Dryden Flight Research Center (now Armstrong) hosted the Star Trek crew in 1976 for the rollout of space shuttle Enterprise. In front, from left: NASA Administrator James Fletcher, and the show’s stars DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, show creator Gene Roddenberry, and Walter Koenig. Credit: NASA

Star Trek and NASA: Celebrating the Connection

Gene Roddenberry would have been 100 years old on August 19, 2021, and we at NASA celebrate his legacy. As creator of the legendary Star Trek saga, Roddenberry’s vision continues to resonate.

In the documentary “NASA on the Edge of Forever: Science in Space,” host NASA astronaut Victor Glover stated, “Science and Star Trek go hand-in-hand.” The film explores how for the past 55 years, Star Trek has influenced scientists, engineers, and even astronauts to reach beyond. While the International Space Station doesn’t speed through the galaxy like the Starship Enterprise, much of the research conducted aboard the orbiting facility is making the fiction of Star Trek come a little closer to reality.

In this image, the then Dryden Flight Research Center (now Armstrong) hosted the Star Trek crew in 1976 for the rollout of space shuttle Enterprise. In front, from left: NASA Administrator James Fletcher, and the show’s stars DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, show creator Gene Roddenberry, and Walter Koenig.

Organic and conservation agriculture promote ecosystem multifunctionality


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Science Advances 20 Aug 2021:
Vol. 7, no. 34, eabg6995
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg6995

Article

Abstract

Ecosystems provide multiple services to humans. However, agricultural systems are usually evaluated on their productivity and economic performance, and a systematic and quantitative assessment of the multifunctionality of agroecosystems including environmental services is missing. Using a long-term farming system experiment, we evaluated and compared the agronomic, economic, and ecological performance of the most widespread arable cropping systems in Europe: organic, conservation, and conventional agriculture. We analyzed 43 agroecosystem properties and determined overall agroecosystem multifunctionality. We show that organic and conservation agriculture promoted ecosystem multifunctionality, especially by enhancing regulating and supporting services, including biodiversity preservation, soil and water quality, and climate mitigation. In contrast, conventional cropping showed reduced multifunctionality but delivered highest yield. Organic production resulted in higher economic performance, thanks to higher product prices and additional support payments. Our results demonstrate that different cropping systems provide opposing services, enforcing the productivity–environmental protection dilemma for agroecosystem functioning.

INTRODUCTION

Global food production has more than doubled in the past 60 years. This has been achieved through land use change and use of mineral fertilizers, pesticides, breeding of new crop varieties, and other technologies of the “Green Revolution” (1, 2). However, increased use of agrochemicals, land conversion, farm expansion, and farm specialization have a negative impact on the environment and have caused habitat and biodiversity loss, pollution, and eutrophication of water bodies, increasing greenhouse gases emissions and reduced soil quality (1, 3, 4). Thus, one of the main challenges for the future of agriculture is to produce sufficient amounts of food with minimal environmental impact (1). However, to date, there is lack of appropriate methods and tools to evaluate, design, and track the multifunctionality and sustainability of agricultural production.

For agronomists, the focus of agricultural systems is dedicated to productivity, while ecologists and environmental researchers focus on the environmental impact of agriculture. Ideally, agricultural systems should provide the desired balance of provisioning services (e.g., food production), regulating services (e.g., soil, water, and climate protection), and supporting services (e.g., biodiversity and soil quality conservation) within viable socioeconomic boundaries (e.g., ensured income and suitable working conditions). However, systemic evaluations of the diverse services and trade-offs provided by different agricultural practices are scarce, and this has been viewed as a major research gap (5, 6).

In the past 15 years, there have been considerable efforts to conceptualize ecosystem services (ESs), defining their contribution to human well-being and bring it into policy and planning. Examples such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) (7), The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (8), or the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service (9) are global initiatives that are integrated in national monitoring programs such as the U.K. National Ecosystem Assessment (UKNEA) framework (10). Even if these concepts and framework are increasingly recognized, there is a lack of implementation in practice due to difficulties to appropriately measure and value ES and to institutionalize outcomes (11).

