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Magyarország Hungary
2020. I. 4. Besokallt a munkájától, lenyúlt 13 tyúkot az anyjától, és mára övé az egyik legkülönlegesebb magyar gazdaság (Forrás: g7.hu): https://tinyurl.com/yjq6pmbx
03-Jan-2020 Lampposts were converted into palm trees. The government estimates that foreign film production spending brings in at least $400 million a year. The Hungarian National Film Fund offers tax rebates for filming there and recently raised the rate from 25 to 30 percent. Permits are also easy to obtain for location shooting, which is another of Hungary's selling points. "Budapest was called 'Petit Paris' – you can shoot Paris, Berlin, Rome or any other European city," said Kael, head of the National Film Fund. Budapest, with its eclectic mix of architectural styles, can double for many other parts of the world. For example, Heroes Square became Moscow for the Willis movie A Good Day to Die Hard. Andrassy Avenue, an elegant boulevard dating from the 1870s often doubles as Paris, although it was also turned into Argentina's capital Buenos Aires for Evita. (Source: CGTN)
(2020. I.) A CMM TV stábja, Trianon-film Produkció névvel, egy leleplező és formabontó dokumentumfilm-sorozat elkészítését tűzte ki céljául. Az első világháborút követő békeszerződések megkötésekor egy korszak zárult le az emberiség történetében. Rendszerváltás történt. A Dr. Drábik szövegkönyve alapján készülő film bemutatja az Államok Feletti Hatalom létrejöttét és szervezetét, amely előkészítette és kirobbantotta a Nagy Háborút. Ez a Titkos Elit, a Brit világbirodalmon belül erősödött meg, az általa elképzelt Új Világrend létrehozása érdekében. A történelemoktatás és az akadémikus történészek elhallgatják, elrejtik a valódi felelősök nevét, eredeti szándékait, melyek kirobbantották a nagy háborút, mely végső soron az 1000 éves Magyarország feldarabolásához is vezetett. Ez a film önálló, 6 részes rövidfilm sorozatként készül el. (Forrás: TrianonFilm)
Finland
6 Jan 2020 Finland is introducing a four-day working week and six-hour days. A 2015 trial in Sweden found working only six hours a day increased productivity. Results showed employees were happier, wealthier and more productive. In November, Microsoft Japan introduced a three-day weekend for employees and productivity went up by almost 40 per cent. (Source: TheSun)
Great Britain
3 January 2020 Muslim population of England passes the three million mark for the first time. The share of Hindus in the population has climbed slightly, while the proportion of Sikhs has fallen by a similar small amount. The scale of the Jewish and Buddhist shares of the population remained stable. The share of people who say they have no religion at all or who will not discuss their faith has risen to almost a third of the English population, an increase almost certainly a result of the fall-off in Christian belief. The areas with the highest proportion of Muslims were in London with the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham having 34.5 per cent and 32.0 per cent respectively. There were several areas outside London with proportions higher than 20 per cent including Blackburn with Darwen in the North West (27.0 per cent ), Bradford in Yorkshire and the Humber, Luton in East of England, Slough in South East, and Birmingham in the West Midlands. (Source: DailyMail)
03/01/2020 'Philosophical veganism' Casamitjana, 55, was fired from an animal welfare charity for raising concerns about its pension fund's alleged investment in companies that use animal testing. Judge Postle determined that ethical veganism meets the tests required to be a philosophical belief and is therefore protected under the Equality Act 2010. Britain's 2010 Equality Act says a "philosophical belief" must be genuine "and not an opinion or viewpoint based on the present state of information available". Ethical vegans follow a vegan diet but also exclude animal-derived products such as wool and leather from their daily lives. They also try to abstain from using items such as cosmetics that underwent animal testing. "That expression will create more vegans and more vegans will help more animals, the environment, health. It will be a domino effect." - Casamitjana told. To be protected under the act, a belief must meet certain tests, including being not conflicting with the fundamental rights of others. (Source: France24)
Olaszország
2020. I. 4. A Spanyolország, Olaszország, Görögország és a közel-keleti térség közti légtér óriási katonai légi folyosóvá változott át. Jelentősen megnőtt a forgalom a Földközi-tenger légterében Szulejmáni iráni tábornok halálát követően. Az északkelet-olaszországi Aviano olasz-amerikai katonai bázisán folyamatos a teher- és üzemanyag-szállító repülőgépek érkezése és továbbindulása. Intenzív a forgalom a venetói Vicenza térségében, a szintén amerikai légitámaszpontként működő Ederle kaszárnyánál. Az ott állomásozó 173. dandár készen áll az indulásra: az amerikai fegyveres erőknek a közel-keleti térségben már többször kipróbált légi egységét Libanonban vethetnék be az Egyesült Államok bejrúti nagykövetségének védelmében. Ilyen méretű mozgósítás az olaszországi amerikai támaszpontokon utoljára a 2003 tavaszán indult iraki háború idején volt tapasztalható. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)
