AFP USA

The largest and most complex World Cup in history kicks off in just over a year’s time, with the United States, Canada and Mexico co-hosting the football extravaganza against a backdrop of political tension triggered by Donald Trump.Forty-eight teams and millions of fans are set to descend on North America for the first ever World Cup shared by three nations, with the tournament getting under way on June 11 next year.In theory, the 23rd edition of the most popular sporting spectacle on the planet has all the makings of a successful tournament.An array of venues ranging from Mexico’s iconic Estadio Azteca to the glittering $5 billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will play host to 104 games spread over nearly six weeks.The United States will host the bulk of those fixtures — 78 — with Canada and Mexico staging 13 each.All games from the quarter-finals onwards will be held in the United States, with the tournament culminating in the final at New Jersey’s 82,500-seater MetLife Stadium on July 19, 2026.- ‘Like 104 Super Bowls’ -American officials believe the return of the World Cup to the country — 32 years after the United States hosted the 1994 finals — could represent a watershed moment for football in the country.”The World Cup is going to raise the attention of the sport in ways that nobody ever dreamed of,” said Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer.FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino meanwhile has been hyping next year’s finals as the equivalent of “104 Super Bowls”, contrasting the World Cup’s estimated six billion viewers to the 120 million or so who tune in for the climax of the NFL season.There are historical precedents which suggest the hype might be justified. The 1994 World Cup in the United States remains the best attended World Cup in history, with an average of 68,600 fans flocking to each game.Yet while organisers eagerly anticipate a commercial success, with one FIFA estimate suggesting it could generate a mammoth $11 billion in revenues, questions over other aspects of the tournament remain.The 48 teams — up from 32 in 2022 — will be spread into 12 groups of four, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the knockout rounds, and the eight best third-placed teams joining them to make up a last 32.That expansion is likely to reduce the sense of jeopardy in the first round, a problem seen in other major championships which have increased in size in recent years.- Visa backlog -There is also the question of how the polarising policies of US President Trump may impact the tournament.Since taking office, Trump has launched a global trade war, repeatedly threatened to annex World Cup co-host Canada and launched an immigration crackdown at US borders which has seen overseas visitors from countries like France, Britain, Germany and Australia either detained or denied entry in recent months.Trump this week signed a travel ban on 12 countries including Iran, who have qualified for the World Cup, but the ban will not apply to players taking part in the tournament.Trump, who is chairman of a White House task force overseeing preparations for the World Cup, says overseas fans travelling to the tournament have nothing to fear.”Every part of the US government will be working to ensure that these events are safe and successful, and those traveling to America to watch the competition have a seamless experience during every part of their visit,” Trump said last month.FIFA chief Infantino, who has forged a close relationship with Trump, echoed that point, insisting that America was ready to “welcome the world.””Everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun, to celebrate the game will be able to do that,” Infantino said.With one year to go however, it is by no means clear that Infantino’s pledge will hold up.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that some embassy staff may be required to work double-shifts to expedite visa processing, citing the example of Colombia, where US visa wait times are currently 15 months.”If you haven’t applied for a visa from Colombia already, you probably won’t get here in time for the World Cup unless we go to double shifts,” Rubio told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.Those fans who do make the trip to North America may also find themselves having to fork out a small fortune due to FIFA’s reported decision to use dynamic pricing to determine ticket prices.That system, where prices on ticketing websites fluctuate according to demand, may well force fans to shell out thousands of dollars to obtain tickets for the highest profile games.”Dynamic pricing does not belong in football because it is an exploitation of fans’ loyalty,” Ronan Evain, the executive director of the Football Supporters Europe fan group told The Times. “It would be a fiasco for FIFA to use it for the World Cup.”