One of the key approaches to measure and appropriately manage agroecosystems is to gain a solid understanding of how farming practices influence a wide range of ecosystem functions and services and to summarize these effects in a meaningful way (12, 13). The “ability of ecosystems to simultaneously provide multiple functions and services” can be assessed by calculating ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF), an approach widely used in ecology (14, 15). Here, we define ecosystem functions as the biotic and abiotic processes that make up or contribute to ESs either directly or indirectly.

A range of studies has assessed how different drivers including biodiversity and land use intensity affect individual functions and EMF (16–19). However, this approach is still poorly developed for agroecosystems (15), where anthropogenic management plays a key role in determining ecosystem functioning (i.e., specific crop management practices like tillage intensity and chemical and organic input sources and amounts). Moreover, the number of ecosystem functions used to assess EMF varies greatly among studies, and there is often little explanation of why certain variables are included (15). Thus, a next frontier is to investigate how major cropping systems (e.g., conventional, organic, and conservation agriculture) influence different ecosystem functions and EMF and embed such analyses in a broader conceptual ES framework supporting producer and policy decisions.

The main objective of this study is to assess the overall performance of important cropping systems within an adapted ES framework using the EMF methodology applied in ecology. To do this, we use a 6-year dataset from the long-term FArming System and Tillage (FAST) experiment (fig. S1) where we compare the agronomical, ecological, and economic impacts of four arable cropping systems [conventional intensive tillage (C-IT), conventional no tillage (C-NT), organic intensive tillage (O-IT), and organic reduced tillage (O-RT); see Materials and Methods and tables S1 to S3 for detailed management description]. We focus on these specific management strategies since conservation and organic agriculture are two main alternatives to conventional management and are often promoted as more environmentally friendly practices. Organic agriculture prohibits the use of synthetic inputs (e.g., pesticides and fertilizers), and a range of studies show that organic farming enhances biodiversity and reduces environmental impacts but results in lower productivity (4, 5, 20, 21). Conservation agriculture, in turn, is based on three main pillars: minimum mechanical soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and species diversification, which are applicable in many different farming contexts (22). Several studies indicate that conservation agriculture has positive effects on soil quality and protection, water regulation, energy use, and production costs (23), but productivity increases are minimal or even negative (24) and often dependent on herbicide use (25). In our study, C-NT and O-RT systems are considered to reflect conservation agriculture as the three defined pillars of conservation agriculture are largely fulfilled (minimum tillage, 6-year crop rotation, and permanent soil cover with crop residues and cover crops).

We assessed 43 variables in each cropping system, from which 38 were classified into nine agroecosystem goods and four ecosystem categories using an adapted ES framework and five were used as agronomic co-variables. We based our classification on the MEA and UKNEA frameworks (7, 10) and grouped our variables into proxies for ecosystem functions representing ecosystem processes and services and we finally valued them as ecosystem goods. Ecosystem functions, services, and goods were attributed to supporting, regulating, and provisioning ES categories. In addition, we added socioeconomic proxies and an economic category to the classical ES framework (Fig. 1 and tables S4 and S5). We did this because agroecosystems also have a socioeconomic dimension for producers and policy makers. The following nine final agroecosystem goods were used for multifunctionality assessments: biodiversity conservation, soil health preservation, erosion control, water and air pollution control, food production, income, work efficiency, and financial autonomy.

READ ON: Organic and conservation agriculture promote ecosystem multifunctionality | Science Advances (sciencemag.org)

The Wuhan lab leak theory is more about politics than science

Whatever this week’s Biden review finds, the cause of the pandemic lies in the destruction of animal habitats

Wuhan’s virology institute has been at the centre of the investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA


Robin McKie Science editor
Sun 22 Aug 2021 09.30 BST

If Joe Biden’s security staff are up to the mark, a new report on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will be placed on the president’s desk this week. His team was given 90 days in May to review the virus’s origins after several US scientists indicated they were no longer certain about the source of Sars-CoV-2.

It will be intriguing to learn how Biden’s team answers the critically important questions that still surround the origins of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Did it emerge because of natural viral spillovers from bats to another animal and then into humans? Or did it leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology? And, if so, had it been enhanced to make it especially virulent?

