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CAPE CANAVERAL — Troubled aerospace giant Boeing will try once more to fly its first crew to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Starliner spaceship on Saturday, after the last attempt was scrubbed hours before lift-off.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are "go" for launch atop a United Launch Alliance rocket at 12:25pm (16:25 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The pair, both former Navy test pilots with two spaceflights under their belts, exchanged thumbs-up signs and waves with their families as they emerged from the historic Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on Saturday morning.

Clad in bright blue suits, they boarded a van for the journey to the launch pad, where they watched highlights from "Top Gun: Maverick" to get pumped up for the mission ahead.

Weather was 90 per cent favourable for launch, with winds posing the only potential for concern.

NASA is looking to certify Boeing as a second commercial operator to ferry crews to the ISS — something Elon Musk's SpaceX has already been doing for the US space agency for four years.

Both companies received multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop their gumdrop-shaped, autonomously piloted crew capsules, following the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 that left the US temporarily reliant on Russian rockets for rides.

Boeing, with its 100-year history, was heavily favoured over its then-upstart competitor, but its program has faced years of delays and safety scares that mirror the myriad problems afflicting its commercial airline division.

Wilmore and Williams were strapped in and ready to blast off on May 6 when a faulty rocket valve forced ground teams to call off that launch.

Urine pump

Since then, a small helium leak located in one of the spacecraft's thrusters came to light — but rather than replace the seal, which would require taking Starliner apart in its factory, NASA and Boeing officials declared it's safe enough to fly as is.

Pre-launch tests conducted by ground teams on Saturday confirmed the leak had not deteriorated further.

Once in space, the astronauts will put Starliner through the wringer, including taking manual control of the spacecraft.

A successful flight would help Boeing dispel some of the reputational damage sustained by successive failures over the years — from a software bug that put the spaceship on a bad trajectory on its first uncrewed test, to the discovery that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical tape after the second.

It's also important for more immediate reasons: The Urine Processor Assembly on the ISS, which recycles water from astronauts' urine, suffered a failure this week and its pump needs to be replaced, Dana Weigel, NASA's ISS programme manager, told reporters.

This mission will thus be tasked with carrying spare equipment, which weighs around 70 kilogrammes. To make way for it, two astronauts' suitcases containing clothes and toiletries had to be pulled off, meaning they'll need to rely on backup supplies kept on the station.

Elite club

Starliner is poised to become just the sixth type of US-built spaceship to fly NASA astronauts, following the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes in the 1960s-70s, the Space Shuttle from 1981-2011, and SpaceX's Crew Dragon from 2020.

The seventh spaceship should be NASA's Orion capsule, on the Artemis II mission aiming to orbit the Moon next year.

If all goes according to plan, the Starliner should dock with the ISS on Sunday and remain there eight days as the crew carry out tests, including simulating whether the ship can be used as a safe haven in the event there is a problem on the ISS.

It would then undock, reenter the atmosphere and carry out a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the western United States on June 10.

CAIRO — Egypt's cabinet decided on Wednesday to raise the price of subsidised bread for the first time in 30 years, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said.

The price of a loaf, long set at five piastres ($0.001), would quadruple to 20 piastres ($0.004) from June 1, Madbouly told a news conference.

Madbouly acknowledged the move would be unpopular but emphasised the need to "rationalise the burden on the state treasury to ensure the sustainability of subsidies".

Of the country's 106 million people, 71 million benefitted from bread subsidies, he said.

While the official price of a subsidised loaf has remained stable for three decades, consumers report its size has progressively shrunk.

Cairo has been suffering its worst economic crisis for two years, with the currency losing two-thirds of its value and inflation soaring to a record 40 per cent last year.

Egyptians, many of whom lived at or below the poverty line before the crisis, have dipped into life savings to cope with rising food prices, which saw over 70 per cent inflation last year.

Earlier this year, Cairo received a bailout of over $50 billion in loans and investment deals from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Arab Emirates.

These deals included promises of reforms, such as limiting the state's role in the economy and enacting policies to rein in inflation.

The government has signalled wide-reaching subsidy reforms, including plans to lift subsidies on fuel and electricity.

Recently, officials have reduced fuel subsidies and raised public transportation prices but avoided changing bread subsidies — a staple food and symbol of Egyptian livelihood.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has long argued that the pegged bread price was unsustainable for state coffers.