Mercedes Yamarte’s three sons fled Venezuela for a better life in the United States. Now one languishes in a Salvadoran jail, another “self-deported” to Mexico, and a third lives in hiding — terrified US agents will crash the door at any moment.At her zinc-roofed home in a poor Maracaibo neighborhood, 46-year-old Mercedes blinks back tears as she thinks about her family split asunder by US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.”I wish I could go to sleep, wake up, and this never happened,” she says, as rain drums down and lightning flashes overhead.In their homeland, her boys were held back by decades of political and economic tumult that have already prompted an estimated eight million Venezuelans to emigrate.But in leaving, all three brothers became ensnared by politics once more, and by a US president determined to bolt the door of a nation once proud of its migrant roots. For years, her eldest son, 30-year-old Mervin had lived in America, providing for his wife and six-year-old daughter, working Texas construction sites and at a tortilla factory.On March 13, he was arrested by US immigration agents and summarily deported to a Salvadoran mega jail, where he is still being held incommunicado.The Trump administration linked Mervin and 251 other men to the Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan gang it classifies as a terrorist group.Washington has cited tattoos as evidence of gang affiliation, something fiercely contested by experts, who say that, unlike other Latin American gangs, Tren de Aragua members do not commonly sport gang markings.Mervin has tattoos of his mother and daughter’s names, the phrase “strong like mom” in Spanish and the number “99” — a reference to his soccer jersey not any gang affiliation, according to his family.- The journey north -Mervin arrived in the United States in 2023 with his 21-year-old brother Jonferson. Both hoped to work and to send some money back home.They had slogged through the Darien Gap — a forbidding chunk of jungle between Colombia and Panama that is one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.They had trekked north through Mexico, and were followed a year later by sister Francis, aged 19, who turned around before reaching the United States and brother Juan, aged 28, who continued on. When the brothers entered the United States, they registered with border officials and requested political asylum.They were told they could remain legally until a judge decided their fate.Then US voters voted, and with a change of administration, at dawn on March 13, US immigration agents pounded the door of an apartment in Irving, Texas where the trio were living with friends from back home.Immigration agents were serving an arrest warrant when they saw Mervin and said: “You are coming with us too for an investigation,” Juan recalled.When the agents said they had an arrest warrant for Mervin too, he tried to show his asylum papers. “But they already had him handcuffed to take him away,” Juan said.He was transferred to a detention center, where he managed to call Jonferson to say he was being deported somewhere. He did not know where.Three days later, Jonferson saw his brother among scores of shorn and shackled men arriving at CECOT, a prison built by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to house alleged gang members.Jonferson saw his handcuffed brother kneeling on the floor staring off into space. He broke down crying and called his mother. She had also seen Mervin in the images. “My son was kneeling and looked up as if to say: ‘Where am I and what have I done to end up here?'” said Mercedes.”I have never seen my son look more terrified” she said.- The journey south -After his brother’s arrest, Jonferson had nightmares. The fear became so great that he fled to Mexico — what some euphemistically describe as “self-deportation”.There, he waited a month to board a Venezuelan humanitarian flight to return home. “It has been a nightmare,” he told AFP as he rode a bus to the airport and from there, onward home. Juan, meanwhile, has decided to remain in the United States. He lives under the radar, working construction jobs and moving frequently to dodge arrest.”I am always hiding. When I go to the grocery store I look all around, fearful, as if someone were chasing me,” he told AFP asking that his face and his whereabouts remain undisclosed.As the only brother who can now send money home, he is determined not to go back to Venezuela empty-handed. He also has a wife and seven-year-old son depending on him.But he is tormented by the thought of his brother Mervin being held in El Salvador and by the toll it has taken on the family.”My mother is a wreck. There are days she cannot sleep,” Juan said.”My sister-in-law cries every day. She is suffering.”- The journey home -Jonferson has since returned to Maracaibo, where he was greeted by strings of blue, yellow, and red balloons and a grateful but still forlorn mother.”I would like to be happy, as I should. But my other son is in El Salvador, in what conditions I do not know,” Mercedes said.But her face lights up for a second as she hugs her son, holding him tight as if never wanting to let him go.”I never thought the absence of my sons would hit me so hard,” she said. “I never knew I could feel such pain.”For now, the brothers are only together in a screen grab she has on her phone, taken during a video call last Christmas.

