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Gingerly placing a gun on her kitchen counter, American trans pilot Jo Ellis said she no longer leaves her apartment without a firearm after false online claims about her involvement in a fatal air crash triggered a deluge of threats.The career of the Black Hawk pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard hangs in limbo after a Pentagon memo last week revealed that transgender troops will be purged from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis.President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders targeting the trans community — a flash point in the so-called culture wars roiling the United States — including barring them from women’s sports and instructing the government to recognize only two sexes, male and female.Tens of thousands of social media posts falsely identified Ellis, 35, as one of the pilots of the army helicopter that collided with a passenger plane in Washington in late January, killing everyone aboard both aircrafts.Without offering any evidence, Trump suggested the aviation authority’s diversity hiring practices could partly be to blame for the crash, making trans personnel such as Ellis a ripe target for online rumors.Her friends alerted her to a random Facebook account asking around if people knew Ellis, calling her the one who “killed those people in the crash” and other posts that questioned whether it was a “trans terror attack.”Others sent her screenshots of two news sites, including a Pakistani outlet, which suggested that Ellis was piloting the ill-fated helicopter.As the rumors reached a fever pitch, with Ellis’s name trending on the Elon Musk-owned platform X, a British newspaper reporter called her cellphone asking if she was alive.”When I noticed how big the issue was, and I saw some of the comments, my first thought was: ‘Is my family safe?'” Ellis told AFP at her apartment in the city of Richmond.- ‘We’re a target’ -“I arranged armed private security for my house and packed my bags,” Ellis said, displaying her personal firearms, including a gun the size of her hand that she carries in her purse.Worried that someone might track down her home using public records, she temporarily moved her family to a new location.Ellis posted a “proof of life” video on Facebook, which quelled only some of the rumors.The threats facing Ellis, who has served in the National Guard since 2009 and has deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, highlight the real-life impact of disinformation for transgender people at a time when there has been a sharp uptick in the political rhetoric against them.”I believe we’re a target right now,” Ellis said.”We’re being vilified as this kind of boogeyman,” she added.Online posts suggested that her hatred for Trump had motivated her to kill herself and dozens of others, an accusation she found strange for someone who had voted “red more than blue.””I’m actually from a family that voted for Trump, so it’s very strange to see that.”- ‘Upsetting’ -Adding to that was job insecurity prompted by the Pentagon memo, which became public as part of a court filing in a case challenging Trump’s recent executive order aimed at barring military service for transgender personnel.Ellis said her supervisors, who reached out to offer support after the disinformation campaign, had informed her that the memo had not yet trickled down to them and encouraged her to continue for now.”It’s upsetting, but I will continue to place the mission first and do my job,” Ellis said of the memo.”I’m not sure I meet the criteria for a waiver, but I will try to exhaust all options that allow me to continue serving.”In a personal essay for the website Smerconish published just before the air crash, Ellis wrote she noticed symptoms of gender dysphoria from the age of five but learned to hide them from her family.Growing up in a religious and conservative home with a history of military service, she tried to be “more manly” in hopes it would “cure” her.She received “overwhelming support” when she notified her command in 2023 that she would begin transitioning. Ellis came out to her unit the following year.”If I was serving today and was not out, I would consider not coming out, or I would consider leaving the military,” she said.”Because it doesn’t seem like it’s an environment where you can serve effectively with the current policies coming down.”

