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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.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will have to wait a little longer for the long-anticipated maiden orbital flight of its brand-new rocket after a launch attempt dragged on for hours before being canceled due to unspecified technical issues.The towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of legendary astronaut John Glenn, was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window starting at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday.But the countdown repeatedly stalled as teams scrambled to resolve “anomalies,” before the mission was officially “scrubbed” around 3:10 am — a common occurrence in the space industry, but disappointing nonetheless for the hundreds of thousands of people who stayed up to watch the live feed.”We are standing down today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window,” Ariane Cornell, a Blue Origin executive, said on the webcast.She added: “We are reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”With the mission, dubbed NG-1, billionaire Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, vital for the commercial sector, the Pentagon and NASA.Bezos, who founded Blue Origin a quarter-of-a-century ago and celebrated his 61st birthday on Sunday, watched events unfold from the nearby launch control room. Musk, for his part, wished Blue Origin “Good luck!” on X.”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, told AFP, expecting the competition to drive down costs. SpaceX, meanwhile, is planning the next orbital test of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket — this week, upping the high-stakes rivalry.- Landing attempt -When New Glenn does fly, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, in honor of Bezos’s mother, stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. Though SpaceX has long made such landings a near-routine spectacle, this will be Blue Origin’s first shot at a touchdown on the high seas.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 fare 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 the 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.”He founded Blue Origin in 2000 — two years before Musk created SpaceX — but has adopted a more cautious pace, in contrast to his rival’s “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy.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.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told US President Joe Biden that his blocking of Nippon Steel’s takeover of US Steel raised “strong” concerns in both countries, local media reported Monday.The comments came in a three-way call with the president of the Philippines that according to the White House also touched on China’s “dangerous and unlawful” behaviour in the region.Citing national security concerns, Biden nixed Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion acquisition of US Steel earlier this month, irking close ally Japan where the United States has some 54,000 military personnel.”I said that strong voices of concerns are being raised not just in Japan but also in the US business community, and I urged (Biden) to dispel these feelings,” Ishiba told reporters after the call on Monday.Blocking a takeover by a Japanese firm is highly unusual and both firms have launched legal action, accusing the outgoing US president of “illegal interference”.Nippon Steel had touted the acquisition as a lifeline for its struggling US rival, but opponents warned the Japanese group would slash jobs despite its assurances to the contrary.The takeover, which was announced in 2023, came in the run-up to last year’s US presidential election and proved a political flashpoint.US Steel is based in the swing state of Pennsylvania and both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris opposed the transaction.- ‘Big picture’ -Japanese firms invested almost $800 billion in the United States in 2023, more than any other country, and 14.3 percent of the total, according to official US data.US firms are also the biggest outside investors in Japan.Japan is also a close strategic ally for Washington as it seeks to counter China asserting its presence in contested areas of the South China Sea.Both steel companies said Sunday that US authorities have extended the deadline for unwinding the acquisition until June 18.Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, who will attend Trump’s inauguration as US president on January 20, said it was important not to undermine the “big picture” of bilateral ties.Iwaya also said that while in Washington he would seek talks with Marco Rubio, slated to be Trump’s Secretary of State, and to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Ishiba and Trump.Kyodo News cited government sources as saying that this could take place before mid-February.During Trump’s first term, he and Japan’s then-prime minister Shinzo Abe, enjoyed warm relations. In December, Trump met Abe’s widow at Mar-a-Lago.- US allies -In recent years, with an eye on China, Washington has sought to improve strategic relations with both Japan and the Philippines as well as with South Korea. Biden, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and with Ishiba’s predecessor Fumio Kishida held talks at the White House last April.In another first, in 2023 Biden hosted Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol — who briefly imposed martial law last month — at Camp David.Last year the Philippines ratified a key defence pact with Japan, which allows them to deploy troops on each other’s soil. On Monday Biden, Marcos and Ishiba “discussed trilateral maritime security and economic cooperation, as well as the People’s Republic of China’s dangerous and unlawful behaviour in the South China Sea,” the White House said.”The three Leaders agreed on the importance of continued coordination to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said a statement, which made no mention of the steel deal.Marcos’s office said that the call was to “reaffirm their commitment to strengthening cooperation in areas such as economic growth, emerging technologies, climate action, clean energy and regional security”.Biden also “highlighted the ‘historic progress’ made, particularly in maritime security, economic security and technological collaboration” between the three countries, the Philippines statement said.

