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NASA said Friday it plans to attempt its long-delayed uncrewed mission to the Moon as scheduled next Wednesday, after inspections revealed only minor damage from Hurricane Nicole’s passage through Florida.

Jim Free, a senior official at the US space agency, told journalists there was “nothing preventing” a launch on that date, and said that NASA teams had managed to access the launch pad on Thursday.

The launch of the heavy lift rocket, the most powerful ever built by contractors for NASA, is now due to take place at 01:04am local time (0604 GMT) on Wednesday, with a possible launch window of two hours.

The uncrewed mission, dubbed Artemis 1, will bring the United States a step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon five decades after humans last walked on the lunar surface.

The rocket will propel the empty Orion crew capsule to the Moon, without landing on its surface. If the launch takes place as planned, the mission will last 25-and-a-half days before the capsule returns on December 11 with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

However, the US space agency has “some work to do” before the launch, said Free, such as powering up the vehicle and carrying out some technical tests.

One element on the base of the rocket, which may have been damaged, may need to be replaced.

The highly anticipated launch has already been delayed three times in as many months. 

Free, who is NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development, said two back-up launch dates have been set for November 19 and November 25, if necessary.

Winds from Hurricane Nicole, a category 1 storm, battered the rocket as it stood on its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. However, the wind speeds did not surpass the limits the vehicle can withstand, said Free.

However, he conceded that if NASA had known the hurricane was approaching, the SLS rocket would have been left in the vehicle assembly building.

The rocket was returned to the building in September to protect it from Hurricane Ian, but was taken back out to the launch pad just days before Nicole arrived.

Artemis 1 will mark the launch of the flagship Artemis program, which is aimed at taking the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon, by 2025, at the earliest.

NASA wants to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, including the construction of a space station in orbit around the Moon. This is seen as a step that could lead to the first trip to Mars.

President Joe Biden vowed at UN climate talks on Friday that the United States was on track to slash its carbon emissions, urging all nations to ramp up their own efforts to avert catastrophic global warming.

His speech came at the halfway point of a two-week COP27 conference in Egypt where rich polluters like the US are under pressure to finally provide the funding developing countries have been promised in the battle against climate change.

Biden touted the passage of a massive, $369 billion spending package to green the US economy as an achievement that would “shift the paradigm” for his country and the entire world.

“The climate crisis is about human security, economic security, environmental security, national security and the very life of the planet,” Biden said.

In an hours-long visit to Egypt before heading to Asia for ASEAN and G20 summits, Biden said the United States “will meet” its goal of cutting emissions 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. 

He also announced plans to step up efforts to cut methane emissions — a major contributor to global warming — by plugging fossil fuel leaks and requiring companies to act on leaks reported by credible third parties.

“To permanently bend the emissions curve, every nation needs to step up. At this gathering, we must renew and raise our climate ambitions,” he said.

“The United States has acted, everyone has to act. It’s a duty and responsibility of global leadership,” said Biden, whose administration also announced plans to require federal contractors to reduce their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

– Howl of protest –

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has sent energy prices soaring, has raised concerns that tackling climate change has dropped down the priority list of many countries.

“Russia’s war only enhances the urgency of the need to transition the world off its dependence on fossil fuels,” Biden said.

His 22-minute speech was briefly interrupted by a small group of demonstrators, who howled and attempted to unfurl a banner protesting fossil fuels before they were removed by UN security.

New research shows just how dauntingly hard it will be to meet the ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — requiring emissions to be slashed nearly in half by 2030.

The new study — published on Friday in the journal Earth System Science Data — found that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are on track to rise one percent in 2022 to reach an all-time high.

Before his speech, Biden met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of COP27, where he raised human rights issues with his host amid concerns over the health of jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is on a months-long hunger strike.

Abdel Fattah’s family later announced that they had requested a presidential pardon for him following calls for his release from a raft of Western governments, including the United States.

– Mixed reviews –

Biden’s visit to COP27 came three days after US midterm elections that have raised questions about what the result could mean for US climate policy.

His climate speech earned mix reviews from COP27 participants.

“President Biden is advancing the boldest climate agenda of any American president by far,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute.

But he said the US was “grossly underperforming” on its commitments in a $100-billion-a-year global climate funding programme to help developing nations transition to renewable energy and build resilience.

Biden has pledged to double the US contribution to $11.4 billion, but Democrats may be running out of time to honour that as control of the House of Representatives appears poised to shift to the Republicans from January in the wake of this week’s vote.