Madbouly also said Wednesday the government was considering moving towards a "cash subsidy" model.

Last year's budget allocated 529 billion pounds ($11.2 billion) to subsidies, about a sixth of the total budget, while debt servicing accounted for over a third of the budget, or 1.12 trillion pounds.

Cairo's foreign debt has more than tripled over the past decade to a record $165 billion, according to central bank figures.

WASHINGTON — US consumers appeared less gloomy about the job market and future business conditions in May, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index posted a surprise increase this month to 102.0, despite analyst expectations of a decline from April's 97.5 level.

"Confidence improved in May after three consecutive months of decline," said The Conference Board's chief economist Dana Peterson.

While consumers' were less optimistic of current business conditions than before, "the strong labor market continued to bolster consumers' overall assessment of the present situation", Peterson said.

Meanwhile, fewer people expected a worsening in future business conditions, job availability and income, she added in a statement.

But consumers appeared wary of inflation, with expectations of price hikes ticking up — alongside an anticipation of higher interest rates.

"The survey also revealed a possible resurgence in recession concerns," Peterson warned, noting that more people believed a recession is somewhat or very likely in the next 12 months.

While an improvement in sentiment is "welcome news," current readings remain "well below pre-pandemic levels", said Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics.

An earlier survey published by the University of Michigan signaled that confidence has been "knocked back by dimming expectations for interest rate cuts and a revival of worries about job security", noted Pantheon Macroeconomics. 

"Weakening consumer confidence can be added to the list of reasons to expect growth in real consumption to slow soon," Pantheon added in a recent note.

BEIRUT — A Beirut design fair has made a comeback after Lebanon's economic meltdown forced a four-year hiatus, with some pieces on display in spaces devastated in a deadly 2020 port explosion.

We Design Beirut, which ended on Sunday, exhibited work from more than 150 designers and artisans for four days in several locations in the Lebanese capital.

The fair aimed "to showcase the diversity of Lebanese design despite the country's difficulties", said Mariana Wehbe, who launched the event with industrial designer Samer Alameen.

The annual fair kicked off in 2010 but hit pause in 2019, when Lebanon's economy went into free fall, in what the World Bank would call one of the planet's worst economic crises in recent history.

The event was set to return in October last year but was postponed again after Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war.

Since the day after the October 7 attack, Lebanon's powerful Hizbollah movement has been trading regular fire across the country's southern border with Israel in stated support of Gazans and ally Hamas.

"We are trying to make Beirut a centre for design and creation again," said curator William Wehbe, not related to Mariana, speaking from the capital's luxurious Villa Audi, one of the fair venues.

Designers and creative workers have been among those Lebanese leaving for better prospects abroad, some spurred by the lack of primary materials or after their workshops were destroyed in the 2020 port explosion, he added.

'Risk of extinction' 

On August 4, 2020, a catastrophic explosion of poorly stored ammonium nitrate at Beirut's Port killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and laid waste to swathes of the capital.

Inside the opulent Villa Audi, a mirror installation took centre stage while large mushroom-shaped lamps lit the gardens.

Lamp designer Zein Daouk said she turned to ceramics after the office of her architecture firm was destroyed in the blast.

One fair venue near the port was also damaged in the explosion but was showing off modern sculptures and handicrafts as part of the event.

Mariana Wehbe said many artisans in Lebanon had "lost their jobs in recent years because many of the designers who worked with them have left", adding that some handicrafts were "at risk of extinction".

Dima Stephan, 34, who designs rattan furniture, said an artisan taught her how to make traditional Lebanese chairs — a craft traditionally reserved for men — and she now adds a modern twist.

The fair also presented works and crafts made with recycled materials, in a country also known for its waste crises.

In an abandoned textile factory in Beirut's Armenian district, university students displayed a giant installation made of recycled plastic and shaped like a volcanic eruption.

"We wanted to support students so that they do not leave crisis-riddled Lebanon," Wehbe said.

TOKYO — Saudi Arabia is moving aggressively with its investments in more gaming companies, the Canadian industry veteran steering the kingdom's push to become a global hub for the sector told AFP recently.