A court on Thursday put a temporary stay on Donald Trump’s latest effort to stop foreign students from enrolling at Harvard, as the US president’s battle with one of the world’s most prestigious universities intensified.A proclamation issued by the White House late Wednesday sought to bar most new international students at Harvard from entering the country, and said existing foreign enrollees risked having their visas terminated.”Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” the order said.Harvard quickly amended an existing complaint filed in federal court, saying: “This is not the Administration’s first attempt to sever Harvard from its international students.””(It) is part of a concerted and escalating campaign of retaliation by the government in clear retribution for Harvard’s exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”US District Judge Allison Burroughs on Thursday ruled the government cannot enforce Trump’s proclamation.Harvard had showed, she said, that without a temporary restraining order, it risked sustaining “immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”The same judge had already blocked Trump’s earlier effort to bar international students from enrolling at the storied university.- ‘Government vendetta’ -The government already cut around $3.2 billion of federal grants and contracts benefiting Harvard and pledged to exclude the Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution from any future federal funding.Harvard has been at the forefront of Trump’s campaign against top universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and “viewpoint diversity.” Trump has also singled out international students at Harvard, who accounted for 27 percent of total enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year and are a major source of income.In its filing, Harvard acknowledged that Trump had the authority to bar an entire class of aliens if it was deemed to be in the public interest, but stressed that was not the case in this action.”The President’s actions thus are not undertaken to protect the ‘interests of the United States’ but instead to pursue a government vendetta against Harvard,” it said.Since returning to office Trump has targeted elite US universities which he and his allies accuse of being hotbeds of anti-Semitism, liberal bias and “woke” ideology.Trump’s education secretary also threatened on Wednesday to strip Columbia University of its accreditation.The Republican has targeted the New York Ivy League institution for allegedly ignoring harassment of Jewish students, throwing all of its federal funding into doubt.Unlike Harvard, several top institutions — including Columbia — have already bowed to far-reaching demands from the Trump administration.

The suspect in a Molotov cocktail attack on a Jewish protest march in Colorado appeared in court Thursday facing more than 100 charges over an incident that injured 15 people.Mohamed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown firebombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.Prosecutors now say 15 people — eight women and seven men — were hurt in the attack in the city of Boulder. Three are still hospitalized.The oldest victim was 88 years old.Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian who federal authorities said was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, faces 28 attempted murder charges, as well as a bevvy of other counts relating to his alleged use of violence.He also faces a count of animal cruelty for a dog that was hurt, bringing to 118 the total number of criminal counts.Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters that he could face a centuries-long prison term if convicted.”The defendant is charged with attempted murder in the first degree as to 14 different victims,” he said.”If the defendant is convicted and those sentences run consecutively, that would be 48 years in state prison for each of the 14 victims, which comes to 672 years.”Two of the Soliman’s alleged victims — along with the dog — were at the court on Thursday.Soliman is also expected to be charged with federal hate crime offenses.Soliman’s immigration status has been at the center of President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to the attack.This week his wife and five children were detained by immigration agents as the White House took to social media to taunt them about an impending deportation.”Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids,” the official account posted on X.”Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.” But on Wednesday a judge imposed a temporary restraining order that bars any attempt to remove them from the country.Police who rushed to the scene of Sunday’s attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say Soliman had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.In bystander videos, the attacker can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “Killers!” Sunday’s incident came less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Thursday he would begin “decommissioning” his company’s Dragon spacecraft — vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station — after US President Donald Trump threatened to terminate his government contracts.”In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk wrote on X.The comments — which the mercurial billionaire later appeared to walk back — came after Trump and Musk’s nearly