У Повітряних силах зазначили, що ухвалили рішення щодо недопущення переведення військовослужбовців дефіцитних спеціальностей в інші роди та види ЗСУ
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In California, qualifying inmates volunteer as firefighters to assist in combating wildfires in Los Angeles. China uses forced labor involving arbitrarily detained Muslims in Xinjiang.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Blue Origin’s giant New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida early Thursday morning on its first mission to space, an inaugural step into Earth’s orbit for Jeff Bezos’ space company as it aims to rival SpaceX in the satellite launch business.
Thirty stories tall with a reusable first stage, New Glenn launched around 2 a.m. ET (0700 GMT) from Blue Origin’s launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, its seven engines thundering for miles under cloudy skies on its second liftoff attempt this week.
Hundreds of employees at the company’s Kent, Washington headquarters and its Cape Canaveral, Florida rocket factory roared in applause as Blue Origin VP Ariane Cornell announced the rocket’s second stage made it to orbit, achieving a long-awaited milestone.
“We hit our key, critical, number-one objective, we got to orbit safely,” Cornell said on a company live stream. “And y’all we did it on our first go.”
The rocket’s reusable first stage booster was due to land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after separating from its second stage, but failed to make that landing, Cornell confirmed. Telemetry from the booster blacked out minutes after liftoff.
“We did in fact lose the booster,” Cornell said.
The culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey, the mission marks Blue Origin’s first trek to Earth’s orbit in the 25 years since Bezos founded the company.
Bezos told Reuters on Sunday, before Blue Origin’s first launch attempt, that he was most nervous about landing the booster.
But he added that sticking the landing would be the “icing on the cake” if they could achieve the milestone of getting the payload to its intended orbit.
Secured inside New Glenn’s payload bay for the mission is the first prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft the company plans to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for national security and satellite servicing missions.
The rocket’s first attempt to launch on Monday was scrubbed around 3 a.m. ET because ice had accumulated on a propellant line. On Thursday, the company cited no issues ahead of launch.
Bezos monitored the launch from a few miles away in Blue Origin’s mission control room, wearing a large headset and flanked by dozens of launch staff. The company’s CEO, Dave Limp, was next to him.
New Glenn is expected to press ahead with a backlog of dozens of missions worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including up to 27 launches for Amazon’s Kuiper satellite internet network that will rival SpaceX’s Starlink service.
New Glenn is the latest U.S. rocket to debut in recent years as governments and private companies beef up their space programs and race to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its workhorse Falcon 9.
NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket had a successful debut in 2022, as did the Vulcan rocket last year from United Launch Alliance, Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s joint launch venture.
New Glenn is roughly twice as powerful as Falcon 9, the world’s most active rocket, with a payload bay diameter two times larger to fit bigger batches of satellites. Blue Origin has not disclosed the rocket’s launch pricing. Falcon 9 starts at around $62 million.
The development of New Glenn has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays as SpaceX grew into an industry juggernaut.
SpaceX’s giant, next-generation Starship rocket in development, which New Glenn will also compete with, is expected to further rattle the industry with cheap rides to space and full reusability.
Bezos in late 2023 moved to speed things up at Blue Origin, prioritizing the development of New Glenn and its BE-4 engines. He named Limp, an Amazon veteran, as CEO, who employees say introduced a sense of urgency to compete with SpaceX.
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Southern California firefighters made some progress in containing two major wildfires, while forecasters said weather conditions in the coming days could bring welcome relief from the days of dry air and high winds that have plagued the region.
The relief will give firefighters a key window to battle the Palisades Fire on the west edge of Los Angeles and the Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city before another potential turn to dangerous conditions next week.
“Good news: We are expecting a much-needed break from the fire weather concerns to close this week,” the National Weather Service said Wednesday. “Bad News: Next week is a concern. While confident that we will NOT see a repeat of last week, dangerous fire weather conditions are expected.”