The kingdom has already been spending heavily with a $38-billion push into gaming under Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's Vision 2030 programme, part of a plan to diversify the economy away from oil.

Campaigners say the gaming push — accompanied by similar drives in football and other areas — belies a dire rights record where dissidents are imprisoned and executions are common.

"We don't pause. We don't do neutral," Savvy Games CEO Brian Ward said in a joint interview in Japan with Prince Faisal Bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, chair of the Saudi eSports Federation.

"It's a good time to be in the market, looking for good teams in studios," said Ward, a former executive at "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Microsoft.

Prince Mohammed had been due to visit Japan this week but cancelled the trip on Monday when his father, the ageing monarch King Salman, suffered a lung infection.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has bought stakes in "Resident Evil" maker Capcom and Japanese giant Nintendo, as well as in Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts.

Savvy, a PIF subsidiary, in 2022 bought a $1.1-billion stake in Sweden's Embracer in 2022 and bought Scopely, the US mobile games company behind "Monopoly Go!", for $4.9 billion last year.

"There's a lot we want to do to get it done and to reach our targets at 2030," said Prince Faisal, who is also Savvy vice-chairman.

"But we also want to make sure that we are taking the time to study things, to look at things. And make sure we're making the right steps and not just throwing cash out there to see what hits," he said.

'Gateway'

In eSports, Savvy also bought tournament organiser ESL Gaming and the platform FaceIt. Riyadh will also host the eSports World Cup in July and August, when 2,500 gamers will battle for $60 million in prize money.

Prince Faisal, who credits video games for giving him insights into real-life history, said the tournament would help put Saudi Arabia on the global gaming map.

"A gaming industry is something you can start now and you'll see the results in five to 10 years. And so to start momentum going, to start a conversation, esports is a great entry point," he said.

Saudi Arabia aims to create 250 gaming companies and studios on its soil, 39,000 game-related jobs, be in the top three of professional gamers per capita and to produce a blockbuster "AAA" game by 2030.

The objective at the same time is for gaming to account for 1 per cent of gross domestic product, something which Prince Faisal admits "keeps me up most at night".

"One of the amazing things is we have a long history of storytelling in our region. It's typical Bedouin culture is sitting around a fire telling the story," he said.

"The tools are there... I think we can come up with not just the next great game, but the next great story."

Rights

In 2020, "League of Legends" maker Riot Games backed out of a sponsorship deal with NEOM, a $500-billion futuristic Saudi city, after criticism from fans about doing business with a country where homosexuality is illegal.

"There's a lot of misconceptions about Saudi and who we are as Saudis," Prince Faisal said.

"And the best way that I can say to answer that is to come and see and what you'll see on the ground is very different than the conception that's out there."

Ward said he had been assured that Saudi Arabia's gaming drive would be "consistent with the values and culture of our industry".

"We have been given carte blanche to operate like a true games company. We don't do anything different at Savvy being based in Riyadh than we would if we were in New York, Los Angeles, or Berlin."

BERLIN — The Bundesbank said on Wednesday it expected the German economy to have grown gently in the second quarter of 2024, after a positive first three months of the year.

"Economic output is likely to increase slightly again in the second quarter of 2024," the German central bank said in its monthly report.

Europe's largest economy exceeded expectations in the first quarter, when it posted growth of 0.2 per cent.

The positive figures came as a relief after German output shrunk by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2023 at the end of a difficult period of high inflation.

An improvement in the services sector was behind much of the rising German growth figures.

Businesses in the sector could see their "recovery continue", the Bundesbank said.

The trend could "broaden and intensify" if there was a renewed increase in private consumption, the central bank said.

Households had seen their purchasing power shrink amid high inflation, but slowing consumer price rises and increased salaries has seen the picture brighten.

The rise in energy prices which drove the inflation wave likewise weighed on energy-intensive sectors, such as chemicals and steel.

These industries could "recover moderately" but a longer-term boost seemed unlikely while orders were down, the Bundesbank said.

Meanwhile, there were still few signs of life in the construction sector, which was still "very weak".

The German government in April raised its growth projections for 2024 to 0.3 per cent from 0.2 per cent.

While activity in Germany was "gradually picking up speed again", in the view of the Bundesbank, the sort of growth rates predicted by the government would still more than likely leave it lagging other major economies.