Poland
3 January 2020 Authorities in western Poland say they have ordered the culling of at least 65,000 hen at a farm in the village of Topola Osiedle located about 250 kilometers from the border with Germany, affected by bird flu that seems to have spread from the east. In eastern Poland said the H5N8 bird flu virus recently killed at least 40,000 turkeys and geese at poultry farms in a village near Poland’s borders with Ukraine and Belarus. Tens of thousands of birds are being culled there, and the area has been closed to non-residents. (Source: Reuters)
Romania
January 7, 2020 THAAD, a land-based element capable of shooting down a ballistic missile both inside and just outside the atmosphere. The U.S. Army mans THAAD batteries on the island of Guam as well as in South Korea. The Army in March 2019 deployed a THAAD battery to Israel. “At the request of NATO, the secretary of defense will deploy a U.S. Army Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to Romania this summer in support of NATO ballistic-missile defense,” U.S. European Command announced in early April 2019. The U.S. Army in May 2019 deployed to Romania one of its seven Terminal High-Altitude Area-Defense missile-interceptor batteries. The THAAD system set up within sight of the Aegis Ashore site in Romania. As of early 2019 the Army had acquired around 200 THAAD rockets for its seven batteries and roughly 40 launchers. Aegis Ashore is a land-based version of the U.S. Navy’s SM-3 missile-interceptor. The Missile Defense Agency by way of NATO operates Aegis Ashore sites in Poland and Romania. The sites help to defend Europe and the United States from limited missile strikes by a Middle East power such as Iran. Many Russians believe, wrongly, that Aegis Ashore has a ground-to-ground capability and could function as a surprise first-strike weapon. (Source: TheNationalInterest)
European Commission
(2019) Data on children in migration. A technical report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. (Source: PublicationsJRCECEuropa): https://tinyurl.com/syl6ew8ű
China
Jan 4, 2020 A lung infection in the central Chinese city of Wuhan is being monitored by the World Health Organization. As of yesterday, 44 people had been diagnosed with pneumonia. Eleven people are in serious condition. Pathogen studies have ruled out more common respiratory diseases, including influenza, avian flu and adenovirus. It's triggered concern about the potential jump of an unknown virus to humans - reminiscent of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which killed almost 800 people about 17 years ago. (Source: Yahoo)
Iran
8 Jan 2020 You would expect to see some wreckage but all we can see here is debris. Flight data shows the plane reached an altitude of 2.4 km and then suddenly disappeared. Pilots did not make any kind of mayday call from the 2016-built plane. 167 passengers and nine crew members on board - among them were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Brits. The tragedy came just hours after Tehran fired at least 15 ballistic missiles at two US bases in Iraq, sparking fears it could have been shot down by mistake by jittery Iranian air defences. The fuselage is seemingly seen covered in small shrapnel holes. /photo/ (Source: TheSun): https://tinyurl.com/ydkxegew
January 8, 2020 Two earthquakes struck near a nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran today morning, just over a week after another quake hit the region. The first quake, measuring 4.9 magnitude, struck just before 9.00 a.m. local time in Bushehr province. Around 30 minutes later a second quake, this time measuring 4.5 magnitude, struck the same province which runs along the Iranian coastline. The quake epicenters were within 20 kilometers of the city of Borazjan - a short distance from the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant. Another earthquake, measuring 5.1 magnitude, struck the same region less than two weeks ago. (Source: Yahoo)
Jan 7, 2020 Boeing 737 plane bound for Kyiv crashes in Iran, shortly after 6 a.m. local time, minutes into the flight, killing all 176 people on board. The crash site was in Shahriar, near Tehran. The cause of the crash came hours after Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes on U.S. positions in Iraq. The aircraft had been carrying citizens of Canada, Iran, Sweden and Ukraine. The timing of the crash prompted speculation that a stray Iranian missile may have downed the plane. Under international law, the country where the crash took place leads the accident investigation but other countries often aid in the probe. Because the plane was a U.S.-made Boeing airliner, U.S. government officials and Boeing would normally be involved but tensions between the two countries called that into question. Ukraine International Airlines received the 737-800 jet in 2016 when it was new. (Source: CNBC)