The Palisades Fire was 21% contained late Wednesday after burning 96 square kilometers, according to the California Department of Foresty and Fire Protection. The agency said the Eaton Fire was 45% contained and had burned 57 square kilometers.
More than 82,000 people were under evacuation orders, while 8,500 firefighters from the United States, Canada and Mexico were battling the two fires and several smaller ones in the region.
The fires have killed at least 25 people and burned 12,000 homes and other structures, according to authorities.
The wildfires ignited Jan. 7, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds in a region that has been largely without rain for eight months. Weather forecasts show little to no chance of rain in the next week.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, will be among several billionaires attending Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration. Tesla CEO Musk was instrumental in Trump’s reelection with his contribution of over a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s campaign coffers, according to Forbes. Musk is set to head Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur.
Reports say that Musk is slated to be seated at the inauguration with fellow billionaires Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
While it is not customary to invite foreign leaders, Trump has invited several. Argentinian President Javier Milei is expected to attend, according to Bloomberg. Milei was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump after he won November’s election. Trump has also invited Chinese President Xi Jinping who is sending an envoy. Far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also received an invitation, but she has said she is not sure her schedule will allow her to attend.
It is customary for all the living presidents to attend the inauguration. Outgoing President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend Monday’s ceremony. When Biden was sworn in four years ago, following Trump’s losing reelection bid, Trump did not attend because he held on to the belief that he had won the election.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will also attend Trump’s inauguration. Bush and Clinton are set to be there with their wives, Laura Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“Former first lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama said in a statement. It will be the second time in recent weeks, following her absence at President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, that she has not attended a public ceremony with other former presidents and their wives.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, are also expected to be at the ceremony Monday. Harris was the Democratic candidate in last year’s presidential election.
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За даними слідства, лікарська комісія виключила чоловіка з військового обліку через нібито наявну невиліковну хворобу
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Кілька безпілотників влучили у фермерське господарство на Чернігівщині. Також уламки пошкодили приватні будинки на Харківщині та Полтавщині
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HAVANA — Cuba started releasing some prisoners Wednesday as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced his intent to lift the U.S. designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
More than a dozen people who were convicted of different crimes — and some of them were arrested after taking part in historic 2021 protests — were released during the day, according to Cuban civil groups following the cases of detainees in the island.
Among those freed was tattooist Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, 24, who was detained in the 2021 protests and convicted to four years in prison for attacks and public disorder. She was released from a prison in the province of Camagüey and told The Associated Press that eight men were freed along with her.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it notified Congress of its intent to lift the designation of Cuba as part of a deal facilitated by the Vatican. Cuban authorities would release some of them before Biden’s administration ends on Jan. 20, officials said.
Hours later, the Cuban foreign ministry said the government informed Pope Francis it would gradually release 553 convicts as authorities explore legal and humanitarian ways to make it happen.
Havana did not link the prisoners’ release to the U.S. decision on lifting the designation but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness,” referring to the Vatican’s once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee, in which the Catholic faithful make pilgrimages to Rome.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, one of the civil groups, said that by 4 p.m. EST, 18 people had been released, including Barreto Batista.
“At three in the morning they knocked,” Barreto Batista told the AP over the phone. “I was sleeping (in the cell) and they told me to gather all my things, that I was free.”
She said that she and the eight men were warned it was not a pardon or a forgiveness and that they had to be on good behavior or they could be sent back to prison.
“I am at home with my mother,” she said. “The whole family is celebrating.”
In July 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest widespread power outages and shortages amid a severe economic crisis. The government’s crackdown on the demonstrators, which included arrests and detentions, sparked international criticism, while Cuban officials blamed U.S. sanctions and a media campaign for the unrest.
In November, another Cuban nongovernmental organization, Justice 11J, said that 554 people remained in custody in connection with the protests.
Biden’s intention to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is likely to be reversed as early as next week after President-elect Donald Trump takes office and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio assumes the position of America’s top diplomat.
Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has long been a proponent of sanctions on the communist island.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to serve as secretary of state faced questioning from lawmakers Wednesday. Republican Marco Rubio told senators that if confirmed he would make U.S. national interest a priority. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reportss from Capitol Hill.
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On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would implement new export controls on certain biotechnology equipment, citing national security concerns relating to artificial intelligence and data science.
The Commerce Department warned that China could use the biotech equipment’s technology to bolster its military capabilities and help design new weapons using artificial intelligence.
The department said the technology has many applications, including its ability to be used for “human performance enhancement, brain-machine interfaces, biologically inspired synthetic materials and possibly biological weapons.”
The sanctions effectively restrict shipments of the technology to countries without a U.S. license, such as China.
The controls apply to parameter flow cytometers and certain mass spectrometry equipment, which according to the Commerce Department, can “generate high-quality, high-content biological data, including that which is suitable for use to facilitate the development of AI and biological design tools.”
Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing “firmly opposes any country’s development, possession or use of biological weapons.”
This latest move by the United States follows recent policy decisions that reflect Washington’s broad aim to limit Beijing’s access to U.S. technology and data.
Washington announced on Monday that it would tighten Beijing’s access to AI chip and technology exports by implementing new regulations that cap the number of chips that can be exported to certain countries, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
This month, the ban on popular Chinese-owned social media TikTok is planned to go into effect due to U.S. concerns over its potential to share sensitive data with China’s government.
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Russia’s nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine has become a “war of attrition” and a “stalemate” that must be ended, Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, told senators at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Rubio broke from the passive stance of the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden, which has said it was up to Kyiv to decide under what terms it would be open to peace talks with Moscow. In the meantime, the U.S., along with its European allies, has continued to send billions of dollars of armaments to Ukraine to continue the fight.
Rubio instead said the first step in ending the war should be a ceasefire that halts ground fighting, which has for more than a year mostly occurred in eastern Ukraine. However, ongoing fighting is also raging in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine captured in August, even as Moscow has attempted to retake it with the help of North Korean troops.
Both countries also target each other daily with aerial strikes, drones and missiles, with thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Russian attacks, along with vast numbers of both countries’ troops.
“This war has to end,” he said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rubio called the destruction in Ukraine “extraordinary,” saying it will “take a generation to rebuild.”
But even as he argued for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting that started with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Rubio said it was unlikely that there would be much change in the current battle lines. Russia currently holds about a fifth of the internationally recognized Ukrainian land mass.
“The truth of the matter is that in this conflict, there is no way Russia takes all of Ukraine,” Rubio said. “It’s also unrealistic to believe that somehow, a nation the size of Ukraine, no matter how incompetent and no matter how much damage the Russian Federation has suffered as a result of this invasion, there’s no way Ukraine is also going to push these people all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.”
Democrats, and some Republicans on the committee, continued to voice their support for more military aid to Ukraine, saying it was important to give Kyiv leverage in any eventual peace talks with Moscow.
But Rubio said that one of Ukraine’s key problems was not a shortage of ammunition or money but its inability to train and recruit enough troops.
“The problem that Ukraine is facing is not that they’re running out of money, [it] is that they’re running out of Ukrainians,” he said.
Trump has voiced skepticism of continued U.S. military support for Kyiv and repeatedly vowed that he would end the war before he assumed the presidency on Jan. 20.
In recent days, his aides have said the new timeline is ending the war in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be by the end of April.
On the battlefront, officials in western Ukraine said Wednesday that a Russian missile attack hit critical infrastructure facilities in the Lviv region, part of a series of attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said included more than 40 missiles and 70 drones.
Zelenskyy said Russia’s targets included “gas and energy facilities that sustain normal life for our people,” but that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 30 of the missiles.
“Thanks to our air defense forces and all involved units, we’ve managed to maintain the functionality of our energy system,” Zelenskyy said. “However, we must continue strengthening the capabilities of Ukraine’s air shield. Promises made by partners at the NATO summit in Washington and within the Ramstein format still remain partially unfulfilled.”