Kieran Culkin on Sunday capped a remarkable year by winning the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in “A Real Pain,” a bittersweet look at family, friendships and Jewish loss stemming from the Holocaust.The 42-year-old Culkin — the frontrunner throughout Hollywood’s awards season — bested Yura Borisov (“Anora”), Edward Norton (“A Complete Unknown”), Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”) and Jeremy Strong (“The Apprentice”).Since January 2024, Culkin has won an Emmy for the final season of HBO’s media family drama “Succession” — on which he starred with Strong — and a pile of trophies for this film role including a Golden Globe, Critics Choice award and Screen Actors Guild Award.”I have no idea how I got here. I’ve just been acting my whole life. It’s just been a part of what I do,” Culkin told the audience, thanking his director, writer and co-star Jesse Eisenberg. “Thank you for this movie. You’re a genius. I would never say that to your face. I’m never saying it again,” Culkin said.”A Real Pain” follows estranged cousins Benji (Culkin) and Dave (Eisenberg) as they go on a so-called heritage tour of Poland to learn more about the early life of their grandmother, who survived the Holocaust.Free-spirited Benji has been somewhat lost since the grandmother died, and is hoping to rekindle his childhood friendship with David, a neurotic New Yorker with a partner, a child and 1,000 worries. Culkin’s performance is both subtle and showy, as Benji swings from sentimental and considerate to explosive and unhinged. The pair’s relationship plays out against the backdrop of a concentration camp and outings with their fellow tour takers.”I connected with the character immediately, which almost never happens,” Culkin told AFP at the film’s premiere at Sundance in early 2024.”I think it’s happened three times ever in my life,” including his beloved role on “Succession” as Roman Roy, he added.In December, Culkin told The New York Times: “I just wanted to show up and not rehearse and not think about it because the character’s spontaneous and surprising.”Eisenberg told USA Today that he cast Culkin — who is not Jewish — after his sister read the script and suggested the actor was the right fit.Culkin brought his “unusual energy” and “great sense of timing and intelligence” to filming, Eisenberg told AFP last month in an interview in Paris.- ‘Whole point of life’ -Born on September 30, 1982 in New York into a family of seven siblings, Culkin started acting as a child and made his film debut as the cousin of Kevin (played by his brother Macaulay) in the 1990 Christmas classic “Home Alone.”After turns in “Father of the Bride” (1991) and the less-well-received “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” the following year, the diminutive, dark-haired actor took a variety of film, television and stage roles.His critical breakthrough would come in 2002 with coming-of-age flick “Igby Goes Down” opposite Claire Danes, Bill Pullman and Susan Sarandon. The role earned him a Golden Globe nomination, but also sent him running from Hollywood.Culkin took roles on the stages of London’s West End and Broadway, including in two plays by Kenneth Lonergan. Eisenberg has said that pedigree is in part what led him to call about “A Real Pain.”A series of small parts followed, including a memorable one in “Scott Pilgrim vs the World” (2010) — and several forgettable ones.All that changed when he was cast as Roman Roy in “Succession,” a saga charting the back-stabbing dynastic squabbles of an ultra-wealthy family that debuted in 2018 to popular and critical acclaim. The series wrapped in 2023.Culkin earned an Emmy, two Critics Choice Awards and a Golden Globe for the role.The actor, who is married with two children, will next be the voice of Squealer in Andy Serkis’ animated adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” expected to be released this year, according to IMDb.Despite all the accolades of the past year, he told The New York Times that he acted to live, and not the reverse.”That stuff is nice, but the real stuff is me being home with my kids, when I’m reading them books and singing them songs until they go to sleep. That’s the whole point of life. The rest of it I’m doing so I can get back to that,” he said.

Hollywood’s A-listers on Sunday hit the red carpet at the Oscars, with joint favorites “Anora” and “Conclave” seemingly poised for a showdown for the best picture prize.A twisty awards season rocked by Los Angeles wildfires and a racist tweet scandal reaches its climax with the 97th Academy Awards gala, hosted by Conan O’Brien, kicking off at 4:00 pm (0000 GMT Monday).As stars make the final adjustments to their gowns and tuxedos, the race for Hollywood’s grandest prize is too close to call, with two wildly different films seen as frontrunners for best picture.”There will be real tension,” said Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley. “I would say if ‘Conclave’ doesn’t win, it’s definitely going to be ‘Anora.'””Both sides are feeling more nervous than confident… that should be an indicator that this is really a nail-biter,” The Hollywood Reporter’s awards expert Scott Feinberg told AFP.Sean Baker’s “Anora” — about a New York stripper and escort who weds a wealthy Russian playboy, only to learn that her dream marriage is a nightmare illusion — won the Cannes festival’s Palme d’Or last May.The low-budget indie has accrued top prizes from Hollywood directors, producers, writers and critics.But, Coley says, “it is a little bit polarizing because of the sex worker aspect.””Conclave” — a film about the secretive and cutthroat election of a new Catholic leader, lent an uncanny timeliness by the real-life Pope Francis’s health woes — appears to have won over many late voters.The film starring Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini earned top honors from Britain’s BAFTAs, and the Hollywood actors’ SAG Award for best cast.”It is an old-school thriller with an all-star cast,” said Coley.One Oscars voter told AFP they had voted for “Conclave” because “it’s just more of a traditional, classic ‘best picture’ film.”