Others pointed out that the United States has previously blocked efforts to establish a “loss and damage” mechanism that would see rich polluters compensate poorer countries for the destruction from climate-induced natural disasters.

Biden did not address the “loss and damage” mechanism idea in his speech, though the United States has allowed it to be on the official COP27 agenda.

“Joe Biden comes to COP27 and makes new promises but his old promises have not even been fulfilled,” said Mohamed Dowd, founder of the Power Shift Africa think tank.

“He is like a salesman selling goods with endless small print.”

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On the hunt for the methane “super-emitters”, US President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a plan to plug oil and gas leaks and tighten regulation as several global emitters vowed to step up efforts to slash pollution of the powerful greenhouse gas. 

Methane, released from the oil and gas, waste and agriculture sectors as well as through natural processes, is responsible for roughly 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date. 

Dozens of countries have signed up to cutting their emissions of the short-lived but potent gas by a third this decade and Biden said this could be “our best chance” to meet the Paris climate deal’s more ambitious goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.  

“We have to make vital progress by the end of this decade,” he told an audience at COP27 in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. 

With recent data showing methane concentrations in the atmosphere made their biggest increase on record in 2021, the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore and Britain signed an agreement committing to “immediate action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil energy production and consumption”.

They also vowed to minimise flaring — burning off unwanted natural gas from oil and gas wells — and to minimise methane and carbon dioxide “across the value chain to the fullest extent practicable, while also working to phase down fossil fuel consumption”, according to a statement from the EU. 

– ‘Hot spots’ –

Biden pledged to invest more than $20 billion in cutting emissions in the United States, including improving equipment and capping leaks in the oil and gas industry.   

He also touted “strong regulatory actions” from the country’s Environmental Protection Agency, which, if finalised, would toughen up standards for methane and other harmful air pollutants. 

This was “especially from super emitters”, he said, referring to a programme that would require operators to respond to credible third-party reports of high-volume methane leaks. 

Earlier this week, the newly-launched TRACE satellite monitoring project said the top 14 largest emitters are all oil and gas extraction sites.

And of those, the biggest emitter on the planet is the Permian Basin in Texas — one of the largest oilfields in the world — said former US vice president Al Gore, a project founder.

On Friday, the UN Environment Programme unveiled its satellite-based Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), which will use data from global mapping satellites to detect methane “hot spots” and large plumes of the gas, and identify their source.

– ‘Game changer’ –

Biden said the measures announced Friday would enable the US to reduce its emissions from covered sources by 87 percent below the levels of 2005, by 2030. 

At last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, more than 100 nations agreed under the Global Methane Pledge to reduce emissions 30 percent by 2030, spearheaded by the US and European Union. 

But several major methane emitters — including China, Russia, Iran and India — failed to sign.

That figure has grown to 130, Biden said Friday, adding it was a “game changer”. 

Governments have zeroed in on emissions of methane, which lingers in the atmosphere only a fraction as long as CO2, but is far more efficient at trapping heat. Levels of the gas are their highest in at least 800,000 years.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said countries working together could reduce warming by 0.1C by mid-century, adding “every fraction of a degree counts in our fight to preserve our planet for future generations”. 

Rachel Cleetus, lead economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate programme, said the swathe of new announcements on methane “are critical” to addressing planet-heating methane pollution.

“We urgently need better tracking of methane emissions and stronger rules to reduce these emissions,” she said.

The International Energy Agency has decried the enormous amount of methane that leaks from fossil fuel operations, estimating the amount lost last year globally was broadly similar to all the gas used in Europe’s power sector.

In October, NASA said a methane plume about two miles (3.3 kilometres) long was detected southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the Permian Basin.

Despite Republicans’ gains in the US midterm elections this week, they are unlikely to knock President Joe Biden’s existing climate policies off course, experts say, highlighting the importance of individual state regulations.

Biden arrived at the COP27 global climate meeting in Egypt less weakened than he might have been if the Republicans’ much desired “red wave” had materialized in Congress, but with the balance of power still in limbo as counting continues.

Biden urged the world to “renew and raise our climate ambitions,” and said the passage earlier this year of a massive $369 billion spending package to green the United States economy should be an example for the entire world. 

The United States is the world’s second-biggest emitter of harmful carbon emissions, and the passage of the landmark spending bill was seen as a significant boost to its renewable energy push.

