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Turkey
April 1, 2019 The United States has halted delivery of equipment related to the stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft to Turkey marking the first concrete U.S. step to block delivery of the jet to the NATO ally in light of Ankara’s planned purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system that would compromise the security of F-35 aircraft. The United States and other NATO allies that own F-35s each of which costs $90 million fear the radar on the Russian S-400 missile system will learn how to spot and track the jet, making it less able to evade Russian weapons in the future. Turkey makes parts of the fuselage, landing gear and cockpit displays. The United States offered the pricier American-made Patriot anti-missile system in a discounted deal that expired at the end of March. Turkey has said it will take delivery of the S-400s in July. The latest development in the F-35 dispute came a day after Erdogan suffered one of his biggest electoral losses in decades in local elections. (Source: Reuters)
United States
April 10, 2019 Americans are increasingly shopping online. The average U.S. household spent $5,200 online last year, up nearly 50 percent from five years earlier. Retailers have closed more than 15,000 stores since 2017, according to UBS. Among them: Radio Shack (which closed 1,470 stores), Toys R Us (735 stores), and Mattress Firm and GNC (700 stores each). Already this year Payless ShoeSource, which filed for Chapter 8 bankruptcy protection in February, is closing all 2,100 of its U.S. stores, while Gymboree is shuttering its 800 locations. Sears, which has closed 1,300 Kmart and Sears stores since 2013, is scrapping an additional 80 locations. Sears said last week that it will open a handful of "Sears Home & Life" shops that are about one-tenth the size of its traditional department stores. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)
April 8, 2019 The U.S. announced it has designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization". The U.S. has never before used the designation for an entire foreign government entity. Trump said in a statement that the move “recognizes the reality” that Iran is a state-sponsored supporter of terrorism and that the Guard is an active participant. (Source: AP)
3 April 2019 Anti-ageing drugs - dubbed ‘senolytics’ - are currently being trialled in humans and unlike previous tests which have focussed on a single disease, these drugs work like a broad-spectrum antibiotic, preventing or alleviating most age-related illnesses and frailty. Scientists at The Mayo Clinic, who first coined the term senolytics, already have six trials in humans under way and plan to start six more shortly. If successful, they estimate that drugs to slow down ageing could be ready within two years. Damage and disease triggers zombie celles which neither divide or die. They pump out signals which invite immune cells to kill nearby healthy cells. Over time zombie cells infect those around them and can send out signals through the entire body , triggering senescence in far away areas and causing multiple diseases like Alzheimer's and arthritis. New drugs target the ways that zombie cells use to avoid death, clearing out the cells and leaving room for healthy new growth. (Source: Yahoo)
Venezuela
Apr 2, 2019 Gathering in Venezuela what would trigger a third world war? Simply the escalating costs of maintaining the key capitalist directive, which is limitless growth, in the face of real limits posed by climate change. We can expect this situation to be exacerbated by the world-historical development at this conjecture, which is the transition of political/economic power from Washington, D.C./New York City to Beijing/Shanghai. What the history of capitalism makes very clear is that such transitions (the Dutch to the British, the British to the US) are not gradual and peaceful, but always accelerated by war. The Russians arrived and began supporting the socialist leader that the US wants to oust, Maduro. And now a team from the largest standing army in the world, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, have been deployed to a crisis that's becoming more and more dangerous. What this means is that three major nuclear-weapon countries are converging on Venezuela. (Source: TheStranger)
South America
April 10, 2019 The capacity to monitor leaders. Eventually the colonialism moves from the economic side to the military side. China has drawn international condemnation for keeping a close watch on political dissidents with advanced surveillance techniques while using major economic players to gain leverage outside its borders. ZTE, an international telecommunications giant tied to Chinese intelligence agencies, has played a key role in such efforts, at home and abroad. The company helped develop a “social credit system” that allows authorities in Beijing to monitor the population, doling out punishments for disfavored activities such as cigarette smoking. Maduro is copying those tactics, with ZTE's help - the regime paid the company $70 million to create a database and payment system for a “homeland card” (carnet de la patria). ZTE has sold technology to the Venezuelan