These are important questions – to say the least. If we want to prevent another pandemic, it would be very useful to know how this one started. However, given the paucity of new information Biden’s team will have unearthed over the past three months – while the Chinese authorities have continued to provide little extra data – it is unlikely hard answers will be provided this week.

Although allegations of a leak from the Wuhan institute had been aired by Donald Trump, and rejected flatly by the Chinese, little credence was given to the claim until May, when 18 leading scientists sent a letter to the journal Science in which they claimed both spillover and leak theories were equally plausible. They also accused a recent World Health Organization investigation at Wuhan of not giving a balanced consideration to both scenarios.

News that the lab leak theory was being taken seriously by the new US administration triggered an onslaught from commentators, who have since alleged that the scientific establishment has been covering up for Chinese scientists’ errors. Among these accusations was one from Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, who claimed that “some scientific journals absolutely refused to publish anything that disagreed with the Chinese view”.

The main evidence to support a lab leak rests on the failure of scientists to pinpoint the intermediate animal that picked up the virus from bats and passed it to humans. In addition, the Wuhan institute is home to a laboratory that is headed by the virologist Shi Zhengli, who tracked down the bat origins of the last coronavirus Sars epidemic.

Her team specialises in collecting coronaviruses. Thus, one of the world’s coronavirus research centres was situated in the city where Covid-19 first materialised – a coincidence that some conspiracy advocates find too much to accept.

Shi has rejected claims she had been working on enhancing a new virus to make it more virulent or that she or her staff had been infected with a new coronavirus that they had collected, a view supported by a recent review by scientists in the journal Cell: “Despite extensive contact tracing of early cases during the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been no reported cases related to any laboratory staff at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and all staff in the laboratory of Dr Shi Zhengli were said to be seronegative for Sars-CoV-2 when tested in March 2020,” it states.

The fact that Sars-CoV-2 is highly transmissible among humans has also raised suspicions that it had been genetically enhanced. This notion is dismissed by Professor David Robertson, of Glasgow University’s centre for virus research.
Fiddling with viruses in laboratories is not the dangerous activity. The real threat comes from the wildlife trade

“Yes, the virus is spread by asymptomatic carriers and that is perfect for human transmission. So how does a natural virus like that come into existence? It is so good at infecting humans, after all. But it is not just a human virus. We find it in pangolins. It goes from humans to mink very easily and it has infected deer in the US. It isn’t a human- adapted virus. It is what we call a generalist or promiscuous virus.”

However, the prospect that Covid-19 emerged from a lab leak was taken very seriously by some senior scientists, including Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust. As he makes clear in his recent book, Spike: The Virus v the People, his initial – horrified – reaction to the emergence of Covid-19 was that it could have escaped from a virus research centre. Only intense consultations with other researchers caused him to change his mind.

“As things currently stand, the evidence strongly suggests that Covid-19 arose after a natural spillover event, but nobody is yet in a position to rule out an alternative,” he said.

This point is backed by Professor James Wood, of Cambridge University. “I think there is very strong evidence for this being caused by natural spillovers but that argument simply does not suit some political groups. They promote the idea that Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak because such a claim deflects attention from increasing evidence that indicates biodiversity loss, deforestation and wildlife trade – which increase the dangers of natural spillovers – are the real dangers that we face from pandemics.”

In other words, fiddling with viruses in laboratories is not the dangerous activity. The real threat comes from the wildlife trade, bulldozing rainforests and clearing wildernesses to provide land for farms and to gain access to mines. As vegetation and wildlife are destroyed, countless species of viruses and the bacteria they host are set loose to seek new hosts, such as humans and domestic livestock. This has happened with HIV, Sars and very probably Covid-19.

And that, for many scientists, is the real lesson of Covid-19.

This article was amended on 22 August 2021 to refer to Shi Zhengli at second mention as “Shi”, that being her surname.