January 7, 2020 The period of mourning for Soleimani ending. A deadly stampede which took place in Kerman, Soleimani's hometown, as the procession began at the funeral ceremony for slain general Soleimani forced officials in Iran to postpone his burial for today. The death toll has increased to at least 56 people. State TV reported the increase, with 213 injured. A procession in Tehran yesterday drew over 1 million people in the Iranian capital. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered a direct attack on American interests. Iran's ballistic missiles had not been moved into firing positions, but the alert status was raised so they were prepared to move and could be fired in substantial numbers within 24 hours. Iranian military movements are very troubling. There is a wide range of activities of a heightened state of readiness … that indicate Iran is considering going forward with an attack, most likely against American forces. (Source: CBS)
7 January 2020 Iran has been considering 13 'revenge scenarios' in retaliation. Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, vowed that US bases across Iraq are being kept under close surveillance and claimed to know the exact number of personnel and equipment being kept at each. 'If the US troops do not leave our region voluntarily and upright, we will do something to carry their bodies out horizontally.' he said. 'Those who crawl into shelters and close the doors hoping to escape our revenge are unaware that the Islamic Republic will open the door to hell.' Iran's parliament passed a bill today designating all US forces and employees of the Pentagon and affiliated organisations, agents and commanders and those who ordered the 'martyrdom' of Soleimani as terrorists. Some 5,000 US troops stationed across Iraq and 500 still in Syria are expected to be targeted in response. Nasrallah, the Lebanese secretary-general of Iran-backed Hezbollah, said all US bases, all warships and every single soldier in the region is now a target. Any aid to these forces, including military, intelligence, financial, technical, service or logistical, will be considered as co-operation in a terrorist act,' the Iranian parliament said. US intelligence believes that Iran will try to kill one of its top generals in the region in a tit-for-tat slaying. Six long-range B-52 Stratofortress bombers have also been stationed on Diego Garcia, a British-controlled island in the Indian ocean - putting them out of range of Iranian missiles but within striking distance of the country. (Source: DailyMail)
Iraq
Jan. 8, 2019 Iran launched a missile attack on Assad Airbase in Iraq today. Before and after satellite imagery shows the damage. (Source: YouTube / Space): https://tinyurl.com/yedlxf4a
January 8, 2020 Missiles were fired early today in multiple locations across Iraq, as a series of attacks on U.S. forces from Iran. These are either cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles. All over the country. Iran state TV claimed Tehran launched "tens" of surface-to-surface missiles at Iraq's Ain Assad air base housing U.S. troops. (Source: FoxNews)
6 January 2020 Yesterday Iraq's parliament voted in favor of the Baghdad government rescinding its permission for all foreign troops to remain in the country. The head of the U.S. military's Task Force Iraq, Brigadier General Seely, sent a letter to LTG Amir, the head of Iraq's joint operations command. 'Sir, in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament and the Prime Minister, [the coalition] will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement,' Seely wrote. He added: 'We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure.' The Pentagon hasn't confirmed the authenticity of this letter, informing an Iraqi military leader the U.S. and other coalition forces are pulling up stakes; but Iraqi military leaders have said it's genuine and had been delivered. The letter was signed by a U.S. official on Pentagon letterhead, making it unclear whether it applied to forces from the 76 countries which make up the international coalition. Some 5,200 U.S. soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the isis terror group. They make up the bulk of the broader coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help combat the jihadists. A pullout of U.S. troops could cripple the fight against isis militants and allow the extremists to make a comeback. An American withdrawal could also enable Iran to deepen its influence in Iraq, which like Iran is a majority Shiite country. President Trump said yesterday that troops would not leave Iraq unless the country compensated the U.S. for the costs associated with building and maintaining military facilities there. /+ the letter/ (Source: DailyMail)