Tens of thousands of people forced from their homes by enormous fires raking Los Angeles will not be able to return for at least four days, officials said Sunday.Frustrated evacuees have formed lines at checkpoints hoping to get into no-go zones barricaded off amid the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire.Many are desperate to get back to homes they had to flee with just a few moments’ notice to pick up medicines or clothes they did not have a chance to grab.Others simply want to find out if their houses have survived.But Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said Sunday that gusting winds forecast this week mean the fire emergency is far from over.”They can’t go home, simply because it’s not safe,” he told a press conference.”It’s our collective priority… to be able to get residents back in their homes just as quickly as possible. “That conversation is not going to occur until the end of the predicted red flag event that’s on its way,” he said, referring to the strong winds expected to last until Wednesday.”Please rest assured that first thing Thursday, we will start talking about repopulation.”Lines several city blocks long have seen people queuing for up to 11 hours for a short escorted visit to their home in an evacuation zone.One woman, who gave her name as Janelle, told broadcaster KTLA she knew her house was gone, but she needed “closure.””I see the photos, I see the videos, and I just want to see it with my own eyes,” she said, her voice breaking.”I know it’s gone, but… I just want to see it for myself.”- Dad’s ashes -Editor 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,” he told AFP on Sunday.But even those escorted visits were stopped Sunday, as firefighters fretted about strengthening winds and their potential to reignite smoldering embers.Marrone said a system was being developed to allow evacuated residents to go online to view if their homes were damaged or destroyed.Los Angeles City Councilor Traci Park said she understood the anguish of those affected, but conditions were simply too dangerous.”These are hard decisions, and I know that many of my constituents are disappointed and frustrated, but safety must remain our top priority,” she said.Around 100,000 people remain under compulsory evacuation orders in multiple fire zones, down from a peak of 180,000 last week.Areas hit by fires have been devastated, with whole streets reduced to cinders, and infrastructure badly mangled.Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said his deputies would continue to keep people out of the zones.”A lot of these areas still look like they were hit by a bomb. There are live electrical wires, gas lines and other hazards,” he said.”I know there’s a lot of folks trying to get back to their houses. We are very empathetic and sensitive to those needs, but your safety comes first.” The latest official death toll from the deadly blazes stood at 24, but was expected to rise as search teams with dogs go house to house.

An Australian mother has spoken of how she tried in vain to save her blind son from the Los Angeles wildfires as water supplies ran dry.Shelley Sykes, a TV production entrepreneur, told Australian media of a desperate battle to save her 32-year-old son Rory, who had cerebral palsy.Wind-fanned wildfires have killed at least 24 people in Los Angeles, consuming communities and destroying homes. Sykes said on social media that she and her son lived on a 6.8-hectare (17-acre) estate in Malibu, a beachside city in Los Angeles County. Rory Sykes, who appeared in British TV show “Kiddy Kapers” in the 1990s, had his own self-contained cottage on the estate, she said.Her son was blind and had difficulty walking.”Rory’s feet with the heat had started to swell, and he couldn’t walk very well. And he also had problems with his tummy. So he didn’t want to be far away from the bathroom,” Sykes told Australia’s Channel Nine on Sunday.”So he said, ‘Mum, you go, I’m staying’.”Sykes said she could not leave her son alone on the estate.”I stayed in the main property with my two peacocks in a bathroom because it was hard to breathe. Sitting on the floor with bottled water and trying to keep wet.”Sykes said she saw embers on the roof of her son’s cottage and tried to extinguish them with a hose, but “there was no water coming out”. – ‘Devastated’ -She then drove to the closest fire station seeking help, but was told they, too, had no access to water. Water hydrants in some Los Angeles neighbourhoods ran dry during the initial effort to fight the blazes, sparking widespread anger among residents. Authorities told the Los Angeles Times newspaper that the water shortages occurred because the scale and duration of the firefighting effort were more than the city’s infrastructure was designed for.When the fire department took Sykes back to her property, she found the cottage had been reduced to “just black ash”.”There was nothing there,” she told Channel Nine.Sykes — who shared her birthday with her son — said she was overwhelmed by his death.”I am just devastated, it is unreal at the moment. I cannot breathe.”Fire authorities said he died from carbon monoxide poisoning, Sykes said.The stricken mother said she had been unable to remove her son from the danger.”I’ve got a broken arm. I couldn’t lift him. I couldn’t move him,” she said in a separate interview with Australia’s Channel 10.Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of reports that an Australian man had died and was engaging closely with local authorities. The department said it was providing consular assistance to the man’s family, but was unable to comment further citing “privacy obligations”. 