The Science of Recurring Dreams Is More Fascinating Than We Ever Imagined

(Mischa Keijser/Getty Images)
HUMANS

CLAUDIA PICARD-DELAND & TORE NIELSEN, THE CONVERSATION

20 AUGUST 2021

Having the same dream again and again is a well-known phenomenon — nearly two-thirds of the population report having recurring dreams. Being chased, finding yourself naked in a public place or in the middle of a natural disaster, losing your teeth or forgetting to go to class for an entire semester are typical recurring scenarios in these dreams.

But where does the phenomenon come from? The science of dreams shows that recurring dreams may reflect unresolved conflicts in the dreamer's life.

Recurring dreams often occur during times of stress, or over long periods of time, sometimes several years or even a lifetime. Not only do these dreams have the same themes, they can also repeat the same narrative night after night.

Although the exact content of recurring dreams is unique to every individual, there are common themes among individuals and even among cultures and in different periods. For example, being chased, falling, being unprepared for an exam, arriving late or trying to do something repeatedly are among the most prevalent scenarios.

The majority of recurring dreams have negative content involving emotions such as fear, sadness, anger and guilt. More than half of recurring dreams involve a situation where the dreamer is in danger. But some recurring themes can also be positive, even euphoric, such as dreams where we discover new rooms in our house, erotic dreams or where we fly.

In some cases, recurring dreams that begin in childhood can persist into adulthood. These dreams may disappear for a few years, reappear in the presence of a new source of stress and then disappear again when the situation is over.

Unresolved conflicts

Why does our brain play the same dreams over and over again? Studies suggest that dreams, in general, help us regulate our emotions and adapt to stressful events. Incorporating emotional material into dreams may allow the dreamer to process a painful or difficult event.

In the case of recurrent dreams, repetitive content could represent an unsuccessful attempt to integrate these difficult experiences. Many theories agree that recurring dreams are related to unresolved difficulties or conflicts in the dreamer's life.

The presence of recurrent dreams has also been associated with lower levels of psychological wellbeing and the presence of symptoms of anxiety and depression. These dreams tend to recur during stressful situations and cease when the person has resolved their personal conflict, which indicates improved wellbeing.

Recurrent dreams often metaphorically reflect the emotional concerns of the dreamers. For example, dreaming about a tsunami is common following trauma or abuse. This is a typical example of a metaphor that can represent emotions of helplessness, panic or fear experienced in waking life.

Similarly, being inappropriately dressed in one's dream, being naked or not being able to find a toilet can all represent scenarios of embarrassment or modesty.

These themes can be thought of as scripts or ready-to-dream scenarios that provide us with a space where we can digest our conflicting emotions. The same script can be reused in different situations where we experience similar emotions.

This is why some people, when faced with a stressful situation or a new challenge, may dream they're showing up unprepared for a math exam, even years after they have set foot in a school. Although the circumstances are different, a similar feeling of stress or desire to excel can trigger the same dream scenario again.

A continuum of repetition

William Domhoff, an American researcher and psychologist, proposes the concept of a continuum of repetition in dreams. At the extreme end, traumatic nightmares directly reproduce a lived trauma — one of the main symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Then there are recurring dreams where the same dream content is replayed in part or in its entirety. Unlike traumatic dreams, recurring dreams rarely replay an event or conflict directly but reflect it metaphorically through a central emotion.

Further along the continuum are the recurring themes in dreams. These dreams tend to replay a similar situation, such as being late, being chased or being lost, but the exact content of the dream differs from one time to the next, such as being late for a train rather than for an exam.

Finally, at the other end of the continuum, we find certain dream elements recurring in the dreams of one individual, such as characters, actions or objects. All these dreams would reflect, at different levels, an attempt to resolve certain emotional concerns.

Moving from an intense level to a lower level on the continuum of repetition is often a sign that a person's psychological state is improving. For example, in the content of traumatic nightmares progressive and positive changes are often observed in people who have experienced trauma as they gradually overcome their difficulties.

Physiological phenomena

Why do the themes tend to be the same from person to person? One possible explanation is that some of these scripts have been preserved in humans due to the evolutionary advantage they bring. By simulating a threatening situation, the dream of being chased, for example, provides a space for a person to practise perceiving and escaping predators in their sleep.