- Oscar records -The voter, anonymous because Academy members cannot reveal their picks, also expressed admiration for “The Brutalist,” a potential dark horse about a Hungarian Jewish architect making a new life in the United States after World War II.Adrien Brody, who plays the titular gifted architect and Holocaust survivor, has been the presumed favorite to win the best actor Oscar for months. Brody has won the prize previously, for 2002’s “The Pianist.” If he prevails again, he’d join an elite club of double winners including Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.But Timothee Chalamet — who earned wide admiration for his pitch-perfect performance as a sardonic young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” — won the Screen Actors Guild Award over Brody, and could prove a spoiler.At just 29, he arguably has the most star power of any of this year’s nominees, and would beat Brody’s record as the category’s youngest-ever winner.Brody is “still the safer pick,” said Feinberg — assuming enough Academy voters made it through his film’s three-and-a-half-hour runtime.- ‘Comeback story’ -There could be an even younger winner on the actress side, if a groundswell of support for “Anora” carries its star Mikey Madison, 25, to the Oscars stage.But she will have to get past Demi Moore, the 1990s megastar who has enjoyed a sparkling career renaissance thanks to gory body horror flick “The Substance.””Hollywood loves a comeback story,” said the Oscars voter.If the vote is split, Brazil’s Fernanda Torres could spring a surprise with “I’m Still Here,” about a family ripped apart by her country’s military dictatorship.But the Academy Award hopes of fellow nominee Karla Sofia Gascon, of musical narco-thriller “Emilia Perez,” appear to have collapsed. Gascon, the first openly trans acting nominee, saw her campaign implode after years-old racist tweets about Islam, China and American George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of US police in 2020, went viral.The controversy also sunk Netflix’s chance of its first best picture win, though co-star Zoe Saldana remains the favorite to win for best supporting actress.Best supporting actor appears to be similarly locked. Kieran Culkin has won almost everything going this year for his portrayal of a charismatic but troubled cousin on an ancestral road trip through Poland in “A Real Pain.”- ‘Wicked’ stars -The ceremony itself is expected to be an emotional affair.It will honor firefighters who battled blazes that killed at least 29 people and devastated Los Angeles in January.Hoping to capitalize on a recent ratings uptick — last year’s gala featured a memorable “Barbie”-themed musical showstopper — producers have enlisted “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo to perform.Doja Cat and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink will also take the stage.For the first time, the gala will stream live on Hulu, as well as on US network ABC, and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

The red carpet has been rolled out, the champagne is on ice, and Hollywood is ready to crown the year’s best movie, with joint favorites “Anora” and “Conclave” seemingly poised for a tense showdown at Sunday’s Oscars.A twisty awards season rocked by Los Angeles wildfires and a racist tweet scandal reaches its climax with the 97th Academy Awards gala, hosted by Conan O’Brien, kicking off at 4:00 pm (0000 GMT Monday).As stars make the final adjustments to their gowns and tuxedos, the race for Hollywood’s grandest prize is too close to call, with two wildly different films seen as frontrunners for best picture.”There will be real tension,” said Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley. “I would say if ‘Conclave’ doesn’t win, it’s definitely going to be ‘Anora.'””Both sides are feeling more nervous than confident… that should be an indicator that this is really a nail-biter,” The Hollywood Reporter’s awards expert Scott Feinberg told AFP.Sean Baker’s “Anora” — about a New York stripper and escort who weds a wealthy Russian playboy, only to learn that her dream marriage is a nightmare illusion — won the Cannes festival’s Palme d’Or last May.The low-budget indie has accrued top prizes from Hollywood directors, producers, writers and critics.But, Coley says, “it is a little bit polarizing because of the sex worker aspect.””Conclave” — a film about the secretive and cutthroat election of a new Catholic leader, lent an uncanny timeliness by the real-life Pope Francis’s health woes — appears to have won over many late voters.The film starring Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini earned top honors from Britain’s BAFTAs, and the Hollywood actors’ SAG Award for best cast.”It is an old-school thriller with an all-star cast,” said Coley.One Oscars voter told AFP they had voted for “Conclave” because “it’s just more of a traditional, classic ‘best picture’ film.”