government which may be used to control access to food, cash bonuses, and other social services through the use of a social credit system as a political control mechanism. The Maduro regime’s use of the cards to reward friends and punish enemies is one of the reasons millions of Venezuelans have fled the country. The card, which reportedly includes information on how its owner has voted, is required to access social programs, including those that distribute food and medicine in the country with shortages of both. China has given other governments in the region substantial surveillance capabilities that could eventually be used for social control. In Ecuador, for instance, law enforcement officials have purchased a network of Chinese security cameras with facial recognition software. Similar deals have been struck in regions of Argentina, Bolivia, Panama, and Uruguay. Beijing will be able to integrate the different assets into a transnational, incredibly effective surveillance complex that reinforces China's political and economic influence. (Source: WashingtonExaminer)
Globalization Globalizáció
April 10, 2019 The US State Department has updated its travel advisories for 35 countries with a new indicator to highlight the risk of kidnapping and hostage taking. Travel advisories the following countries have been updated to include the "K" indicator: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine (in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine), Venezuela, and Yemen. (Source: CNN)
10 Apr 2019 Breaking the internet: new regulations imperil global network (Source: AgenceFrancePresse): http://tinyurl.com/yy7bww2s
2019. IV. 9. Az IMF a tavaly októberben publikált World Economic Outlook (WEO) előrejelzésének felülvizsgált és módosított változatában 0,4 százalékponttal 3,3 százalékra csökkentette a 2019-es és 0,1 százalékponttal 3,6 százalékra a 2020-as globális GDP-növekedési előrejelzését. Az IMF számításai szerint tavaly a globális GDP 3,6 százalékkal nőtt. A fejlett gazdaságok között az Egyesült Államok gazdasági növekedése az idén 2,3 százalékra, jövőre 1,9 százalékra lassul a prognózis szerint a tavalyi 2,9 százalékról. A jövő évre vonatkozóan ugyanakkor 0,1 százalékponttal javította becslését. Az Európai Unió esetében a jelentés összeállítói az idén 1,6 százalékos, jövőre 1,7 százalékos gazdasági növekedést várnak a tavalyi 2,1 százalék után. Októberhez képest az idei várható bővülési ütemet 0,4 százalékponttal, a jövő évit 0,1 százalékponttal rontották. Az euro-övezetben a legnagyobb negatív korrekciót a német gazdaság kapta az IMF-től, az idei növekedés eszerint csupán 0,8 százalék lesz, 1,1 százalékponttal kisebb az októberben jelzettnél. A 2020-as növekedést 1,4 százalékra várja az IMF, ami az októberi előrejelzéshez viszonyítva 0,2 százalékpont rontás. A tavalyi német növekedés 1,5 százalék volt. Oroszország növekedési kilátását rontotta az IMF: az idei 0,2 százalékponttal lehet alacsonyabb az októberi előrejelzésnél, 1,6 százalék, a 2020-as pedig 0,1 százalékponttal alacsonyabb, 1,7 százalék. A 2018-as orosz növekedés 2,3 százalék volt. A feltörekvő országok együttes GDP-növekedése a tavalyi 4,5 százalék után idén 4,4 százalék, jövőre 4,8 százalék lesz. Októberhez képest az IMF az idei várható növekedési ütemet 0,3 százalékponttal, a jövő évit 0,1 százalékponttal rontotta. A kínai gazdaság tavalyhoz képest veszít növekedési lendületéből az idén, de kevésbé az októberben vártnál. A tavalyi 6,6 százalékos gazdasági bővülés után idén a növekedés 6,3 százalékra lassul, ami az októberben várthoz képest 0,1 százalékpont felfelé javítás. Az IMF várakozása szerint Kína jövő évi GDP-növekedése 6,1 százalék lesz, 0,1 százalékponttal alacsonyabb az októberben vártnál. A világkereskedelmi forgalom a fejlett gazdaságok körében nagyobb ütemben lassul, mint a fejlődő térségekben. (Forrás: Ma)
April 09, 2019 The heart of the internet, the most vital component is the 380 submerged cables that carry more than 95 percent of all data and voice traffic between the continents. They were built largely by the U.S. and its allies, ensuring that (from a Western perspective, at least) they were “cleanly” installed without built-in espionage capability available to our opponents. U.S. internet giants including Google, Facebook and Amazon are leasing or buying vast stretches of cables from the mostly private consortia of telecom operators that constructed them. But now the Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies, the leading firm working to deliver 5G telephony networks globally, has gone to sea. Under its Huawei Marine Networks component, it is constructing or improving nearly 100 submarine cables around the world. Last year it completed a cable stretching nearly 4,000 miles from Brazil to Cameroon. (The cable is partly owned by China Unicorn, a state-controlled telecom operator.) Rivals claim that Chinese firms are able to lowball the bidding because they receive subsidies from Beijing. Most nations and companies feel that better cell phone service is worth the security risks. The U.S., Chinese and Russian submarines may have the ability to “tap” the cables externally. (Source: Bloomberg)
Internattional Space Station