5 January 2020 The Iraqi parliament called on the government today to work to end all foreign troop presence, the government should cancel its request for assistance from a U.S.-led coalition. Prime Minister Mahdi had earlier called on parliament to end foreign troop presence as soon as possible. Around 5,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq. (Source: Reuters)
4 January 2020 Thousands of furious mourners thronged in the streets of Baghdad today during funeral processions for the slain Iranian general Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Muhandis, Kataeb Hezbollah chief, who died with him during yesterday's US strike. The pair had been riding in a two-vehicle convoy which was decimated by three missiles from an American MQ-9 Reaper Drone. The strike also killed four more Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards and five members of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary network. The procession began at the Imam Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, one of the most revered in Shia Islam. Mourners included many militiamen in uniform for whom Muhandis and Soleimani were heroes. Iraq, whose prime minister Mahdi attended the funerals today, threatened to order the expulsion of all US troops from the country after what it called 'a brazen violation of Iraq's sovereignty.' Tehran's UN ambassador, who represents Iran's only diplomatic mission within the US, told yesterday that the airstrike was 'tantamount to opening a war against Iran.' The head of Iran's elite Quds Force will be laid to rest on 7 January in his hometown of Kerman as part of three days of ceremonies across the country Iran threatens 35 targets including US warships and Tel Aviv after Soleimani's death. The potential threat was raised by General Abuhamzeh, the commander of the Guards in the southern province of Kerman. Lebanon's one of the Iranian-backed militia Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades issue ultimatum for Iraqi's to leave US bases at least 1,000 meters away by tomorrow. NATO announced today it was suspending training missions in Iraq which numbers in the hundreds. As tensions soared across the region, there were reports overnight of an airstrike on a convoy of Iran-backed militiamen north of Baghdad. In the airstrike in Taji, north of the capital five people were killed and two vehicles were destroyed. Two rockets were reported to have fired near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and three were fired at Balad Airbase housing US troops, about 50 miles north of the city. Two Katyusha rockets fell inside the base. A number of rockets also landed in the Al-Jadiriya neighborhood. It is not clear who fired the rockets. Over the minarets at the revered Jamkaran Mosque in the holy city of Qom Iranians raise blood red 'flags of revenge' for General Soleimani's killing which symbolize blood spilled unjustly and serve as a call to avenge the person who is slain today. The mosque speakers called, 'O Allah, hasten your custodian reappearance,' a reference to the end-times reappearance of the Mahdi. In Shia Islam, the faith of Iran, the Mahdi is a divine figure who will appear to bring a Day of Judgement and rid the world of evil. It is the first time in the Qom mosque's history - a holy site since the Middle Ages - that the red flag has been raised over the building. Thousands of mourners took to the streets of Tehran today where the red flag was also seen fluttering before a downtown mosque in the Iranian capital. /photos, videos/ (Source: TheMail): https://tinyurl.com/uxgdxqp
3 January 2019 Equivalent of assassinating the commander of an armed force." Experts have told Westerners to get out of the United Arab Emirates immediately fearing reprisals for today's assassination of the top Iranian general. The US has approximately 5000 troops stationed in Iraq and is mobilising 750 paratroopers. The US State Department has told US citizens to leave Iraq immediately. (Source: TheSun)
January 3, 2020 State Department terrorist designations of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and its leaders. AAH, led by brothers Khazali, is an Iran-backed, militant organization that has claimed responsibility for more than 6,000 attacks against U.S. and Coalitions forces since its creation in 2006. AAH has carried out highly sophisticated operations, including mortar attacks on an American base, the downing of a British helicopter, and an attack on the Karbala Provincial Headquarters that resulted in the capture and murder of five American soldiers. They were approving the use of lethal force against protesters for the purpose of public intimidation. (Source: State)
03 01 2020 An aggressive show of force and an outright provocation. Oil jumped toward $70 a barrel following news today that a US airstrike had killed the head of Iran's Quds Force, Soleimani, hit in a a US airstrike on Baghdad's international airport. (Source: DW)
Jan Egy huszonegy évvel ezelőtti eseménnyel állítható párhuzamba?
