The foundational building block for Jeff Bezos’ space dreams is finally ready to launch.A New Glenn rocket — built by Blue Origin, the rocket company that Mr. Bezos started nearly a quarter century ago — is sitting on a launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It is as tall as a 32-story building, and its voluminous nose cone can carry larger satellites and other payloads than other rockets in operation today.In the predawn darkness on Sunday, it may head to space for the first time.“This has been very long awaited,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at…
Author: Team_NationalNewsBrief
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK retailers are bracing for a tough year and weaker demand as business costs mount and inflation creeps up, some of the country’s largest chains warned this week. Despite robust festive trading figures from groups including Next, Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s, investors were spooked by the increased pressures companies face from tax rises following Labour’s October Budget, and dumped their shares.On Thursday shares in M&S fell 8 per cent, while Tesco dropped 2.7 per cent before a partial recovery. On Friday,…
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s role in the horrific SoCal wildfires that have engulfed the state just got more damning. Newsweek on Friday uncovered explosive evidence that just months before devastating wildfires, which have so far killed at least ten people and destroyed countless homes, Newsom approved at least $101 million worth of cuts from seven “wildfire and forest resilience” programs. The reductions, which were part of last year’s state budget and signed by Newsom in June, included a $5 million decrease for CalFire on fuel reduction teams. These included revenue used to fund vegetation management work by the California National…
Entertainer JoJo Siwa is facing a maelstrom of controversy over what fans say is a “tone-deaf” response to the ongoing wildfires plaguing the Pacific Palisades area and beyond.In a now-deleted Instagram video posted by the “Guilty Pleasure” singer’s girlfriend on Friday, the “Dance Moms” personality packs away “one-of-a-kind” items she wants to save should they be evacuated – including outfits from her music videos.Article continues below advertisementJoJo Siwa Asks ‘What Else Do You Need?’ As She Saves Costumes From Being Lost In The WildfiresMEGAAs a resident of Tarzana, CA, the 21-year-old Siwa is among many in and around the Palisades…
“INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE” The SBU said the men’s capture provided “indisputable evidence of the DPRK’s participation in Russia’s war against our country”, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name. It showed a Russian army ID card issued to a 26-year-old man from Russia’s Tyva region bordering Mongolia. The SBU said that one POW carried this military ID card “issued in the name of another person” while the other had no documents at all. Some reports have said Russia is hiding North Korean fighters by giving them fake IDs. The SBU said the man with the Tyvan ID had told them…
The Sayyida Zeinab shrine in Damascus has previously been targeted by ISIL and other armed groups in Syria.Syrian authorities have foiled an attempt by ISIL (ISIS) fighters to blow up a revered Shia shrine in a Damascus suburb, state news agency SANA has reported. Intelligence and security forces “succeeded in thwarting an attempt by ISIL to carry out a bombing inside the Sayyida Zeinab shrine”, a source within Syria’s intelligence agency told SANA on Saturday, adding that several people have been arrested. “The General Intelligence Directorate is utilising all its resources to confront all attempts to target the Syrian people…
Yes, Marcus Freeman did just help Notre Dame earn a spot in this season’s College Football Playoff National Championship by leading the program to a win over Penn State on Thursday.But it took almost no time after the Fighting Irish’s impressive victory for some to suggest that Freeman could be heading to the NFL. Last month, Notre Dame and its head coach agreed to a four-year extension. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, before Freeman signed, his contract buyout was believed to be worth $4 million. With his new deal, one can assume that the Fighting Irish increased the buyout amount, making…
“The city burning is Los Angeles’s deepest image of itself,” Joan Didion wrote way back in the 1960s. And on X and Truth Social and, indeed, Fox News, they were playing the hits, too — the fires were not the result of climate change or an extraordinary wind event meeting an extraordinary drought but the responsibility of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and the city’s fire chief, until this point anonymous nationally, who had the audacity to be a woman.It was a remarkable reversal, conservatives demagoguing California fire disaster, but after the conspiratorial…
As TikTok attempts to pause a fast-approaching deadline that forces it to separate from its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the United States, small business owners are starting to prepare for the worst. The Supreme Court listened to arguments on Friday and is expected to rule on the case by the end of next week.In the meantime, creators are building email lists, joining other social platforms, and starting newsletters.Lizz Smoak, co-founder of branding and marketing agency, Maiden Media, and a mentor and chairwoman for volunteer business mentor organization SCORE said the ban is about more than…
An artist’s impression of the space junk orbiting EarthMark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Alamy The rising threat of space junk should be tackled by a new global agreement to safeguard Earth’s orbit, say a group of researchers who are calling for the United Nations to make the protection of space a key international goal. Although there are existing guidelines to tackle space debris, such as the UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the researchers, writing in the journal One Earth, call for further action to “increase awareness about the use of orbital resources and the growing risks of orbital pollution, whilst sending…