year-long political alliance imploded in spectacular fashion, with the two trading public insults on social media.SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — a gumdrop-shaped capsule that flies atop a Falcon 9 rocket and splashes down in the ocean — is currently the only US spacecraft certified to carry crew to the ISS under a contract worth more than $4.9 billion. A variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies, as the name suggests.Following Musk’s announcement, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said on X that the government space agency would “continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space.””We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met,” she said.NASA had hoped to certify Boeing’s Starliner for crewed missions, but that program has faced severe delays. Its most recent test flight last year ended in failure after the spacecraft experienced propulsion issues en route to the orbital lab with its first astronaut crew.The Starliner ultimately returned to Earth empty, while the two astronauts were brought home by SpaceX earlier this year.Crew Dragon’s certification in 2020 ended nearly a decade of US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets to transport astronauts following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.American astronauts still fly aboard Soyuz rockets, while Russian cosmonauts ride on Crew Dragons under a longstanding seat-swap agreement.In addition to NASA missions, Crew Dragon also flies private missions — most recently Fram2, which carried tourists over the Earth’s poles.The next scheduled crew launch is Tuesday’s Axiom-4 mission, which will see a Crew Dragon transport astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the ISS.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court including over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it ramped up pressure to neuter the court of last resort.The four judges in The Hague, all women, will be barred entry to the United States and any property or other interests in the world’s largest economy will be blocked — measures more often taken against policymakers from US adversaries than against judicial officials.”The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other US ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.”I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel,” Rubio said.The court swiftly hit back, saying in a statement: “These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”Israel’s Netanyahu welcomed the move, thanking US President Donald Trump’s administration in a social media post.”Thank you President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio for imposing sanctions against the politicised judges of the ICC. You have justly stood up for the right of Israel,” he wrote on Friday.- War crimes -Human Rights Watch urged other nations to speak out and reaffirm the independence of the ICC, set up in 2002 to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.The sanctions “aim to deter the ICC from seeking accountability amid grave crimes committed in Israel and Palestine and as Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, including with US complicity,” said the rights group’s international justice director, Liz Evenson.Two of the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued last November for Netanyahu.The court found “reasonable grounds” of criminal responsibility by Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for actions that include the war crime of starvation as a method of war in the massive offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Israel, alleging bias, has angrily rejected charges of war crimes as well as a separate allegation of genocide led by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.The two other judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan.- Return to hard line -Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. But almost all Western allies of the United States as well as Japan and South Korea, the vast majority of Latin America and much of Africa are parties to the statute and in theory are required to arrest suspects when they land on their soil.Trump in his first term already imposed sanctions on the then ICC chief prosecutor over the Afghanistan investigation. After Trump’s defeat in 2020, then president Joe Biden took a more conciliatory approach to the court with case-by-case cooperation. Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken rescinded the sanctions and, while critical of its stance on Israel, worked with the court in its investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ICC judges in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the alleged mass abduction of Ukrainian children during the war. Both Putin and Netanyahu have voiced defiance over the ICC pressure but have also looked to minimize time in countries that are party to the court. The ICC arrest warrants have been especially sensitive in Britain, a close US ally whose Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer. Downing Street has said that Britain will fulfil its “legal obligations” without explicitly saying if Netanyahu would be arrested if he visits.Hungary, led by Trump ally Viktor Orban, has parted ways with the rest of the European Union by moving to exit the international court. Orban thumbed his nose at the court by welcoming Netanyahu to visit in April.