- Oscar records -The voter, anonymous because Academy members cannot reveal their picks, also expressed admiration for “The Brutalist,” a potential dark horse about a Hungarian Jewish architect making a new life in the United States after World War II.Adrien Brody, who plays the titular gifted architect and Holocaust survivor, has been the presumed favorite to win the best actor Oscar for months. Brody has won the prize previously, for 2002’s “The Pianist.” If he prevails again, he’d join an elite club of double winners including Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.But Timothee Chalamet — who earned wide admiration for his pitch-perfect performance as a sardonic young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” — won the Screen Actors Guild Award over Brody, and could prove a spoiler.At just 29, he arguably has the most star power of any of this year’s nominees, and would beat Brody’s record as the category’s youngest-ever winner.Brody is “still the safer pick,” said Feinberg — assuming enough Academy voters made it through his film’s three-and-a-half-hour runtime.- ‘Comeback story’ -There could be an even younger winner on the actress side, if a groundswell of support for “Anora” carries its star Mikey Madison, 25, to the Oscars stage.But she will have to get past Demi Moore, the 1990s megastar who had enjoyed a sparkling career renaissance thanks to gory body horror flick “The Substance.””Hollywood loves a comeback story,” said the Oscars voter.If the vote is split, Brazil’s Fernanda Torres could spring a surprise with “I’m Still Here,” about a family ripped apart by her country’s military dictatorship.But the Academy Award hopes of fellow nominee Karla Sofia Gascon, of musical narco-thriller “Emilia Perez,” appear to have collapsed. Gascon, the first openly trans acting nominee, saw her campaign implode after years-old racist tweets about Islam, China and American George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of US police in 2020, went viral.The controversy also sunk Netflix’s chance of its first best picture win, though co-star Zoe Saldana remains the favorite to win for best supporting actress.Best supporting actor appears to be similarly locked. Kieran Culkin has won almost everything going this year for his portrayal of a charismatic but troubled cousin on an ancestral road trip through Poland in “A Real Pain.”- ‘Wicked’ stars -The ceremony itself is expected to be an emotional affair.It will honor firefighters who battled blazes that killed at least 29 people and devastated Los Angeles in January.Hoping to capitalize on a recent ratings uptick — last year’s gala featured a memorable “Barbie”-themed musical showstopper — producers have enlisted “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo to perform.Doja Cat and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink will also take the stage.For the first time, the gala will stream live on Hulu, as well as on US network ABC, and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

A US company successfully landed its spacecraft on the Moon on Sunday, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone — and the first to do so upright.Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 3:34 am US Eastern Time (0834 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon’s northeastern near side.The mission control team in Austin, Texas, erupted in cheers as CEO Jason Kim confirmed that the spacecraft was “stable and upright.”That stood in stark contrast to the first private lunar landing last February, which toppled over upon arrival, dulling the achievement of being the first US Moon touchdown since the crewed Apollo 17 mission of 1972.”We’re on the Moon!” exclaimed Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.Blue Ghost’s program manager, Ray Allensworth, highlighted the precision of the landing, noting it touched down within 100 meters of its target.”We did do two hazard avoidance maneuvers on the way down — that tells us that our software did work exactly as it needed to,” she told reporters.The first image from the lander revealed rugged, pockmarked terrain that Blue Ghost had to autonomously navigate during its final descent, slowing from thousands of miles per hour to just two mph.Meanwhile, 95-year-old Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin joined the celebration from home, posting his congratulations on X along with a video of himself in pajamas, beaming and flashing a thumbs-up at the webcast.- NASA experiments -Nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” the mission is part of a $2.6 billion NASA partnership with industry called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which aims to cut costs and support Artemis, the program designed to return astronauts to the Moon.The golden lander — about the size of a hippopotamus — launched on January 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, capturing spectacular footage of Earth and the Moon over its 2.8 million-mile (4.5 million-kilometer) journey. It shared the ride with a Japanese company’s lander aiming for its own touchdown in May.Blue Ghost carries 10 instruments, including a lunar soil analyzer, a radiation-tolerant computer and an experiment testing the feasibility of using the existing global satellite navigation system to navigate the Moon.Designed to operate for a full lunar day (14 Earth days), Blue Ghost is expected to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse on March 14, when Earth blocks the Sun from the Moon’s horizon.On March 16, it will record a lunar sunset, offering insights into how dust levitates above the surface under solar influence — creating the mysterious lunar horizon glow first documented by Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.