Helping drive the wildfires in the US city of Los Angeles are the so-called Santa Ana winds, a weather phenomenon known to dry out “the hills and the nerves to flash point.”The windstorms occur when cold air gathers in the neighboring states of Nevada and Utah. As it moves west and then rushes down California’s mountains, it heats up — and dries out.- Creating fuel, spreading fires -The Santa Anas can both create the conditions for deadly wildfires and fuel them once they are underway — drying out vegetation when they blow through, and then fanning blazes once they spark.As the 23,700-acre (9,500-hectare) Palisades Fire and 14,000-acre Eaton Fire have raged around Los Angeles, fast-moving winds have exacerbated the situation, throwing hot embers into new patches of dried brush.While firefighters sought to take advantage of a brief lull on Friday and Saturday, heavy winds were back with gusts up to 70 miles per hour (110 kilometers per hour) by Sunday, with harsh conditions forecast to continue this week.- Cold air, hot winds -Santa Ana winds usually occur between September and May, typically for a few days at a time.When a high-pressure system forms over the deserts to California’s east, it pushes air toward the Pacific coast.As they move down the Santa Ana and Sierra Nevada mountains and shoot through valleys, the winds compress — creating a rise in their temperature and a drop in their relative humidity.With hot, dry gusts that can knock down trees or kick up dust and particulate matter, the winds have long caused problems in southern California.The 2017 Thomas Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 structures, was fueled in part by back-to-back Santa Ana winds.- Frayed nerves -The Washington Post likened the weather pattern to “a giant hair dryer,” and writers have long noted the effect the winds seem to have on residents psychologically.American author Raymond Chandler once described them as so hot they “curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.” For Joan Didion, they blew “sandstorms out along Route 66, drying the hills and nerves to flash point.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered assistance to wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles, saying Ukraine’s firefighters can “help Americans save lives” as the city struggles to combat new blazes. Deadly infernos have ripped through Los Angeles, killing at least 24 people in less than a week, reducing whole communities to scorched rubble and leaving thousands without homes. Conditions could dramatically worsen in the United States’ second-largest city as strong gusts fan flames and whip up embers, with firefighters warning the blazes could move from existing burn zones into new areas.Zelensky said Sunday evening that he had instructed Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs “to prepare for the possible participation of our rescuers in combating the wildfires in California”. “The situation there is extremely difficult, and Ukrainians can help Americans save lives,” he said in a video posted on social media platform X, adding the aid is “currently being coordinated”. “150 of our firefighters are already prepared.”The United States under President Joe Biden has been Kyiv’s biggest wartime backer, providing military aid worth more than $65 billion since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.Incoming president-elect Donald Trump has promised to resolve the conflict in “24 hours” once in office, raising fears in Ukraine that it will be forced to make major concessions in exchange for peace.

A quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is finally ready for its maiden orbital voyage with a brand new rocket the company hopes will shake up the commercial space race. Named New Glenn after legendary astronaut John Glenn, it stands 320 feet (98 meters) tall, roughly equivalent to a 32-story building, and is set to blast off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in a launch window that opens at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday.”Pointy end up!” the company’s CEO, Dave Limp posted on X alongside photos of the gleaming white behemoth.With the mission, dubbed NG-1, billionaire Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, vital for the commercial sector, the 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, told AFP.SpaceX, meanwhile, is planning the next orbital test of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket — this week, upping the high-stakes rivalry.- Landing attempt -Soon after launch, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, in honor of Bezos’s mother, stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. Though SpaceX has long made such landings a near-routine spectacle, this will be Blue Origin’s first shot at a touchdown on the high seas.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 spaceship called Blue Ring 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 much smaller and land on terra firma rather than a ship at sea.Physically, New Glenn dwarfs the 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 whereas 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.”He founded Blue Origin in 2000 — two years before Musk created SpaceX — but has adopted a more cautious pace, in contrast to his rival’s “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy.If New Glenn succeeds, it will give the US government “dissimilar redundancy” — valuable backup if one system fails, said Scott Pace, a space policy analyst at George Washington University.Musk’s closeness to President-elect Donald Trump has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially with private astronaut Jared Isaacman — a business associate of Musk — slated to become the next NASA chief.Bezos, however, has been making his own overtures, paying respect to his former foe during a visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, while Amazon has said it would donate $1 million to the inauguration committee.