US President Donald Trump has signed a travel ban on 12 mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, reviving a controversial measure from his first term expected to trigger a fresh wave of legal challenges.Trump said on Wednesday the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on an Egyptian man they said was in the country illegally.The move bans all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, according to the White House.Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some temporary work visas from those countries will be allowed.”The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message posted on social media platform X.”We don’t want them.”- World Cup, Olympics, diplomats excluded -The ban will not apply to athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Trump’s order said.Nor will it apply to diplomats from the targeted countries, according to the spokesman of the secretary-general of the United Nations headquartered in New York.”As we’ve said before, whatever system is put in place (should be) one that respects people’s human dignity,” said Stephane Dujarric, who added it was for individual countries to determine how to control their borders.UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that “the broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law.” And Amnesty International USA called the ban “discriminatory, racist, and downright cruel.”Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meanwhile claimed Trump was being “poisoned” by “lies” about his country, while Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello warned that it was the United States that posed a risk to visitors from Venezuela and elsewhere.With seven of the 12 countries banned from Africa, the African Union said the move would harm “people-to-people ties, education exchange, commercial engagement, and broader diplomatic relations” and urged “constructive dialog.”Yemen’s internationally recognised government urged Washington to “reconsider” the travel ban, or to at least exempt Yemeni citizens “in recognition of the difficult humanitarian conditions” in the war-ravaged country.In Myanmar, one student affected by the ban only got her US study visa two days ago and said it would hit many young people’s dreams of escaping oppression.”We don’t really have life here, and people want to escape to a country where we can breathe, we can walk, we can study,” she told AFP from Yangon.In Haiti, Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in the capital Port-au-Prince, warned that following the decision, the impoverished and violence-hit country “will be further isolated.”The ban could yet face legal challenges, as have many of the drastic measures Trump has taken since his whirlwind return to office in January.- ‘Terrorists’ -Rumors of a new Trump travel ban had circulated following the fire attack on Jewish protesters in Colorado, with his administration vowing to pursue “terrorists” living in the United States on visas.US officials said suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national according to court documents, was in the country illegally having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.Trump gave specific reasons for each country facing travel restrictions — a list that notably did not include Egypt — insisting the move aimed to protect the United States from “foreign terrorists and other national security” threats.His proclamation said Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen lacked “competent” central authorities for processing passports and vetting.Iran, with which the United States is in negotiations on a possible nuclear deal, was included because it is a “state sponsor of terrorism,” the order said.For most of the other countries, Trump’s order cited an above-average likelihood that people would overstay their visas.dk-burs/gw/bjt/sla

Robert Zubrin quite literally wrote the book on why humanity should go to Mars — so why has the renowned aerospace engineer soured on Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur leading the charge?In an interview, the 73-year-old founder of the Mars Society delivered a blistering critique, accusing the world’s richest person of undermining the mission through divisive politics and a bleak vision of the Red Planet as an escape from Earth rather than a journey of hope.”On one level, he’s absolutely instrumental in opening up this opportunity to get humans to Mars, both through the development of Starship and also the inspiration that has caused,” Zubrin told AFP, referring to Musk’s prototype rocket.”But for it to succeed, it has to go beyond these — this initiative cannot be seen as a Musk hobbyhorse or a Trump hobbyhorse — it must be seen, at a minimum, as America’s program, or preferably the Free World’s program.”Zubrin’s 1996 book “The Case for Mars,” since updated numerous times, laid out a practical blueprint for reaching and settling the Red Planet using existing technologies and local resources — with the ultimate goal of transforming the atmosphere for long-term human habitation.