- Another lander coming – Blue Ghost will be followed on March 6 by fellow Texas-based Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, featuring its lander, Athena.During the company’s first mission in February 2024, the lander touched down too fast, snagging a foot on the surface and toppling over, cutting operations short.Intuitive Machines says it has since made key improvements to the hexagonal-shaped vehicle, which has a taller, slimmer profile than Blue Ghost and is roughly the height of a giraffe.Athena aims to touch down farther south on the Moon than any previous mission and its payloads include three rovers, a drill to search for ice, and the star of the show: a first-of-its-kind hopping drone.Landing on the Moon is uniquely challenging due to its lack of atmosphere, making parachutes useless. Instead, spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burns to slow their descent while maneuvering over hazardous terrain.Until Intuitive Machines’ first mission, only five national space agencies had accomplished this feat: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan, in that order. The missions come at a delicate moment for NASA, amid speculation that it may scale back or even cancel its Artemis lunar program in favor of prioritizing Mars exploration — a key goal of both President Donald Trump and his close advisor, SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

A US company successfully landed its spacecraft on the Moon on Sunday, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone — and the first to do so upright.Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down shortly after 3:34 am US Eastern Time (0834 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon’s northeastern near side.”Y’all stuck the landing, we’re on the Moon,” an engineer at mission control in Austin, Texas, called out as the team erupted in cheers.CEO Jason Kim confirmed that the spacecraft was “stable and upright” — in contrast to the first private landing last February, which came down sideways.”We’re on the Moon!” Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, rejoiced.The first image from the lander revealed the rocky, pockmarked terrain it had to autonomously navigate in order to select its touchdown spot, having slowed down from thousands of miles per hour to just two mph.Nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” the mission is part of a NASA-industry partnership aimed at reducing costs and supporting Artemis, the program designed to return astronauts to the Moon.The golden lander, about the size of a hippopotamus, launched on January 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, capturing stunning footage of Earth and the Moon along its 2.8 million mile journey. It shared a ride with a Japanese company’s lander set to attempt a landing in May.Blue Ghost carries 10 instruments, including a lunar soil analyzer, a radiation-tolerant computer and an experiment testing the feasibility of using the existing global satellite navigation system to navigate the Moon.Designed to operate for a full lunar day (14 Earth days), Blue Ghost is expected to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse on March 14, when Earth blocks the Sun from the Moon’s horizon.On March 16, it will record a lunar sunset, offering insights into how dust levitates above the surface under solar influence — creating the mysterious lunar horizon glow first documented by Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.- Hopping drone – Blue Ghost’s arrival will be followed on March 6 by fellow Texas company Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, featuring its lander Athena.In February 2024, Intuitive Machines became the first private company to achieve a soft lunar landing — also the first US landing since the crewed Apollo 17 mission of 1972. However, the success was tempered by a mishap: the lander came down too fast and tipped over on impact, leaving it unable to generate enough solar power and cutting the mission short.This time, the company says it has made key improvements to the hexagonal-shaped lander, which has a taller, slimmer profile than Blue Ghost, and is around the height of an adult giraffe.Athena launched on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket, taking a more direct route toward Mons Mouton — the southernmost lunar landing site ever attempted.Its payloads include three rovers, a drill to search for ice and the star of the show: a first-of-its-kind hopping drone designed to explore the Moon’s rugged terrain.- NASA’s private Moon fleet – Landing on the Moon presents unique challenges due to the absence of an atmosphere, making parachutes ineffective.Instead, spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burns to slow their descent.Until Intuitive Machines’ first successful mission, only five national space agencies had accomplished this feat: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan, in that order. Now, the United States is working to make private lunar missions routine through NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.The missions come at a delicate moment for NASA, amid speculation that it may scale back or even cancel its Artemis lunar program in favor of prioritizing Mars exploration — a key goal of both President Donald Trump and his close advisor, SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