Dec. 17, 1998: Attack on Iraq: the overview; impeachment vote in House delayed as Clinton launches Iraq air strike, citing military need to move swiftly. (TheNewYorkTimes): https://tinyurl.com/unbq5a5
1st 2020 Yesterday some 6,000 pro-Iran militia fighter demonstrators - many of them members of Iran-backed militia - stormed the compound, rushed the heavily fortified Green Zone after US strikes killed 25 members of the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah, separate but linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah in air strikes on the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network in western Iraq. The United States carried out the raids in retaliation for rocket fire that killed an American civilian contractor at a base in northern Iraq in December 30, 2019. Yesterday's riot, which included smashing through the embassy's security area, setting fires around the complex and hurling rocks, ended in a camp being set up outside the consulate. Some 50 tents, portable bathrooms and cooking pots were shipped in as hundreds of the furious mob prepared a sit-in at the embassy's gates, demanding that the US withdraw from Iraq. More recently, Iran-backed militias in Iraq have conducted numerous rocket attacks on bases hosting U.S. forces. (Source: TheMail)
Lybia
2 January 2020 Complicating access for gas pipelines to Europe. The renewed assault by the Tripoli Government's main opponent - General Haftar's Libyan National Army - is increasingly taking on the appearance of a proxy war, with a variety of external actors. Turkey's Libyan gambit threatens to precipitate a broader crisis in the eastern Mediterranean that in turn could complicate Turkey's relationships with both Moscow on the one hand and Washington and key Nato allies on the other. It will make existing regional tensions worse. The Tripoli government has Western backing. But its principal opponent Gen Haftar has received significant financial support from the UAE as well as armoured vehicles from both Jordan and the UAE. The Emiratis have also deployed sophisticated Chinese supplied Wing Loong 2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) which a UN report blames for a significant proportion of the civilians killed in Gen Haftar's eastern forces offensive. Gen Haftar has also had support from Egypt and direct military assistance on the ground from "semi-official" Russian military contractors along with Sudanese and Chadian mercenaries. Indeed Russian snipers have reportedly had a significant local impact on the front line. Egypt's leader Sisi clearly regards Gen Haftar as an anti-Islamist, military strongman in his own mould. The US operates over Libya against remnants of is. France nurtures ties with Gen Haftar. Turkey will insist that it is acting to support an internationally recognised government in Libya. Turkey sees Libya as part of its wider hinterland in the eastern Mediterranean and an important economic gateway to Africa. It has few friends in the region. Turkey's support for the Muslim Brotherhood drew implacable opposition from Egypt's military government. Relations between Israel and Turkey - once close - went into the freezer ages ago. And long-standing differences with fellow Nato member Greece over Cyprus have now been exacerbated by a new tension - energy. In November, Ankara signed a maritime delimitation agreement with the Tripoli authorities which brings Turkey's claimed exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean to the edge of that claimed by Libya. This is a direct effort to counter Israel, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus, who have established an Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum. Indeed Turkey's more aggressive oil exploration off Cyprus with armed drones "riding shotgun" for its survey vessel is all part of this new activism. (Source: BBC)
Syria
3 January 2020 Syrians in Idlib celebrate Soleimani's death with sweets and cakes. Idlib, which is home to about three million people, is one of the last remaining holdouts of opposition to Syrian President Assad. Backed by Moscow, Assad launched a blistering offensive against Idlib in April, in which thousands of civilians have been killed. More than 200,000 Syrians have fled to the region in recent weeks and now depend on food, blankets and heating from humanitarian groups to survive. (Source: MiddleEastEye)
Yemen