Ukraine’s military issued air alerts for regions across the country Wednesday, while the national power grid operator instituted power cuts in six regions.
Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that Russian forces attacked overnight with drones and missiles, with fragments from destroyed drones damaging two houses.
In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that Russian attacks included artillery, drones and missiles that damaged an industrial site.
Kirovohrad Governor Andriy Raikovich reported on Telegram what he described as a massive Russian drone attack that damaged several residential buildings.
Officials in the Rivne region also said Russian missiles targeted the area overnight.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod area and another drone over the Tambov region.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian attacks injured one person, while Tambov Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov reported damage to a house.
Some information for this story came from Reuters.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan confirmed on Wednesday that the World Bank has pledged to lend $20 billion over the next decade, commencing in 2026 under its Country Partnership Framework, to help address the impoverished country’s acute development challenges.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif applauded what he described as the lender’s “first-ever” pledge of its kind, saying the program is intended to develop child nutrition, education, clean energy and climate resilience to boost private sector growth.
The Country Partnership Framework “reflects the World Bank’s confidence in Pakistan’s economic resilience and potential,” Sharif said on the social media platform X. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership as we align our efforts for creating lasting opportunities for our people.”
The cash-strapped South Asian nation has been struggling to tackle serious economic challenges for several years and is currently relying on a $7 billion bailout loan program from the International Monetary Fund. Persistent political instability in Pakistan, rising militant attacks, and devastating flooding in 2022 have further strained the troubled economy.
“Our new decadelong partnership framework for Pakistan represents a long-term anchor for our joint commitment with the government to address some of the most acute development challenges facing the country,” said World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine.
The U.S.-based lender stated that the country’s annual commitments under the partnership “are expected to remain in the $1.5 billion to $2 billion range” from 2026 onward. It added that the loans will depend on available funding and the fulfillment of project requirements.
“The pace of economic growth and structural transformation has been long stunted by distortive policies that benefit only a few, who have historically coalesced to oppose growth-oriented reforms as well as increases in progressive public spending in human capital and basic services for the poorest,” the World Bank partnership documented stated.
It added that Pakistan must change its current development model to reduce poverty and achieve shared prosperity on a livable planet.
“We are focused on prioritizing investment and advisory interventions that will help crowd in much-needed private investment in sectors critical for Pakistan’s sustainable growth and job creation,” said Zeeshan Sheikh, International Finance Corporation country manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan from power in 2022 and his subsequent imprisonment over contested corruption charges have plunged Pakistan into a political crisis that experts say is hampering government attempts to attract domestic and foreign investments.
The World Bank’s document highlights that the South Asian nation, home to over 240 million people, ranks among the top 10 countries most affected by climate change and natural disasters worldwide.
It noted that climate change will increasingly strain livelihoods, food security, productivity, and growth caused by rising extreme heat, air pollution, and altered water availability and precipitation.
“These risks can significantly compromise development in an already fiscally constrained environment and make sustained progress in poverty reduction and human development even more challenging than it is today,” the World Bank stated.
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«Відзнака присвоєна столиці Польщі за виявлені гуманізм, милосердя й солідарність з українським народом»
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Hundreds of thousands in Southern California faced new threats of fire-spreading high winds on Wednesday as firefighters continued to fight wildfires that have killed at least 25 people and left nearly 30 missing.
A day after firefighters got a reprieve with lighter winds than expected, gusts were hitting up to 56 kilometers per hour on the Pacific coast and 88 kilometers per hour in the mountains before dawn, National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall said.
“This is really just the last push of these winds here today,” Hall said. “Hopefully, if we get through today, we’re going to have some better conditions for late week, especially into Friday and Saturday.”
The National Weather Service issued a high-level “particularly dangerous situation” warning through 3 p.m. local time Wednesday and extended a red-flag warning through Thursday for some areas north of the city.
“Please stay on guard for a fast-moving fire,” forecasters said.
On Tuesday, weaker-than-expected winds had allowed firefighters to make some progress in containing the two largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, but they were far from fully controlled. Authorities said that the Palisades blaze was 19% contained and the Eaton fire 45%.