After a long journey through space, a US company is just hours away from attempting a daring lunar touchdown — its spacecraft poised to become only the second private lander to achieve the feat if it succeeds.Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 is targeting landing no sooner than 3:34 am US Eastern time (0834 GMT) on Sunday, aiming for a site near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature in Mare Crisium on the Moon’s northeastern near side.”The lander has really behaved well,” Blue Ghost’s program manager Ray Allensworth said on a live webcast from mission control in Austin, Texas. “We haven’t had any major anomalies, which is fantastic.”Nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” the mission comes just over a year after the first-ever commercial lunar landing and is part of a NASA partnership with industry to cut costs and support Artemis, the program aiming to return astronauts to the Moon.The golden lander, about the size of a hippopotamus, launched on January 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, capturing stunning footage of Earth and the Moon along the way. It shared a ride with a Japanese company’s lander set to attempt a landing in May.Blue Ghost carries 10 instruments, including a lunar soil analyzer, a radiation-tolerant computer and an experiment testing the feasibility of using the existing global satellite navigation system to navigate the Moon.Designed to operate for a full lunar day (14 Earth days), Blue Ghost is expected to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse on March 14, when Earth blocks the Sun from the Moon’s horizon.On March 16, it will record a lunar sunset, offering insights into how dust levitates above the surface under solar influence — creating the mysterious lunar horizon glow first documented by Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.- Hopping drone – Blue Ghost’s arrival will be followed on March 6 by fellow Texas company Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, featuring its lander Athena.In February 2024, Intuitive Machines became the first private company to achieve a soft lunar landing — also the first US landing since the crewed Apollo 17 mission of 1972. However, the success was tempered by a mishap: the lander came down too fast, tipped over on impact, leaving it unable to generate enough solar power and cutting the mission short.This time, the company says it has made key improvements to the hexagonal-shaped lander, which has a taller, slimmer profile than Blue Ghost, and is around the height of an adult giraffe.Athena launched on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket, taking a more direct route toward Mons Mouton — the southernmost lunar landing site ever attempted.Its payloads include three rovers, a drill to search for ice and the star of the show: a first-of-its-kind hopping drone designed to explore the Moon’s rugged terrain.- NASA’s private Moon fleet – Landing on the Moon presents unique challenges due to the absence of an atmosphere, making parachutes ineffective.Instead, spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burns to slow their descent.Until Intuitive Machines’ first successful mission, only five national space agencies had accomplished this feat: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan, in that order. Now, the United States is working to make private lunar missions routine through NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.The missions come at a delicate moment for NASA, amid speculation that it may scale back or even cancel its Artemis lunar program in favor of prioritizing Mars exploration — a key goal of both President Donald Trump and his close advisor, SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

With planting season well under way in California, the leading US food-producing state, fear is taking root among thousands of migrants who labor to feed a country that now seems ready to deport them.”We have to stay hidden,” Lourdes Cardenas, a 62-year-old Mexican living in the city of Fresno, told AFP.”You are unsure if you will encounter the immigration authorities. We can’t be free anywhere, not in schools, not in churches, not in supermarkets,” said Cardenas, who has lived in the United States for 22 years.President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has left people like her “depressed, sad, anxious” and fearful of being deported, she said.Cardenas is one of more than two million people working on farms in the United States. Most were born outside the country, speak Spanish and, on average, arrived more than 15 years ago. Still, 42 percent of them lack the documents that would allow them to work legally, according to the government’s own figures.In January, surprise raids by immigration officials in Bakersfield, an agricultural city about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Mexican border, sent chills through workers in California’s breadbasket Central Valley.They were a stark reminder that the country some of them have called home for decades elected a man who wants them gone.”We were not afraid of the pandemic,” said Cardenas, who did not stop working during the worst months of Covid-19. “But right now this is getting bad for us.” – Lower wages – While they might be staying away from church, or altering their shopping habits, the one thing these migrant workers cannot do is stay away from work.That is why for the United Farm Workers, the largest farm workers’ union in the United States, the threatened mass deportations will not translate into more jobs for Americans.Instead, they say, it will further drive down the cost of those migrant workers, making employers less likely to pay them the much higher salaries that American workers demand.”You have thousands of people who are so afraid of being deported that they’re willing to work for way less,” union spokesman Antonio de Loera told AFP. “They’re not going to report wage theft. So if anything, it’s undercutting the value of American workers.”This status quo serves the interest of many employers in the agricultural industry. For them, this is the sweet spot,” de Loera said. “They have their workers but their workers are so afraid that they won’t organize, they won’t ask for higher wages, they won’t even report violations of labor law or unsafe working conditions.”There is, he said, a fairly simple solution: grant the workers legal status.”Once they are US citizens, then we’re all competing on a fair, level playing field. We all have the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.”