January 10, 2020 On the day the U.S. military killed a top Iranian commander in Baghdad, U.S. forces carried out another top secret mission against a senior Iranian military official in Yemen, according to U.S. officials. The strike targeting Shahlai, a financier and key commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force who has been active in Yemen, did not result in his death. The unsuccessful operation may indicate that the Trump administration’s killing of Maj. Gen. Soleimani last week was part of a broader operation than previously explained, raising questions about whether the mission was designed to cripple the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or solely to prevent an imminent attack on Americans as originally stated. The State Department offered a $15 million reward last month for information leading to Shahlai and the disruption of the IRGC’s financial mechanisms. The announcement said that Shahlai is based in Yemen and has a “long history of involvement in attacks targeting the U.S. and our allies, including in the 2011 plot against the Saudi ambassador” at an Italian restaurant in Washington. U.S. officials have alleged Shahlai, born around 1957, is linked to attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq, including a sophisticated 2007 raid in which Iranian-backed militiamen abducted and killed five Americans troops in the city of Karbala. The United States has not previously taken any publicly acknowledged attacks on Houthi or Iranian leaders in Yemen, though Special Operations forces have sought to track Iranian movements and disrupt alleged smuggling of Iranian weaponry into the country. (Source: msn)
Canada
January 7, 2020 Western troops in Iraq have been on high alert since the weekend. The Canadian military is temporarily relocating some soldiers from Iraq to Kuwait. The move follows the lead of Germany and several other allies who have withdrawn some of their troops. Canada has about 500 soldiers in Iraq. (Source: NationalPost)
United States
January 10, 2020 In 2003, the machinery of pro-war rhetoric set the United States on a course that led to the deaths of thousands of Americans and countless Iraqis. In 2020, we ought to be deeply suspicious when we hear hawkish arguments that trace the same dubious patterns. making claims that eerily echo those of 2002 and 2003. The presidential rhetoric about the two conflicts has been notably similar. In his 2003 State of the Union speech, Bush laid the groundwork for the invasion of Iraq: “Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger facing America and the world, is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.” On Wednesday, in the news conference in which he signaled that the United States would not escalate the fight, President Trump said: “Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen.” Invoking the threat of nuclear weapons has a way of short-circuiting opposition to military strikes and assassinations. (Source: msn)
7 Jan 2020 Puerto Rico is in state of emergency after most powerful quake in over 102 years. Island rocked by hundreds of earthquakes since 28 December, killing at least one person and prompting power and water outages. (Source: TheGuardian)
2020. I. 7. A Facebook tehet Trump megválasztásáról? "Szerintem a válasz, hogy igen, de nem azért, amit a legtöbben hisznek. Nem Oroszország, a dezinformációk vagy a Cambridge Analytica miatt nyert, hanem azért, mert a legjobb digitális reklámkampányt építette fel, amit életemben láttam" - közli Bosworth, a Facebook alelnöke, és kitér arra is, hogy Trumpék nem toltak hirdetésekben álhíreket vagy hoaxokat, egyszerűen csak hihetetlen munkát végeztek a Facebook hirdetési rendszerén belül. (Forrás: Index)
January 6, 2020 Now, with #NoWarinIran, #TrumpsWar and #WorldWarIII trending on Twitter, users are looking into the draft - particularly college students about how the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) could play into their potential future military service. Hundreds of Twitter users posted messages and memes insinuating that the draft, or selective service, will be put into place within the next few months. They also suggested that college-age students would be prioritized for service. (Source: CBSNews)
Jan 4, 2020 The last time the United States killed a major military leader in a foreign country was during World War II, when the American military shot down the plane carrying the Japanese admiral Yamamoto. American spy agencies yesterday detected that Iranian ballistic missile units, the heart of the Iranian military, across the country had gone to a heightened state of readiness. At Fort Bragg, N.C., some 3,500 soldiers, one of the largest rapid deployments in decades, are bound for the Middle East. (Source: TheNewYorkTimes)