Conservative Republican lawmakers, who are traditionally less favorable to the fight against climate change, voted against the bill.

With 209 seats won in this week’s election so far, Republicans appear poised to secure a slim majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives, with control of the Senate still unknown.

Whatever the final result, the Republican party is not in a position to backtrack on the legislation or other similar bills, due to the lack of the majority necessary to override a presidential veto.

Nathaniel Keohane, president of the Washington-based Center for Climate and Energy Solutions thinktank and a former climate advisor to Barack Obama, said that Republicans taking control of both houses would be “the worst case for the climate.”

However, even if this happened and they “try to push back against what’s been done, there would be very limited success,” he said.

“Even if they only control one chamber, they can pursue hearings and oversight and investigations to try to make the administration look bad, but they are limits, even there, in terms of how far they could go over the next two years,” said Barry Rabe, an environment policy specialist and University of Michigan professor.

– ‘Two lost years’ –

The Republican campaigns ignored climate issues and centered on high inflation, crime, and immigration.

“They don’t have any serious plan,” on the climate emergency, said Jeffrey Colgan, director of the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown University.

However, he says the “most important climate results” emerging from the election would be in the Senate, whose composition will only be known after the Georgia runoff. 

A Democratic majority “would allow Biden to continue to appoint judges and other appointees who are climate-friendly,” said Colgan. 

Meanwhile, when it comes to authorizing oil and gas exploration, “Congress has limited authority,” said Keohane.

“I don’t think we’re likely to see a big shift in oil and gas production.”

Overall, the US Congress could end up with “two lost years” when it comes to fighting climate change, he added.

“It’s not ideal, but I don’t worry too much about backsliding.”

– The power of states –

Adding to the overall optimism of experts are the series of Democratic victories in key states, which Rabe said “have tremendous power and independence in some ways to move beyond the federal government.”

In 2017, former president Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, pushing California and other states to move forward with their own ambitions.

The election of several pro-climate Democratic governors and local officials will allow new funding for infrastructure and energy to be “aggressively used in some of these states,” said Rabe.

“State action is crucial for decarbonization,” added Colgan.

He gave the example of newly elected Massachusetts governor Maura Healey, who is aiming for a 100-percent clean energy grid by 2030 — “five years ahead of Biden’s goal for the US as a whole,” he said.

“If we have a Congress that does not take action, state action is going to be very important,” said Keohane.

“So far, we’ve seen the Democrats, at the state level be much more willing to take action on the climate than Republicans.”

In a referendum in the state of New York, voters approved a $4.2 billion bond to fight climate change. This was a proposal backed by Democratic governor Kathy Hochul, who won re-election on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, around half of the country’s states will be led by Republicans after the midterm election.

Crisis-struck cryptocurrency platform FTX has gone bankrupt in the United States and its chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned, it said Friday, the latest blow in a saga that has reverberated across the digital currency landscape.

The filing comes after the world’s biggest cryptocurrency platform Binance agreed to buy its rival earlier this week but backed out, leading market players to consider possible regulator responses.

FTX Group announced in a statement Friday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, adding it has begun an “orderly process to review and monetize assets for the benefit of all global stakeholders.”

Chapter 11 is a US mechanism allowing a company to restructure its debts under court supervision while continuing to operate.

This week’s financial chaos at FTX has seen major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, plunge.

Bankman-Fried issued a “sincere” apology Thursday, adding FTX would do “everything we can to raise liquidity.”

The cash-strapped company added in its statement that it has appointed John J. Ray as chief executive with immediate effect.

“The immediate relief of Chapter 11 is appropriate to provide the FTX Group the opportunity to assess its situation,” said Ray in the statement.

“Stakeholders should understand that events have been fast-moving and the new team is engaged only recently.”

“Many employees of the FTX Group in various countries are expected to continue with the FTX Group and assist Mr. Ray and independent professionals in its operations during the Chapter 11 proceedings,” the statement said.

Binance agreed to buy FTX.com on Tuesday — before scrapping the takeover just a day later.

Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao defended himself against accusations of any purposeful plot after the deal fell apart.

“FTX going down is not good for anyone in the industry. Do not view it as a win for us. User confidence is severely shaken,” he tweeted.

The platform’s collapse came as a shock even for an already turbulent industry.

Bankman-Fried, who worked as a broker on Wall Street before moving to Hong Kong in 2017, had cultivated friends in Washington and basked in glowing tributes when he stepped in to rescue other ailing crypto companies earlier in the year.