- Trend to automation -The overall uncertainty offers an opportunity for companies that manufacture increasingly automated machines.”The agricultural community depends a lot upon migrant labor and if they’re no longer available or able to get to work, we need to help come up with solutions,” said Loren Vandergiessen, a product specialist at farm implement maker Oxbo. The company was one of a number present at the World Ag Expo, the largest agricultural exhibition in the United States, held last month in Tulare, north of Bakersfield.Its line-up included a berry harvester the company estimates reduces labor requirements by up to 70 percent.Cory Venable, Oxbo’s director of sales and advertising, said automation can help a farmer’s bottom line.”It’s becoming harder to find people to be able to do this work,” and labor costs are challenging, he said.”So by having this type of technology, we can decrease that sum.”Gary Thompson, director of operations for Global Unmanned Spray System, was showcasing a device that can allow one person to operate a fleet capable of doing the work that would require up to a dozen tractors.”Over the years, the labor challenges just continually get more and more difficult: the shortage of labor, the cost, the regulations involved,” he said.”The farming industry is really looking at autonomy, not as just like, oh, that’s something in the future, but it’s something that’s happening now.”But for those already laboring in the fields, such machines can never replace the human touch required for picking grapes, peaches and plums.”A machine will destroy them,” said Cardenas, “and we cannot.””We farmers are indispensable.”

The United States on Saturday denounced what it said were Venezuelan naval vessels “threatening” an ExxonMobil unit in maritime territory claimed by Guyana.The statement, which warned of “consequences” if there were further provocation from Caracas, came hours after Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said a Venezuelan patrol boat had “approached various assets in our exclusive waters” around 7:00 am (1100 GMT).Guyana had “put its international partners on alert,” he said on Facebook.The US State Department warned against any further encroachment.”Venezuelan naval vessels threatening ExxonMobil’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is unacceptable and a clear violation of Guyana’s internationally recognized maritime territory,” said the statement from the department’s US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.”Further provocation will result in consequences for the Maduro regime,” it warned.English-speaking Guyana, long one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has seen heightened tensions with Venezuela over control of the disputed Essequibo territory, a sprawling region rich in natural resources.Tensions have flared since 2015, after petroleum giant ExxonMobil discovered enormous deposits that gave Guyana, a country of just 800,000 people and with a tiny military, the largest crude oil reserves in the world.The government in Georgetown granted a new contract in April 2024 to ExxonMobil, further fueling tensions.Ali said on Facebook that the floating production vessels were “operating legally within Guyana’s exclusive economic zone.””Guyana remains committed to peace and the rule of law,” he said in a later post.”We will continue to seek diplomatic solutions, but we will not tolerate threats to our territorial integrity.” Venezuela for its part said it “categorically repudiates the unfounded statements” by Ali, claiming he was “blatantly lying” by saying its navy had violated Guyana’s territory.”Those waters are not part of Guyanese territory, since it is a maritime zone pending delimitation in accordance with international law,” a foreign ministry statement said.- Soldiers wounded -Tensions were fanned on February 17 when Guyana said six of its soldiers were wounded when a supply transport was ambushed, allegedly by members of a Venezuelan criminal gang.That happened on the anniversary of the signing of a 1966 agreement between Venezuela and Britain, reached before Guyanese independence, which called for a negotiated solution to the territorial dispute.Guyana, however, insists that an earlier 1899 ruling has fixed the disputed border in its favor.In 2023, Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro proposed declaring a Venezuelan province in the disputed territory. Ali and Maduro met amid the heightened tensions in December that year for talks on neutral ground, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.They agreed to avoid any use of force, “directly or indirectly.”Weeks after the meeting, Britain sent the patrol ship HMS Trent on a port visit to Georgetown, a gesture Maduro deemed a “provocation and threat by the United Kingdom.” Venezuela then launched a major military exercise in the border region, including more than 5,600 soldiers, F-14 fighter jets, amphibious vessels and patrol boats.