January 3, 2020 Is genuine strategic thinking now an endangered species in the Land of the Free? Iran will almost inevitably respond, just as the United States would were the situation reversed. The regime will do so at a time and with means of its own choosing, and in ways designed to maximize the pain and political impact. Second, the assassination is going to inflame Iranian nationalism and strengthen hard-line forces in Iran, further reducing any possibility of regime change there. Third, killing Suleimani on Iraqi soil is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty that put its fragile government on even shakier ground, and it is worth noting that caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has already condemned the U.S. action. Fourth, Trump has now given Iran even more incentive to acquire nuclear weapons, a step that would force Washington to go to all-out war or back down and accept an Iranian bomb. All this over a country that has serious disputes with some of the United States’ regional partners but does not threaten the security or prosperity of the United States itself in any meaningful way. And finally, there’s the precedent the United States is setting. There has long been a powerful international norm against assassinations by governments, largely because the leaders of powerful states understand that it is in their mutual self-interest not to try to kill each other. The taboo didn’t completely eliminate the use of this tactic, of course, and the norm has begun to break down in recent decades. But do we really want to live in a world where assassination is regarded as a perfectly normal way of doing business and becomes more and more commonplace? There is some evidence that “decapitation” (that is, killing top leaders) tends to empower extremists and incline them toward even greater violence. (Source: ForeignPolicy)
2020/01 (3 January) With Trump’s attack in Baghdad prompting talk about another US war in the Middle East, it’s a good time to remember those who misled the public prior to the Iraq war, so if they now try to participate in the national discourse about Trump’s potential war with Iran, we won’t get fooled again. At least not by them. At the top of this list are the key architects and salespeople of that war: Bush, Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz, and National Security Adviser Rice. None of these people should be given a podium - unless they come clean with the mother of all mea culpas. Powell, the secretary of state at the time, may be a slightly different case. He became the No. 1 pitchman for the war, delivering an important speech at the United Nations weeks before the invasion but he did concede in 2015 that the Bush-Cheney administration made “terrible strategic mistakes” during the war. We will be seeing some of the same commentators from 2003 who paved the path to war: Hannity, the Fox News loudmouth as the top propagandist at Trump State TV; Brooks at his perch at the New York Times; Friedman, the big-think columnist of the New York Times; Bolton, Trump’s gone-but-not-forgotten national security adviser who essentially endorsed an Israeli nuclear strike against Iran in 2009; the Washington Post editorial page; the Wall Street Journal editorial page; Miller, a Fox News contributor; Woolsey who freely offers his opinion on national security matters. (Prior to the Soleimani airstrike he appeared on the conservative Newsmax TV and said, “We ought to target all of the facilities of the Revolutionary Guard).” Gingrich, the former House speaker who was quick to tweet-support the airstrike against Soleimani; plenty of other conservatives and hawks and any Bush-Cheney alumni. Kristol, an active force on Twitter is a passionate and committed never-Trumper whose sincere and heartfelt opposition to the president seemingly led to the demise of his Weekly Standard. Boot, after the Soleimani attack, retweeted an article that warned Trump’s move and further war could cause a nightmare. Frum, the prominent conservative anti-Trumper as for the prospect of war with Iran, observed: The project of a war with Iran is so crazy, it remains incredible that Trump’s administration could truly be premeditating it. "Don’t do it." Wars - especially stupid wars - ought to have consequences for those who help make them happen. (Source: MotherJones)
Globalization
Jan 6, 2020 Gold surged to the highest level in more than six years today as fast-rising tensions in the Middle East stoked demand for haven assets, with US investment bank Goldman Sachs saying that bullion offered a more effective hedge than oil to the crisis. Palladium extended gains to an all-time high. Bullion neared US$1,600 an ounce as Teheran said it would no longer abide by any limits on its enrichment of uranium. (Source: StraitTimes)
Space
7 Jan 2020 Last year the CHIME experiment in Canada had detected a massive eight new repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs), bringing the number of known repeaters to a total of 10. Fast radio bursts are among the Universe's strangest mysteries. They are extremely brief spikes in electromagnetic radiation detected by radio telescopes, lasting no more than a few milliseconds at most. But in that time, they can discharge more energy than 500 million Suns. Possible explanations for FRBs put forward to date include neutron stars, black holes, pulsars with companion stars, imploding pulsars, a type of star called a blitzar, a connection with gamma-ray bursts (which we now know can be caused by colliding neutron stars), and magnetars emitting giant flares. (Source. ScienceAlert): https://tinyurl.com/yf9eyq57
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