The turmoil at FTX, at one point valued at $32 billion, is a spectacular reversal of fortune for the founder and one-time cryptocurrency wunderkind.

“This is another black eye for the industry,” David Holt, a cryptocurrency industry expert at CFRA, said of FTX’s troubles. 

– Growing doubts –

Doubts had already been growing about the financial stability of FTX, despite Bankman-Fried’s good standing in Washington as a public face of crypto investing.

Attention had focused on the relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, a trading house also owned by Bankman-Fried that was taken down from the internet on Wednesday, reports said.

Specialist media site CoinDesk reported that 40 percent of Alameda’s balance sheet comprised FTX’s FTT tokens, raising concerns of a potential conflict of interest.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, but from all the reporting it looks like there was a lot of misconduct,” former US regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyer Howard Fischer said on the CNBC network Friday, predicting that some clients would sue in order to recover their investments.

The company is currently under investigation by the SEC, according to the New York Times, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The regulator, which does not usually comment on ongoing investigations, did not respond to AFP’s request for comment Friday, nor did the Department of Justice. 

Media reports suggest FTX had needed to find about $8 billion to plug a massive hole in its finances and escape bankruptcy.

Binance meanwhile axed its FTX takeover deal late on Wednesday and cited recent press reports about mismanagement of client funds and potential investigations.

Bankman-Fried, the son of Stanford Law School professors and a graduate of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has long been a vocal advocate for smoother access to the crypto market for the general public, particularly in the United States.

Kevin O’Leary, president of a venture capital firm and television personality who had invested in FTX, on Friday called for urgent regulations to safeguard the industry. 

“I lost money in the account, but I’m still going to invest on crypto,” he told CNBC. 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Kherson was “ours” after Russia announced the completion of its withdrawal from the regional capital, the only one Moscow captured in nearly nine months of fighting.

“As of now, our defenders are on the outskirts of the city. But special units are already in the city,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, posting footage apparently showing Ukrainian troops gathering with residents.

Ukraine’s parliament had published pictures of people carrying Ukrainian flags in the centre of Kherson, the capital of the eponymous region and close to the Black Sea.

Hours earlier, Russian strikes killed seven people in Mykolaiv, a nearby city in southern Ukraine that the Russians have failed to capture but subjected to months of attack. 

“Kherson is returning to Ukrainian control and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are entering the city,” Kyiv’s defence ministry said on social media.

It added that its artillery teams had clear views over Russia’s routes to retreat and warned: “Any attempts to oppose the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be stopped.”

Russia’s defence ministry said “more than 30,000 Russian servicemen, about 5,000 pieces of hardware and military equipment and materiel have been withdrawn”.

Kherson was the first major urban hub to fall after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24. 

Its full recapture by Kyiv would be a political and symbolic blow to Putin and open a gateway for Ukraine’s forces to the entire Kherson region, with access to both the Black Sea in the west and Sea of Azov in the east.

“Ukraine is gaining another important victory right now and proves that whatever Russia says or does, Ukraine will win,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on social media.

He posted an amateur video showing Ukrainians removing a billboard near Kherson that proclaimed: “Russia is here forever”.

– ‘In tears’ –

In Ukraine’s capital, the news was met with joy.

Wrapped in flags, popping champagne corks and belting out the Ukrainian national anthem, residents of Kherson living in Kyiv gathered in the city’s Maidan square to celebrate.

“I didn’t believe it at first, I thought it was going to take weeks and months, a few hundred metres at a time and now we see them arrive in Kherson in one day, it’s the best surprise,” said Artem Lukiv, 41, a Kherson resident living in Kyiv.

While it would appear a major Russian setback, the Kremlin insisted that Kherson was still part of Russia and that it did not regret annexing the entire Kherson region at a lavish ceremony in late September.

“This is a subject of the Russian Federation. There are no changes in this and there cannot be changes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

A full Ukrainian recapture of the Kherson region would disrupt a vital land bridge for Russia between its mainland and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

– ‘Cynical’ attack –

Ukrainian officials were initially wary after Moscow announced this week that it would pull forces to defensive positions on the east bank of the river in the city.

Kherson was one of four regions in Ukraine that Putin claimed to have annexed during the September ceremony, vowing at the time to use all available methods to defend it.

Asked by reporters whether Russia regretted annexing Kherson, Peskov said the Kremlin had “no regrets” about the move.