France’s president used charm to deal with Donald Trump. Britain’s prime minister pulled out a royal invitation.But when Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky found himself disagreeing with the combustible US president, he tried bluntness instead — and paid a price.Friday’s shocking scene in the Oval Office blew up a years-long wartime alliance between pro-Western Ukraine and the United States.Zelensky, previously hailed in Washington as a Churchillian figure, was shouted at by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, then ejected from the White House without lunch.And also without signing a US-Ukraine minerals sharing deal, seen as key to American backing for a truce with Russia.Zelensky’s sin? Publicly contradicting Trump on facts of the Ukraine war, then refusing to back down.”He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,” Trump posted on social media.Since returning for a second term, Trump has stretched the norms and even legal boundaries of how much power a US president can wield at home.In foreign policy, he is also making clear that the days of consensus-building are over. Now, it’s whatever he says goes.Nowhere is that shift starker than on Ukraine.Trump’s U-turn — in which Russia is more partner than pariah and Ukraine more a client than ally — brought French President Emmanuel Macron and British PM Keir Starmer rushing to the White House this week.Like Zelensky, they worry that Trump wants to force Kyiv into a peace deal that gives Russian President Vladimir Putin what he wants, while leaving Ukraine broken and insecure.But they both knew they had to cater to Trump’s demand to be treated as a leader who shouldn’t be questioned.Macron engaged Trump in a series of handshakes, knee touching and back slapping that clearly pleased his host. This helped to soften the tension when the French president publicly corrected Trump after he repeated one of his most frequent falsehoods — that Europe gives far less money than Washington to Ukraine and will get it all back.Days later, Starmer heard the same disinformation and also corrected Trump. Yet Starmer already had delighted Trump with a signed invitation from King Charles III to visit Britain.- Angry tag-team -In Zelensky’s case, the stakes were entirely different.Rather than correcting Trump on the relatively minor issue of who’s paying what, he tried to push back on the White House’s entire embrace of an increasingly pro-Moscow narrative.Even before he arrived, Trump and his Republican allies had taken to calling Zelensky a dictator and echoing false Kremlin claims that Russia didn’t start the war.Then, in front of journalists invited for the occasion, Trump insisted to Zelensky that he would have to compromise with Putin and chided him for being hostile to the man Zelensky called a “killer.”When Vance chimed in, calling Zelensky ungrateful and an obstacle to diplomacy, the Ukrainian made his fateful decision to debate.”What kind of diplomacy, JD?” he asked Vance, enumerating diplomatic initiatives over the years that have failed to stop Moscow’s military encroachments.Vance angrily called Zelensky “disrespectful” and before long he and Trump were tag-teaming against their would-be ally.- Would flattery have worked? -Trump’s followers immediately blamed Zelensky.”What kind of dictator would insult President Trump and VP Vance while begging for money to fund a war he could never win?” wrote @GuntherEagleman, a far-right Trump supporter whose real name is David Freeman and has 1.3 million followers on X.Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hardcore Trump supporter in Congress, called Zelensky “arrogant.”Her boyfriend Brian Glenn, who was in the Oval Office as a reporter for right-wing Real America’s Voice television, mockingly asked Ukraine’s president why he wasn’t wearing a suit.”I will wear (a suit) after this war finishes,” Zelensky, who wears military-style outfits, answered wearily.Some analysts said Zelensky should have been more strategic.”The only thing Zelensky should have said in public — no matter what the question — was ‘Thank you, Mr President. Thank you, America,” Fox News commentator and retired general Jack Keane said. “Over and over.”CNN foreign policy expert Fareed Zakaria said Zelensky’s first words should have been that Trump was “a genius.”But for Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, no amount of diplomatic skills or flattery would have saved Zelensky, because Trump was pushing a settlement that “hands Ukraine to Putin” — and Zelensky knew it.The Oval Office was an “ambush,” Murphy wrote on X.