxury homes and tourism over the needs of Puerto Ricans.It’s also a loud call for Puerto Rican independence over US statehood.The 30-year-old has long used his platform as a means to give voice to his fellow Puerto Ricans, while also managing to rule the charts — and the world — with his reggaeton-forward blend of eminently danceable pop that’s found massive global success.In a video on his Instagram page that coincides with the announcement of the residency, Bad Bunny said in Spanish that he’s loved touring — but “for now, I am in Puerto Rico. I am at home and I am having a good time and if I am honest, I do not want to leave here.”

Search teams looking for people killed in devastating Los Angeles blazes moved from house to house Monday, as firefighters girded for hurricane-force winds that could spark further flare-ups.As the disaster entered its seventh day, with more than 90,000 people still displaced and swathes of America’s second biggest city in ruins, the first glimmers of normal life began to emerge.Schools — shuttered since roaring winds spread flames through whole communities — re-opened, while the city’s beloved Los Angeles Lakers basketball team were set to play again.But with strong Santa Ana winds forecast to return on Tuesday, officials said they were bracing for new problems.”The National Weather Service is predicting close to hurricane-force level winds, and so we’re making urgent preparations,” Mayor Karen Bass told a press conference.Forecasters expect “extreme fire behavior and life threatening conditions” in the coming days.Winds up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour mean a “particularly dangerous situation” from early Tuesday, said NWS meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.Roadblocks were in place around evacuation zones as police — backed up by California’s National Guard — stopped anyone from entering in an effort to prevent looting.Dozens of people have been arrested in the no-go zones, where an overnight curfew is in place, including one man disguised as a firefighter.- Visits halted to lost homes -Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Monday he would be announcing the first charges against those arrested.”I am working with over 750 Deputy District Attorneys and the entire law enforcement community to bring these people — who are despicable and disgraceful — to justice,” he said.A system that allowed evacuees short, escorted visits to their homes was stopped Sunday, as police became overwhelmed by queues several city blocks long.That was adding to the heartbreak for those forced to flee.”My house is gone, I know that. I’ve seen pictures and all that’s left is the chimney. But I need to see it by myself to believe it”, Fred Busche told AFP.The county coroner said Sunday that 24 people were now known to have perished in the fires, but that toll is expected to rise.Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said teams using cadaver dogs were going plot to plot in ruined areas.”It is a very grim task, and we unfortunately, every day we’re doing this, we’re running across the remains of individual community members,” he said.”That is not easy work. “That work is not only going to continue, but I believe we’ll continue to find remains.”The Palisades Fire has now consumed almost 24,000 acres (9,700 hectares) and was 14 percent contained, with limited fire activity at its boundaries.The Eaton Fire stood at 14,000 acres and a third of its perimeter was checked.More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed, a figure that includes homes, outbuildings and some vehicles.- Fresh resources -A huge firefighting effort was concentrating Monday on mopping up hotspots, with Los Angeles city fire chief Kristin Crowley telling reporters all hands were on deck ahead of the wind.”I have strategically pre positioned engine strike teams and task forces which are dedicated to rapid response for any new fire that breaks out,” she said.Operations were being bolstered by teams from all over the western United States and from neighboring countries.Mexican firefighter Benigno Hernandez Cerino, said he and his countrymen were honored to be able to help.”Our mission is to support our support for our brothers and sisters in Los Angeles, and to do the best possible job help them prevent fires,” he told AFP.In ravaged Altadena neighborhood, new aerial footage showed the extent of the damage as the smoke began to clear.Cameras in helicopters flying at 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), showed an enormous area blackened by the blaze, set in sharp relief by surrounding mountains.Fire investigation experts were combing the wreckage looking for clues to what caused the blazes, with residents desperate for answers and social media overflowing with unsubstantiated videos showing everything from hikers to power lines as seemingly at fault.While the ignition of a wildfire can be deliberate, they are often natural and a vital part of an environment’s life cycle.But urban sprawl puts people more frequently in harm’s way, and the changing climate — supercharged by humanity’s unchecked use of fossil fuels — is exacerbating the conditions that give rise to destructive blazes.

