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More than a symbolic return, Artemis II is designed as a carefully staged, crewed test flight, validating every major system required for sustained human exploration of deep space.

In the X post and accompanying letter, Safa said he reached the decision after much reflection. He claimed that some senior figures at the United Nations were serving a powerful lobby.

The incident highlights concerns about air travel safety and the consequences of making false threats.

Spain's refusal to cooperate has "complicated" US military operations by forcing bombers to change their routes and logistics on their way to the Middle East.

Oil prices on course for record monthly rise amid risk of further escalation and mixed messaging from USDonald Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power stations and fresh water plants if Tehran does not agree to peace terms “shortly”, even as he claimed diplomatic progress in ending the war that was instigated by the US and Israel.Tehran has remained defiant during the month-long conflict, describing US peace proposals as “excessive, unrealistic and irrational” and firing waves of missiles at Israel. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's Iran war is testing the limits of corporate America's tolerance — and the only thing keeping CEOs from publicly attacking the president is fear of retribution, according to Fortune's Diane Brady reporting from CERAWeek in Houston.But that restraint may be ending. As the economic damage mounts, business leaders are signaling they may finally be willing to risk Trump's wrath and speak out against policies they view as catastrophic for their bottom lines.The stakes are becoming impossible to ignore. Economists warn recession odds are now high. Oil prices have surged more than 50 percent. The war is costing U.S. taxpayers approximately $1 billion a day while destroying 10,000 jobs from the economic shockwave alone.Energy sector CEOs are particularly alarmed. At CERAWeek, leaders from Dow and Chevron warned of dire consequences if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked to shipping. The blockade has forced Asia to scramble for alternative energy sources, while Russia gains little thanks to its own war with Ukraine.Signs of CEO defection are mounting. Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg told Brady that "democracy is so fragile." Citadel's Ken Griffin revealed that he and his CEO peers find the Trump administration's favoritism "extremely distasteful."More than 60 corporate leaders — including CEOs from 3M, Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, Land O'Lakes, Target, Xcel Energy, and UnitedHealth Group — have already signed a letter of protest against the administration's ICE enforcement actions in Minnesota.One CEO admitted to Brady that they are "shell-shocked" by administration policies but feel constrained by fiduciary duty to avoid putting their companies in Trump's crosshairs by speaking publicly.That calculus could shift dramatically. If the war begins to seriously impact stock prices and corporate profits, business leaders may conclude that the financial damage outweighs the political danger of breaking ranks with the president.

Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon over their lack of direction and obsession with violence amid the Iran war. In his Substack post, Krugman tore into Hegseth's beliefs of applying further damage to Iran as the war now enters its 30th day and talks swirl of a ground war, which President Donald Trump has not yet ruled out. Krugman was doubtful that 10,000 troops could secure the Persian Gulf or prompt oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz again. "A month into the war, and now they’re talking about pointless ground action and/or war crimes," Krugman wrote. He pointed to Hegseth's troubling focus on lethality. "In this case, our Secretary of Defense, which is his legal title, although he calls himself the Secretary of War, continually argues that if only we get even more violent, if only we do even more damage, that this will somehow translate into success in Iran," Krugman wrote. "He clearly relishes the thought of violence himself. He’s now holding prayer breakfasts, and in his prayer breakfast, he called upon the Lord to support us in 'overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.'""I think this is deeply un-American, but anyway, aside from the evilness — I don’t think there’s any other way to put it — of the world view, how is this supposed to work?" Krugman asked. "If you look at the plans or ideas that are being bruited for using ground forces now, and that’s clearly very much sort the next step here, for using ground forces against Iran, well, yeah, you can seize Kharg Island, although hanging onto it could be very expensive, but then what?"It's unclear at this point whether negotiations were actually underway — and what the administration's objectives were. "Other presidents have been accused of negotiating with themselves," Krugman wrote. "Trump is negotiating with his imaginary friends. There’s no reason at all to believe that these talks are actually happening. But he then pivots midway through the post, to saying, and if we don’t get this, then we’re going to start bombing civilian power plants and water supplies."Trump's thought process could lead to further harm, the economist argued. "So give us what we want or we’ll commit a massive, massive war crime, which I hope is not going to happen," Krugman wrote. "But even if it did, why would you think this would open up the Strait of Hormuz? So it’s this lust for violence with no actual coherent story about how that violence is going to produce results. It’s horrifying.""I really don’t know how this ends, except that it does feel as if this is a quagmire largely in the minds of top Trump officials, Trump himself and Hegseth, who having this utterly unshakable belief that hurting people will produce great results, respond to each failure of violence to produce results by getting even more destructive with no end game in sight," Krugman added. Pete Hegseth Believes in the Lethality Fairy by Paul Krugman"Overwhelming violence of action" as the solution to all problemsRead on Substack

Iran War Latest News: "Will Blow Up Kharg Island, Oil Wells If...": Trump's Ultimatum To Iran