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South America
January 25, 2019 Venezuelan President Maduro accuses the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup against him. While the U.S. says it’s trying to rescue Venezuela’s democracy, Washington has a long history of interventions - military and otherwise - in Latin American politics. Since the advent of the Monroe Doctrine in the early 19th century, the United States has involved itself in the daily affairs of nations across the hemisphere, often on behalf of North American commercial interests or to support right-leaning forces against leftist leaders. Some of the most notable U.S. interventions in Latin America: 1846: The United States invades Mexico and captures Mexico City in 1847. A peace treaty the following year gives the U.S. more than half of Mexico’s territory - what is now most of the western United States. 1903: The U.S. engineers Panamanian independence from Colombia and gains sovereign rights over the zone where the Panama Canal would connect Atlantic and Pacific shipping routes. 1903: Cuba and the U.S. sign a treaty allowing near-total U.S. control of Cuban affairs. U.S. establishes a naval base at Guantanamo Bay. 1914: U.S. troops occupy the Mexican port of Veracruz for seven months in an attempt to sway developments in the Mexican Revolution. 1954: Guatemalan President Arbenz is overthrown in a CIA-backed coup. 1961: The U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion fails to overthrow Soviet-backed Cuban leader Castro but Washington continues to launch attempts to assassinate Castro and dislodge his government. 1964: Leftist President Goulart of Brazil is overthrown in a U.S.-backed coup that installs a military government lasting until the 1980s. 1965: U.S. forces land in the Dominican Republic to intervene in a civil war. 1970s: Argentina, Chile and allied South American nations launch brutal campaign of repression and assassination aimed at perceived leftist threats, known as Operation Condor, often with U.S. support. 1980s: Reagan administration backs anti-Communist Contra forces against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and backs the Salvadoran government against leftist FMLN rebels. 1983: U.S. forces invade Caribbean island of Grenada after accusing the government of allying itself with Communist Cuba. 1989: U.S. invades Panama to oust strongman Noriega. 1994: A U.S.-led invasion of Haiti is launched to remove the military regime installed by a 1991 coup that ousted President Aristide. The invasion restores Aristide. 2002: Venezuelan President Chavez is ousted for two days before retaking power. He and his allies accuse the U.S. of tacit support for the coup attempt. 2009: Honduran President Zelaya overthrown by military. U.S. accused of worsening situation by insufficient condemnation of the coup. (S ource: APNews)
Panama
2019/01/27 Only love makes us more human and fulfilled; everything else is a pleasant but useless placebo. Complete speech of Pope Francis during World Youth Day prayer vigil. (Source: RomeReports): https://tinyurl.com/yd9jvbkq
Globalization
31 January 2019 The need of a new narrative for globalisation. The morphing of a struggle that has taken place over the last two years: the fight for or against global order has become a fight for control of the global order. While right-wing politicians like Trump have railed against “globalists”, they aren’t rejecting globalisation outright. Instead, such leaders are embracing their own, alternative globalisation – one that allows the free circulation of goods and money, but not of people. Over the past two years, the founder of the World Economic Forum has extended his hand to the right-wing advocates of alternative globalisation. The 80-year-old engineer and economist Schwab last year defended Trump and this year warmly introduced Bolsonaro for his Davos debut. Joining Bolsonaro this year at the World Economic Forum was the 32-year-old Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, fresh from a six-month stint as president of the European Council. He spoke about slashing taxes and regulations in order to make Austria more competitive to foreign investors. Kurz preached “greater freedom” for individuals and entrepreneurs but less freedom for migrants. He explained that North African countries need to instigate more rescue operations in the Mediterranean. A similar story is the initial impression that Trump and his trade team wanted a strongman programme to crush multilateralism has since faded to something more banal: Trump’s team just wants a deal that grants American products greater access to overseas markets. New NAFTA looks a lot like old NAFTA. His anti-globalisation stance is giving way to an alt-globalisation project. The European elections in May will be the next test of whether the insurgent cry to take back control also involves right-wing leaders seizing the levels of supranational governance. What would a useful populist look like? (Source: TheNewStatesman)