- Supporter turned critic -The book won praise from Musk himself, who once posed with Zubrin at SpaceX’s Starship facility in Texas and called it “worth reading.”But today, Zubrin — who co-authored the Mars Direct plan in 1990, has published hundreds of papers, and invented several advanced propulsion concepts — sees troubling signs.While he described Musk as a “tremendously talented and forceful person,” he said his success has bred “hubris and arrogance,” comparing him to Napoleon as he thumped his fist for emphasis.He was especially critical of Musk’s embrace of Donald Trump during the 2024 election and his role as the administration’s chainsaw-wielding cost slasher.”This combination of Trump and Musk is not going to persist forever,” Zubrin warned, in an interview conducted before the pair’s relationship imploded Thursday in a spectacular public row.”And if this program is identified as their deal, it will be crushed as soon as opposing forces have sufficient power.”During their fight Thursday, Trump called Musk “crazy” threatened to terminate his government contracts worth billions of dollars.Zubrin also condemned Trump’s efforts to gut NASA’s space science budget — a move he sees as fundamentally at odds with the exploratory spirit of the Mars endeavor. The Mars Sample Return mission — aimed at retrieving specimens collected by the Perseverance rover — is among the biggest science projects on the chopping block.Although the mission, developed with the European Space Agency, has suffered delays and budget overruns, Zubrin said eliminating it entirely rather than reforming it would be a mistake.”This threatens to brand this program with the mark of Cain of original sin — that this program is born with the blood of the murder of Space Science on it.”- Creative outpost -Where Zubrin still sees promise is in Starship — Musk’s massive prototype rocket aimed at making life multiplanetary, though the vessel’s repeated test explosions show there’s a long way to go.He diverges with Musk over how it should be used. Starship is far too large to serve as a Mars ascent vehicle, Zubrin said.The Mars expert has proposed a vessel he calls Starboat — a compact lander that could shuttle between planetary surfaces and orbit, using a fraction of the propellant and surface power.But his sharpest critiques are philosophical. He rejects Musk’s portrayal of Mars as a refuge from a dying Earth — a vision that echoes the works of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.”We’re not going to Mars out of despair,” Zubrin said. “We’re going to Mars out of hope… to establish new branches of human civilization which will add their creative capacity to that of humanity as a whole.”He sees Mars not as refuge but renewal, where a campaign beginning with robotic missions in the late 2020s and culminating in human landings by 2033 could inspire bipartisan support, showcase American ingenuity and restore national purpose.”If we do the kind of program that I advocated… we will once again, as we did in Apollo, astonish the world with what free people can do,” he said. “We’ll make it clear that freedom, not authoritarianism, is the future of the human race.”

A crewed mission to Mars would rank among the most complex and costly undertakings in human history — and US President Donald Trump has vowed to make it a national priority.That political momentum, coupled with SpaceX chief Elon Musk’s zeal, has breathed new life into a cause long championed by Red Planet advocates — even as major obstacles remain, including Trump and Musk’s latest feud.- Why go? -As NASA writes in its Moon to Mars blueprint, “exploration of the cosmos remains a great calling for humanity.”A mission to Mars would pursue scientific objectives like determining whether Mars ever hosted life and charting the evolution of its surface, as well as answering broader space physics questions — such as the history of the Sun through studying Martian soil.Geopolitics also looms large, as Trump has pledged to “plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond,” invoking the “unlimited promise of the American dream.”Critics, however, say cuts to NASA’s science budget and the cancellation of key projects — including the return of rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover — are undermining the research mission.”The purpose of exploration is not just to go somewhere,” Nobel-winning astrophysicist John Mather told AFP. “This is not a tourist thing. This is a fundamental knowledge thing.”- Getting there – Musk is betting SpaceX’s future on Starship, the largest rocket ever built, despite fiery failures in its nine test flights.He’s aiming for an uncrewed launch by late 2026, timed with the next favorable Earth-Mars alignment. But the timeline is widely seen as optimistic: Starship has yet to land its upper stage or demonstrate in-orbit refueling — both essential for deep space travel.Some experts believe the system is fundamentally sound, while others say it’s too soon to judge.”A lot of the pertinent and relevant technical information… is not known to us,” Kurt Polzin, chief engineer for NASA’s space nuclear propulsion project, told AFP.He backs Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP), which uses fission to heat hydrogen and generate thrust. NTP delivers “a lot of power in a very small package,” Polzin said, eliminating the need for orbital refueling or fuel production on Mars.Astronauts would spend seven to nine months in a cramped spacecraft, exposed to intense space radiation beyond Earth’s magnetosphere. Ideas to improve radiation shielding range from passive methods, like using dense materials, to active concepts such as plasma fields that deflect radiation, while drugs are being developed to reduce cell damage.Without a system to simulate gravity — such as rotational spin — crews would also need grueling exercise routines to counteract muscle and bone loss.Mental health is another concern. Growing plants aboard — more for morale than sustenance — has proved beneficial on the ISS.Communication delays further complicate matters. On the station, real-time data has helped prevent an average of 1.7 potentially fatal incidents per year, said Erik Antonsen, chair of NASA’s human systems risk board — but such communication will not be possible en route to Mars.