Some common themes may also be explained, in part, by physiological phenomena that take place during sleep. A 2018 study by a research team in Israel found that dreaming of losing one's teeth was not particularly linked to symptoms of anxiety but rather associated to teeth clenching during sleep or dental discomfort upon waking.

When we sleep, our brain is not completely cut off from the outside world. It continues to perceive external stimuli, such as sounds or smells, or internal body sensations. That means that other themes, such as not being able to find a toilet or being naked in a public space, could actually be spurred by the need to urinate during the night or by wearing loose pyjamas in bed.

Some physical phenomena specific to REM sleep, the stage of sleep when we dream the most, could also be at play. In REM sleep, our muscles are paralyzed, which could provoke dreams of having heavy legs or being paralyzed in bed.

Similarly, some authors have proposed that dreams of falling or flying are caused by our vestibular system, which contributes to balance and can reactivate spontaneously during REM sleep. Of course, these sensations are not sufficient to explain the recurrence of these dreams in some people and their sudden occurrence in times of stress, but they probably play a significant role in the construction of our most typical dreams.

Breaking the cycle

People who experience a recurring nightmare have in some ways become stuck in a particular way of responding to the dream scenario and anticipating it. Therapies have been developed to try to resolve this recurrence and break the vicious cycle of nightmares.

One technique is to visualize the nightmare while awake and then rewrite it, that is, to modify the narrative by changing one aspect, for example, the end of the dream to something more positive. Lucid dreaming may also be a solution.

In lucid dreams we become aware that we are dreaming and can sometimes influence the content of the dream. Becoming lucid in a recurring dream might allow us to think or react differently to the dream and thereby alter the repetitive nature of it.

However, not all recurring dreams are bad in themselves. They can even be helpful insofar as they are informing us about our personal conflicts. Paying attention to the repetitive elements of dreams could be a way to better understand and resolve our greatest desires and torments.

Claudia Picard-Deland, Candidate au doctorat en neurosciences, Université de Montréal and Tore Nielsen, Professor of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

SRI LANKA
Gota’s Lockdown Decision Hinges On Gnanakka: Soothsayer Says Covid-19 Deaths Are Sacrifices To Kāli

President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa may not impose a lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19‘s deadly Delta variant because he has been advised against such a move before the Kandy Perahera is properly concluded by his trusted Soothsayer from Anuradhapura, Colombo Telegraph learns.

Gotabaya and Gnakka

Gnanakka, a famous astrologer in Anuradhapura has been President Gotabaya’s trusted confidant ever since he took power in 2019. The President travels to Anuradhapura nearly every other weekend for advice and poojas to ward off evil spirits, highly placed sources told Colombo Telegraph. The special relationship with this soothsayer has strongly influenced policy decisions made by the GR administration, including the early decision to ban the import of turmeric into the island, the sources said. Based on the advice of the astrologer lady President Gotabaya Rajapaksa refers to as “ඥාණ මැණියෝ” (Mother Gnana), the President made the short-sighted decision to hold the Kandy Perahera against all medical advice. No spectators are allowed at the pageant, but the event includes some 5000 performers and support staff, and media teams are present for the live broadcast.

Sources close to the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said even he had been shocked by his younger brother’s exhortations during a recent high level discussion on shutting down the country to stop the spike in infections. Present at the meeting were also senior medical officers fiercely loyal to the administration who were strongly urging a strict lockdown and curfew for a minimum of two weeks, to spare the healthcare system which was being strained to its limit.

“We don’t make decisions lightly,” President Gotabaya is reported to have said at the meeting, the sources said. “It’s not like with other countries, the (Kandy) Perahera must be held with public participation according to Sri Lanka’s horoscope, says Gnana Maaniyo. The Perahera is going well so far. It is said that if the Perahera is not held, the “vas” (evil spirits) will impact me, as the leader of the country, I will become the sacrifice. Because of the Perahera, all the coronavirus deaths will be considered as sacrifices to the Goddess Kāli (Kā iAmma). They are sacrificing themselves for the future wellbeing and prosperity of the country,” the President reportedly claimed.