The Kremlin accused Ukraine on Monday of conducting “energy terrorism” and posing a danger to Europe’s energy security, after an attempted drone attack on part of a major gas pipeline that carries Russian supplies to Turkey.The allegation — which Kyiv has not commented on — comes amid an escalating energy row between the two countries, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale military offensive.Kyiv halted the transit of Russian gas to third countries via Ukraine on January 1 — ending decades of energy cooperation that had brought billions of dollars to both countries — in a bid to cut off revenue for Moscow’s army.The United States last week rolled out fresh sanctions on Russia’s oil sector in another blow to Moscow’s vital hydrocarbon industry.The Russian defence ministry said on Monday that Ukraine had fired nine attack drones on Saturday at a gas compressor station in the village of Gai-Kodzor, near Russia’s southern coast on the Black Sea.The site is across from the Crimean peninsula — which was unilaterally annexed by Russia in 2014 and has been heavily targeted by Kyiv throughout the three-year conflict.Moscow said the facility was part of the TurkStream pipeline and accused Ukraine of trying to “cut off gas supplies to European countries”.The defence ministry said all the drones were shot down but some “minor damage” was recorded from falling debris. Gas deliveries were unaffected.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the attack a “continuation of the line of energy terrorism that Kyiv has been pursuing, under the curation of its overseas friends, for a long time”, Russian state news agencies reported.He called it “very dangerous for European consumers” and said Russia’s foreign minister and the head of Gazprom had discussed it in a call with their Turkish counterparts on Sunday.Moscow’s forces have bombarded Ukraine’s energy sector with repeated aerial strikes since February 2022, causing major damage and power outages across the country.- ‘Sovereignty’ -TurkStream runs for 930 kilometres (580 miles) under the Black Sea from the Russian resort city of Anapa to Kiyikoy in northwestern Turkey, before connecting to overground pipelines that run up through the Balkans to western Europe.After the alleged attack, European Union member Hungary, which receives Russian gas via the route, called on its “security and operability” to be “respected by all”.”The security of energy supply is a sovereignty issue, so any action that threatens the security of our energy supply must be seen as an attack on sovereignty,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook. Austria and Slovakia had contracts for Russian gas via the now-cancelled Ukrainian transit route, with both countries saying they had secured alternative supplies.The Kremlin on Monday also accused the United States of “destabilising” the world energy market through fresh sanctions on Russian oil producers. The United States and Britain on Friday announced sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft and 180 ships it says are part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet”.The move came just days before US President Joe Biden leaves office.”Such decisions cannot but lead to a certain destabilisation of the global energy market,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters. The 27-member EU has been reducing its dependence on Russian gas since Moscow launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022. Despite imports via pipeline having fallen, several European countries have increased their purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is transported by sea.Russia also used to ship gas to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipelines that runs under the Baltic Sea.The pipelines were the target of a sabotage attack in 2022, which also hit one of the two Nord Stream 2 pipelines — a second undersea gas link between Russia and Germany that was never put into operation.Ukraine’s halt of gas transit has triggered a diplomatic row with Slovakia, which is facing higher costs to secure alternative gas supplies.On the battlefield, Russia said on Monday its forces had seized the village of Pishchane, a mining village southwest of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which Moscow is pressing to capture.

Firefighters were battling massive wildfires Monday that have ravaged Los Angeles and killed at least 24 people, with officials warning of incoming dangerous winds that could whip up the blazes further.The fires ripped through the United States’ second-largest city for the seventh day, reducing whole communities to scorched rubble and leaving thousands without homes.Massive firefighting efforts have staunched the spread of the Palisades Fire, which was looming toward upscale Brentwood and the densely populated San Fernando Valley.But conditions are set to dramatically worsen, with “extreme fire behavior and life threatening conditions” over the coming days.Winds up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour mean a “particularly dangerous situation” will be declared from early Tuesday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.Those gusts could fan flames and whip up embers from existing burn zones into new areas, firefighters warned.Los Angeles County Fire Department chief Anthony Marrone said his department had received resources including dozens of new water trucks and firefighters from far afield and was primed to face the renewed threat.Asked whether hydrants could run dry again, as they did during the initial outbreak of fires last week, Mayor Karen Bass replied: “I believe the city is prepared.”There was frustration for evacuees who were told they would not be returning home until at least Thursday when winds subside.Some have queued for hours in the hope of getting back to homes they fled to pick up medication or a change of clothes.- Search for bodies -But Sheriff Robert Luna said escorts into those areas were being suspended Sunday because of the winds and dangerous conditions among the wreckage, as well as the need to retrieve victims’ bodies.Teams with cadaver dogs were carrying out grid searches with the grim expectation that the confirmed death toll would rise.Several more arrests of looters were made, including one burglar who had dressed as a firefighter to steal from homes. Nighttime curfews in evacuated zones have been extended and additional National Guard resources have been requested.Henry Levinson was trying to get to his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.”I wanted to collect my dad’s ashes, which we had to leave behind, as well as my grandma’s ashes, which we also had to leave behind,” Levinson, an editor, told AFP on Sunday.