- Life on Mars -Once on the surface, the uncertainties grow. Probes and rovers have found hints — organic molecules, seasonal methane — but no definitive signs of life. If it ever existed, it likely died out long ago.Still, Earth’s own “extremophiles” offer intriguing clues — from fungi that harness Chernobyl’s radiation for energy, to microbes that survived 500,000 years in frozen stasis.”If they can survive here in extreme environments, we have every reason to suspect they can be on Mars,” said NASA astrobiologist Jennifer Eigenbrode at the recent Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit.And while NASA has decided nuclear fission will power surface operations, other choices — from crop selection to habitat design — remain open.”Mars has a 24-hour, 39-minute day — that small difference creates strain, increases stress, and reduces sleep quality,” said Phnam Bagley, a space architect who designs for comfort and crew well-being — critical factors in preventing conflict.The first trip would be around 500 days on the surface, but long-term colonization raises deeper questions.For instance, scientists don’t yet know whether mammalian embryos can develop in low gravity — or what childbirth on Mars would entail.”I think it’s really important to take that seriously,” said NASA’s Antonsen. “Even if you don’t plan on it happening, people are still going to have sex, and somebody might get pregnant. Then it becomes a medical issue.”

With one tweet linking Donald Trump with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Elon Muskreignites a long-running conspiracy theory beloved of the US president’s far right supporters.The tech billionaire — who exited his role as a top White House advisor just last week — alleged Thursday that the Republican leader is featured in secret government files on rich and powerful former Epstein associates.The Trump administration has acknowledged it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos and investigative material that his “MAGA” movement says will unmask public figures complicit in Epstein’s crimes.”Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X, as a growing feud with the president boiled over into a vicious public spat.”That is the real reason they have not been made public.”Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump’s base allege that Epstein’s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, however, not at Trump himself, and no official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the material.Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about, and offered no evidence for his claim.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Thursday called Musk’s behavior “an unfortunate episode” adding the Tesla tycoon is “unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.”But the allegation prompted fresh demands for a release of the material — this time from Democrats keen on turning a MAGA conspiracy theory back on its proponents.Epstein died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking.Trump has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein sex trafficked underage girls.The president said ahead of his election last year that he would have “no problem” releasing files related to Epstein.The administration has made public over 63,000 pages tied to the JFK assassination, but Trump has not fully followed through on the Epstein files pledge.- ‘Terrific guy’ -PolitiFact investigated Trump’s denials and concluded that the president had flown on Epstein’s jet at least seven times, and noted that the pair attended the same parties in the 1990s. But it also said there was no evidence Trump visited Epstein’s island.”Terrific guy,” Trump, who was Epstein’s neighbor in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of Epstein.”He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre — who died by suicide in April, according to her family — filed a lawsuit saying he had flown her to sexual encounters with royals, politicians and others when she was underage.Thousands of pages of records from the case were released in 2019, and more in 2024, but they offered scant evidence of wrongdoing by famous figures.Lawmakers in the opposition Democrats jumped on Musk’s allegation to renew their calls for the release of more detailed files. “I called for the full release of the Epstein Files a month ago because of my suspicion that (Attorney General Pam Bondi) was concealing the files to protect Donald Trump,” New York congressman Dan Goldman posted on X. “Now my suspicion has been confirmed.”His fellow House Democrat Ted Lieu of California said Musk’s accusation had confirmed his own belief that Trump is “all over the Epstein files.””I urge the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files. What is the Trump Administration hiding?” he said.Tim Miller, a former Republican National Committee spokesman turned fierce Trump critic, echoed the call.”The American people deserve to know if our president is a pedophile,” he posted on X.