This was the true reason for the delay to lockdown the country against the virus, sources close to the PM said.

Main hospitals in Karapitiya, Negombo, Anuradhapura, Chilaw and Matara are fast running short of life-saving oxygen as doctors report an unending line of Covid-19 patients, most of whom require breathing support. Sri Lanka is inching closer to the tragic milestone of 200 deaths per day from Covid-19, with the country now ranked ninth in the world for the highest deaths to population ratio. 181 people perished from the virus on Wednesday (18). 10 powerful political parties aligned with the Government wrote to President Rajapaksa yesterday, begging him to impose a lockdown to prevent further loss of life.

The Rajapaksa family have long been associated with specific soothsayers and witch-doctors who grow in influence when the Brothers are in power. As rulers who govern by the sword, the family has a particular fear of their own mortality, and often obtain charms to ward off danger from trusted occult practitioners. During his presidency, Mahinda Rajapaksa clutched a golden sceptre believed to protect him from enemies and an untimely death.

Mahinda Rajapaka – PM

Special security has been provided to the soothsayer’s residence in Anuradhapura, Colombo Telegraph learns. Village residents have reported heightened activity around the astrologer’s home, with Presidential Security Teams often arriving ahead of the President’s visit for a consultation. Sources close to the Palace have long insisted that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s dependency on Gnanakka is particularly acute, with the soothsayer fast becoming the most powerful woman in Sri Lanka. With the Perahera nearing its closure, it is likely that the Government will soon announce a temporary lockdown, the sources told Colombo Telegraph, provided the decision is green-lit by the President’s astrologer in Anuradhapura beforehand. (Nimal Ratnaweera)

The View from England: Europe’s galactic mining goals

Chris Hinde - The Northern Miner | August 18, 2021

Credit: iStock/adventtr

An asteroid is heading towards Earth, but it is good news for miners and Luxembourg stands ready to help.


On August 11, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office provided an update on the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. Scientists in the Near-Earth Object Observations Program confirmed that Bennu will make a close approach to Earth next century, although the probability of impact is only 1 in 2,700.

Another asteroid has been in the news this month. On August 5, NASA announced it is launching a mission next year to study Psyche 16. This asteroid is estimated to contain metal worth more than US$10,000 quadrillion (or ten billion billion), which is enough to make everyone on Earth a dollar billionaire.

First spotted by an Italian astronomer in 1852, Psyche 16 is a 220 km-wide asteroid comprised mostly of iron and nickel (unlike the igneous rock and ice of most other asteroids). It will take NASA’s space probe four years to reach the asteroid, which is nestled between Mars and Jupiter.

Europe in general, and Luxembourg in particular, stands ready to play a role in the mining of these metal deposits in space.

The Grand Duchy has long had ambitions to exploit asteroids, albeit the near-Earth ones (orbiting between Earth and Mars), rather than those in the Asteroid belt beyond Mars. Over five years ago, in February 2016, the then Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Etienne Schneider, announced plans to mine asteroids in collaboration with U.S.-based Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources Inc.

LUXEMBOURG ESTABLISHED A DEDICATED SPACE LAW IN 2017 THAT PROVIDED A HIGH LEVEL OF PROTECTION FOR INVESTORS, EXPLORERS AND MINERS

Luxembourg has a long-standing space industry and was instrumental in developing satellite communications a generation ago. The former head of the European Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain, told the Financial Times at the time that he was “convinced there is great scientific and economic potential in Luxembourg’s vision.” Although it sounded futuristic at the time, Dordain was adamant that the basic technology already existed.

Luxembourg was the first country in Europe to offer a legal framework for the exploration and use of space resources. It established a dedicated space law in 2017 that provided a high level of protection for investors, explorers and miners. Moreover, the Luxembourg Space Agency offers access to financial solutions and supports academic research.

There was renewed debate in 2020 over governance of the heavens after a flurry of outer-space activities. These included NASA’s announcement in October that water had been found on the Moon, which raised expectations that it may be used as a base for space exploration.