04.3.19 Dubbed “Astrobee,” the compact, cube-shaped flying robot has been developed and built at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and two of them will be heading to the space station later this month. Several years in development, the 1-square-foot robot features an array of cameras and sensors for navigation, crew monitoring, sampling activities, logistics management, and other routine tasks. A touchscreen, speaker, and microphone are also part of the package, while its mechanical arm enables it to handle a variety of tools. Astrobee uses a fan-based propulsion system to move, and power comes via an onboard battery. When it starts to run low, the robot will automatically navigate to a nearby dock to recharge. (Source: DigitalTrends)
Space
April 10, 2019 April 5th prediction of a a long, deep solar minimum. Already-low sunspot counts will reach a nadir sometime between July 2019 and Sept 2020, followed by a slow recovery toward a new Solar Maximum in 2023-2026. We haven’t quite reached the lowest levels of the last cycle - where we experienced several consecutive months with no sunspots. However, the panel expects that we should reach those levels [between now and the end of 2020]. There is no indication that we are currently approaching a Maunder-type minimum in solar activity. The sun’s weakening magnetic field also allows cosmic rays to enter the solar system. Energetic particles from deep space penetrate Earth’s atmosphere with a myriad of possible effects ranging from changes in upper atmospheric electricity to extra doses of radiation for people on airplanes. The sun dims, especially at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. This, in turn, causes the upper atmosphere to cool and contract. Aerodynamic drag that would normally cause satellites to decay is reduced; space junk accumulates. This effect makes solar minimum a terrible time to blow up satellites. (Source: SpaceWeatherArchive)
10 Apr 2019 Astronomers have captured the first image of a black hole, heralding a revolution in our understanding of the universe’s most enigmatic objects. The picture shows a halo of dust and gas, tracing the outline of a colossal black hole, at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, 55m light years from Earth. The breakthrough image was captured by the Event Horizon telescope (EHT), a network of eight radio telescopes spanning locations from Antarctica to Spain and Chile, in an effort involving more than 200 scientists. The image gives the first direct glimpse of a black hole’s accretion disc, a fuzzy doughnut-shaped ring of gas and dust that steadily “feeds” the monster within. The EHT picks up radiation emitted by particles within the disc that are heated to billions of degrees as they swirl around the black hole at close to the speed of light, before vanishing down the plughole. Black holes are so small, dark and distant that observing them directly requires a telescope with a resolution equivalent to being able to see a bagel on the Moon. They were first predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity. /photo/ (Source: TheGuardian): http://tinyurl.com/y6eb5pyj
April 4, 2019 A race among several major players is underway to build a next-generation broadband network in space, as companies lay out plans to use a so-called constellation of hundreds or even thousands of small satellites. Musk’s SpaceX launched two test satellites for its “Starlink” network last year, the first step toward its goal of a constellation of 4,425 satellites. Additionally, last month Softbank-backed OneWeb launched the first six satellites of its network, which plans to begin with a constellation of 650 interconnected satellites. Boeing and Canadian operator Telesat have also revealed plans for high speed internet constellations. Project Kuiper” is Amazon’s plan to launch 3,236 satellites to build a network to provide global high-speed internet. (Source: CNBC)
April 5, 2019 An explosive dropped today from the Japan Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted with a small explosive box which sent a copper ball the size of a baseball into the asteroid the surface that was unexposed to the Sun or space rays, of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples. The asteroid, named Ryugu is about 300 million kilometers from Earth. Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a small level area on the boulder-strewn asteroid in February, when it also collected some surface dust and small debris. The craft is scheduled to leave the asteroid at the end of 2019 and bring the surface fragments and underground samples back to Earth in late 2020. (Source: AP)
04219 India’s destruction of one of its own orbiting satellites in a recent missile test on March 27 has inadvertently put those aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in increased danger, according to NASA which had identified 400 pieces of orbital debris from the test, with at least 24 of them - each one larger than 10 cm - having gone above the apogee of the ISS. The space agency is currently tracking 23,000 pieces of orbital debris, each one 10 cm or larger. India's recent mission culminated in the successful targeting of an Indian satellite 300 km above Earth. (Source: DigitalTrends)
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