But no more homes or major structures were reported burning in the two blazes, although officials said embers could still be lingering unseen and that it could take weeks to fully extinguish them.
The wildfires, which ignited on January 7, have displaced more than 100,000 people and left thousands more on edge, wondering whether they could be forced to evacuate their homes and flee for safety on a moment’s notice. More than 82,000 people in Los Angeles County are under evacuation orders, with another 90,400 under evacuation warnings, county Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters.
Diminishing winds will likely make it easier for firefighters to gain control of the blazes, though meteorologists have warned the dangerous Santa Ana windstorms may return early next week. Weather forecasts show little to no chance of rain.
Utility companies have shut off power to more than 77,000 households to prevent their power lines from sparking new blazes.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters she took an aerial tour of the affected areas on Monday.
“The massive, massive destruction is unimaginable until you actually see it,” Bass said.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Російські війська обстрілювали Нікопольщину із застосовуванням важкої артилерії та БПЛА
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden gives his farewell address from the Oval Office Wednesday evening, five days before he ends his term and President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
In a letter released Wednesday morning, Biden reflected on how his administration began in the shadows of COVID-19 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters intent on overturning the result of the 2020 election that Biden won.
“Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities,” he said in the letter. “But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.”
The president’s farewell address comes a day after Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted Trump on charges of illegally trying to cling to power after the 2020 election, released his final report. Smith’s report said that the evidence would have been sufficient to convict the president-elect in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and attacked the special counsel’s work as politically motivated.
Biden’s speech follows remarks he made Monday at the U.S. State Department defending his foreign policy record and will be his fifth and final formal address from the Oval Office. In his previous Oval Office address six months ago, Biden explained his decision to step aside and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run against Trump in the 2024 election.
Biden reflected on the “battle for the soul of America” framework that he campaigned on in 2020 when he won against Trump.
“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake,” Biden wrote, arguing that is still the case and that America is an idea based on the belief that “we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“We’ve never fully lived up to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either,” he said. “And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.”
Biden’s legacy
Biden is leaving office with a 39% approval rating, according to Gallup. He has been using the final weeks of his administration to cement his legacy.
Thomas Schwartz, presidential historian from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said that Biden’s legacy will be affected by how Trump governs in the next four years.
“If Trump ends up being a disaster … either ushering economic chaos, or if there’s more world chaos from conflicts, Biden will be remembered more favorably,” he told VOA. “If Trump really proves to be as dangerous to democratic norms as Biden and the Democrats suggested, then I think he may be seen as very prophetic.”
Conversely, by inheriting a strong economy and a winding down of U.S. foreign entanglements, Trump has the potential to become a president in the caliber of Ronald Reagan, Schwartz said. In which case Biden will be noted by historians for his legislative achievements but “won’t be remembered as fondly.”
The White House also released an extensive fact sheet detailing the Biden-Harris administration’s achievements domestically and abroad.
The sheet highlighted “historic” economic progress that added 16.6 million jobs, grew the GDP by 12.6% and raised median household wealth by 37%. It underscored investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and semiconductors through Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act.
The White House argued that through targeted relief and fair taxation, the Biden administration rebuilt a “stronger, fairer economy,” creating opportunity from the bottom up.
On the foreign policy front, the administration insists it is leaving the incoming Trump administration with a “very strong hand to play.”
“We’re leaving an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” the president said in his foreign policy address Monday, “an America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and visions.”
The president again defended his decision to withdraw the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021. Republicans and some Democrats have criticized the manner with which Biden ended America’s longest war as chaotic, costing the lives of 13 service members and dozens of Afghan civilians in a terrorist attack in Kabul.
Biden said in the letter it has been “the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.”
“Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States,” he added. “I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.”
Asked about his post-presidency role, Biden last week said, “I’m not going to be out of sight or out of mind.”
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На Покровському напрямку російські війська здійснили 17 атак
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