Earlier on Friday, a Russian strike on a residential building in Mykolaiv killed seven people, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said on social media.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw a gaping hole gouged out of a Soviet-style residential building with emergency workers in yellow helmets on site clearing rubble.

Zelensky branded the strike a “cynical response to our successes at the front”.

He announced late Thursday that his forces had recaptured more than 40 towns and villages in southern Ukraine during a counter-offensive begun in August.

On Thursday, the United States announced a new $400-million security assistance package for Kyiv, including defence systems and surface-to-air missiles.

Xi Jinping and Joe Biden will hold talks at next week’s G20 summit in Bali, their first face-to-face meeting since the US president took office and just weeks after the Chinese leader secured a landmark third term.

The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have spoken by phone multiple times since Biden became president in January 2021. But the Covid-19 pandemic and Xi’s subsequent aversion to foreign travel have prevented them from meeting in person.

Beijing’s foreign ministry said Friday that China would always “firmly defend” its interests in talks with the United States, while working to “manage differences, promote mutually beneficial cooperation and avoid miscalculation”.

The White House had said a day earlier the meeting would go ahead, and that the leaders were set to discuss “efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication”, as well as how to “responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align”.

Both powers have challenged each other’s military and diplomatic influence — especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

They have been at odds over an array of issues, including trade, human rights in China’s Xinjiang region, and the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday of “a growing risk that the global economy will be divided into two parts, led by the two biggest economies –- the United States and China”.

“A divided global economy, with two different sets of rules, two dominant currencies, two internets, and two conflicting strategies on artificial intelligence, would undermine the world’s capacity to respond to the dramatic challenges we face,” Guterres said at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ meeting.

“This decoupling must be avoided at all costs.”

– ‘Inevitable’ triumph –

At last month’s Communist Party Congress, Xi warned of a challenging geopolitical climate without mentioning the United States by name, as he wove a narrative of China’s “inevitable” triumph over adversity.

The G20 summit will serve as a diplomatic re-emergence for Xi following his anointment in October as China’s leader for a third term.

In Indonesia’s Bali, he is also set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron less than a fortnight after hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing.

Biden, in turn, is headed into the trip to Southeast Asia “with the wind at his back”, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Thursday, with “an excellent opportunity both to deal with competitors from a strong position and to rally allies”.

US midterm elections this week brought surprisingly strong results for Biden’s party — limiting losses in the House, potentially holding the Senate, and chastening former president Donald Trump’s far-right wing.

Notably absent from the summit will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been shunned by the West over his invasion of Ukraine, and who is instead sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

A trip to the summit in Bali would have put Putin in the same room as Biden for the first time since the Ukraine war began on February 24.

Biden has fiercely criticised Putin and had ruled out meeting him in Bali if he went, unless they discussed the release of Americans held in Russia.

Putin’s spokesperson said Friday the president would not go to the G20 summit because of scheduling commitments.

Observers say the Kremlin is seeking to shield the 70-year-old leader from Western condemnation over the Ukraine war, in which Russian forces are suffering setbacks against a counter-offensive.

Political analyst Konstantin Kalachev said Putin did not want to step out of his comfort zone and face tough questions.

Putin’s refusal to attend the summit in person also suggests he does not have any firm proposal to end the offensive in Ukraine. 

“There is a sense of a dead end, and without concrete proposals Putin simply has nothing to do at this summit,” Kalachev told AFP.

While China as well as India have stopped short of condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a French presidential official insisted that there was a “very large majority” within the G20 who believed the war was unacceptable.

“There is a very clear space at the G20 to bear a message of peace and ask Russia to enter into the logic of de-escalation,” said the official, asking not to be named.

– Diplomatic tightrope –

Host Indonesia pursues a neutral foreign policy and had rebuffed Western calls to disinvite Russia.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo had invited Putin despite the Ukraine assault, prompting a flurry of Western criticism. In August, he said Putin had accepted that invitation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend virtually. He had threatened to boycott the summit if Putin attended.

The G20 summit will be the bloc’s biggest meeting since the start of the pandemic.

It will be held under the shadow of divisions over the food and energy crises worsened by the Ukraine conflict, on top of soaring inflation and climate change.

G20 meetings held ahead of the leaders’ get-together all ended without a joint communique.

The summit is also not expected to close with a joint declaration, but the Indonesian foreign ministry said “the negotiation for the final document is still ongoing”.

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