25 Jan 2019 Europe as an idea is falling apart before our eyes. This is the noxious climate in which Europe’s parliamentary elections will take place in May. Unless something changes; unless something comes along to turn back the rising, swelling, insistent tide; unless a new spirit of resistance emerges, these elections promise to be the most calamitous that we have known. They will give a victory to the wreckers. For those who still believe in the legacy of Erasmus, Dante, Goethe and Comenius there will be only ignominious defeat. A politics of disdain for intelligence and culture will have triumphed. There will be explosions of xenophobia and antisemitism. Disaster will have befallen us. We, the undersigned, are among those who refuse to resign themselves to this looming catastrophe. We must now fight for the idea of Europe or see it perish beneath the waves of populism. Urgently, we need to sound the alarm against these arsonists of soul and spirit who, from Paris to Rome, with stops along the way in Barcelona, Budapest, Dresden, Vienna and Warsaw, want to make a bonfire of our freedoms. In this strange defeat of “Europe” that looms on the horizon; this new crisis of the European conscience that promises to tear down everything that made our societies great, honourable, and prosperous, there is a challenge greater than any since the 1930s: a challenge to liberal democracy and its values. (Source: TheGuardian)
January 24, 2019 Inflicting mass destruction and forcing opponents to capitulate. A report by the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, reveals details on how nuclear EMP weapons are integrated into the military doctrines of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. EMP attacks will be carried out at such high altitudes they will produce no blast or other immediate effects harmful to humans. Instead, three types of EMP waves in seconds damage electronics and the strikes are regarded by adversaries as not an act of nuclear war. Millions could die from the long-term collateral effects of EMP and cyber-attacks that cause protracted black-out of national electric grids and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures". The attacks are regarded by enemy military planners as a relatively easy, potentially unattributable means of inflicting mass destruction and forcing opponents to capitulate. EMP strikes can be adjusted in the size of the area and the intensity of the wave by detonating at different altitudes. The closer to the earth the more powerful is the pulse. The higher the altitude, the wider the area of impact. A single nuclear weapon can potentially make an EMP attack against a target the size of North America," the report said. "Any nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 30 kilometers or higher will generate a potentially catastrophic EMP." Super-EMP bombs produce gamma rays that generate a peak EMP field of 200,000 volts per meter - enough to fry strategic communications and intelligence systems. China, Russia, and probably North Korea are said to have these arms, according to the commission. The United States has no super-EMP weapons in its nuclear arsenal. (Source: TheWashingtonFreeBeacon)
Moon
21 January 2019 Permanent lunar colony as a replacement for the orbiting International Space Station, which is due to be decommissioned in 2024. European Space Agency says 'In the longer term, resources in space may even be used on Earth.' Its aim is to mine regolith on the lunar surface, which could be used to create rocket fuel. ESA revealed it has signed up rocket maker ArianeGroup to develop plans for a Moon Base. Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster+Partners have already worked with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil to create moon bases. Regolith is an ore from which it is possible to extract water and oxygen. Ariane is hoping Ariane 64, the 4-booster version of Ariane 6, would enable this European mission to carry the equipment needed for a Moon landing. It is also working with a German start-up, PTScientists, which will provide the lunar lander, and a Belgian SME, Space Applications Services, which will provide the ground control facilities, the communications and the associated service operation. Structures for a lunar base could be built by robots sent ahead of human astronauts. 3D printing technology can currently construct an entire building in around a week. "During the lunar day, energy from the Sun will be used directly via photovoltaic panels, but it will also be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen,' ESA says. (Source: DailyMail)
Space
January 29, 2019 The secretive mission of a U.S. Air Force X-37B miniature space plane. Looking like a miniature version of NASA’s now-retired space shuttle orbiter, the military space plane is 8.8 meters long and 2.9 m tall, with a wingspan of nearly 4.6 m. The X-37B space plane has a payload bay measuring 2.1 m by 1.2 m that can be outfitted with a robotic arm. Each X-37B has a launch weight of 4,990 kilograms and is powered on orbit by gallium-arsenide solar cells with lithium-ion batteries. OTV-5 began September 2018 in an orbit about 391 kilometers high, inclined 54.5 degrees to the equator. Its ground track repeated every three days, after 46 revolutions. One payload flying on OTV-5 is the Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader, or ASETS-II. Developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), this cargo is testing experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipes for long-duration stints in the space environment. According to the AFRL, the payload’s three primary science objectives are to measure the initial on-orbit thermal performance, to measure long-duration thermal performance and to assess any lifetime degradation. (Source: Space)
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