- Fire tornado -The Palisades Fire has consumed 23,700 acres (9,500 hectares) and was just 13percent contained.Video footage showed “fire tornadoes”, red-hot spirals that occur when a blaze is so intense it creates its own weather system.But containment of the 14,000-acre Eaton Fire in Altadena had improved, figures showed, with 27 percent of its perimeter controlled.The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner published a list of fatalities without giving details of any identities. Eight of the dead were found in the Palisades Fire zone, and 16 in the Eaton Fire zone, the document said.The total number of residents under evacuation orders dropped to around 100,000, from a peak of almost 180,000. The LA Times reported that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), adjacent to the Palisades evacuation zone, was almost emptied as students voluntarily left despite there being no evacuation order issued for the campus.The sudden rush of people needing somewhere to live has posed a growing problem for the city, with reports of illegal price gouging from opportunistic landlords.California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed the city would rebuild, saying there would be a “Marshall Plan” — a reference to the US support that put Europe back on its feet after World War II. “We already have a team looking at reimagining L.A. 2.0,” he said.Some will have treasured items incinerated in the blaze replaced. Olympic chief Thomas Bach has promised US swim star Gary Hall Jr. that his lost medals will be replaced.- ‘Worst catastrophes’ -President-elect Donald Trump has accused California officials of incompetence, even though a heroic firefighting operation has operated 24/7 since the first flames erupted.That effort was bolstered Sunday with the arrival of crews from Mexico.They join teams from all over California and across the western United States who have come to help out.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky even offered on Sunday to send 150 personnel to California from his war-ravaged country.”The situation there is extremely difficult, and Ukrainians can help Americans save lives,” he wrote on social media.A huge investigation by federal and local authorities was underway to determine what caused the blazes.While the ignition of a wildfire can be deliberate, they are often natural and a vital part of an environment’s life cycle.But urban sprawl puts people more frequently in harm’s way, and the changing climate — supercharged by humanity’s unchecked use of fossil fuels — is exacerbating the conditions that give rise to destructive blazes.

Blue Origin, the US space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2000, has postponed the maiden voyage into orbital space of its brand-new rocket, New Glenn,  due to unspecified technical “anomalies.”Here are five key things to know about the heavy-lift vehicle aiming to challenge SpaceX’s dominance in the commercial space market.- Homage -New Glenn honors a legendary astronaut: John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.It follows in the steps of New Shepard, Blue Origin’s first rocket which was named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.Standing 320 feet (98 meters) tall — roughly equivalent to a 32-story building — New Glenn is both larger and more powerful than its smaller sibling, which is used for suborbital space tourism.- Heavy-lift -New Glenn is classified as a “heavy-lift launcher,” capable of placing substantial payloads into low-Earth orbit. It is expected to carry up to 45 tons into orbit.That is more than double that of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which can lift around 22 tons, though it falls short of the Falcon Heavy’s 63.8-ton capacity.However, New Glenn has a unique edge: its wider payload fairing, which can accommodate larger objects.It “has the largest capacity to put objects in space, large objects” as a result of its wider payload fairing, Elliott Bryner, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.- Swiss knife -Its versatility means New Glenn could become a “Swiss Army knife” of rockets, capable of deploying a diverse array of payloads to both low and higher orbits.These are set to include commercial and military satellites — as well as Project Kuiper, Bezos’s planned space internet constellation, to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.New Glenn also has the potential to carry crewed spacecraft, noted George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies. “One other potential use is for commercial space stations,” he added.With the International Space Station slated for decommissioning in 2030, the race is on to develop replacements. Blue Origin is among the contenders vying to build the first privately run platform.- Partially reusable -Like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, New Glenn features a reusable first-stage booster — designed for up to 25 flights — and an expendable second stage.But to reuse the rocket, Blue Origin first has to land it. The company has mastered the technique with its much smaller New Shepard rocket, which touches down on solid ground. However, reusing New Glenn will require a successful landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.This is no small feat: It took SpaceX six years to perfect the maneuver with Falcon 9 after its debut launch in 2010.”Landing a rocket like this, the way they’re doing it, is definitely not simple,” Bryner said. “The level of technology required to do this is unbelievable.”Yet achieving reusability is crucial to reducing costs and broadening access to space, added Nield.- Higher tech -Under the hood, New Glenn’s propulsion system represents a step up. The first stage is powered by liquid methane, a cleaner and more efficient fuel than the kerosene used in both stages of Falcon 9.Its second stage uses liquid hydrogen, an even cleaner and more powerful fuel, though more challenging to handle due to its cryogenic properties.”It’s the difference between driving a, you know, a Ferrari or a Volkswagen,” William Anderson, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, told AFP, comparing the technology behind New Glenn and Falcon 9.