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space sets the standard for the development of international space law, and various treaties have provided a basic set of rules. These treaties remain untested, however, regarding who would own the rights to minerals found in outer space. For commercial space projects, including mining, to be viable, explorers and investors will need to be certain of their rights to extract the materials they discover.

There is an analogy between these emerging space laws and the rules governing the high seas. It is possible to explore, and mine, marine resources without appropriating the ocean. Although the UN’s Outer Space Treaty defines and forbids the appropriation of the Moon, or any other celestial bodies, it does not prevent the appropriation of resources in outer space.

Quite apart from their potential as orbiting lumps of iron and nickel, asteroids can contain some very unearthly material. Minerals discovered that are not known to occur naturally on earth include panguite and edscottite. The former is a type of titanium oxide that was discovered in 2012 from the Allende meteorite that had landed in Mexico 43 years earlier. Edscottite (an iron carbide) was found in the Wedderburn meteorite that impacted Australia during 1951.

Miners will need to extend their lexicon. Asteroids and comets (which are mainly comprised of ice) are renamed meteors if they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and meteorites if they land on the surface. Any recovered material is called a ‘meteorite fall’ if the descent had been observed, and a ‘find’ if it wasn’t seen. In geology, a bolide is a meteorite large enough to create an impact crater, whereas in astronomy it is simply a brighter-than-usual meteor.

Meteorites are not especially rare, with a total of some 60,000 rocks from space having been found on earth. Around 500 meteorites are observed annually but barely 2% of these are recovered (rarely much more than ten per year), with material from a total of only 1,500 meteorite ‘falls’ being recorded historically. Because most of the meteorite burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, less than 5% of the initial weight actually lands.

Meanwhile, NASA researchers have identified September 24, 2182, as the most likely date for Bennu to impact Earth. Better make a note in your diary, it’s rocket science.

(This article first appeared in The Northern Miner)

Nuclear plant in Alabama now uses 3D-printed components

MINING.COM Staff Writer | August 19, 2021 | 

Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. 

(Image by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Wikimedia Commons).

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 2 in Alabama has become one of the first plants in the world to use 3D-printed fuel assembly brackets.


In detail, the plant is employing four of these first-of-a-kind devices produced at the US Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.

To create the brackets, ORNL researchers additively manufactured channel fasteners using a micro-welding process. They took 316 metal powder – an austenitic chromium-nickel stainless steel containing deliberate amounts of molybdenum – and they put it into a system to create a three-dimensional geometry.

To characterize the brackets, they used computer tomography and ran CT scans to create a 3D representation of the material so that it was possible to look at the entire component or zoom in and explore specific critical areas. Then, the material was polished to look at the metallurgy using a combination of optical and scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, which allowed the researchers to see the material on its atomic scale.

Part of the 3D printing process.

 (Image courtesy of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory).

All the data that emerged from the microscopy processes were spatially tracked to understand the new material’s performance compared to conventionally processed materials.

The fasteners – which are critical safety components – were then installed in a Framatome boiling water reactor fuel assembly at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant, during a scheduled refuelling outage. They will remain in the reactor for six years, with inspections planned during outages and after use.

“Deploying 3D-printed components in a reactor application is a great milestone,” said Ben Betzler, a researcher at the ORNL and director of the Transformational Challenge Reactor or TCR program, which is part of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy.

“It shows that it is possible to deliver qualified components in a highly regulated environment. This program bridges basic and applied science and technology to deliver tangible solutions that show how advanced manufacturing can transform reactor technology and components,” Betzler said.

The project is considered a foundational step that will lead to designing and manufacturing a variety of 3D-printed parts to support other clean energy applications.

“TVA is actively engaged in developing new nuclear technology for tomorrow,” said Dan Stout, director of Nuclear Technology Innovation at the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“Partnering with ORNL and Framatome in this innovative manufacturing approach could pave the path for use across the existing nuclear fleet and also in advanced reactors and small modular reactors.”

CANADIAN DIAMONDS

North Arrow collects Naujaat bulk sample to test for fancy coloured diamonds

Northern Miner Staff | August 19, 2021 | 

Selection of yellow diamonds recovered from North Arrow Minerals’ Naujaat project in Nunavut. Credit: North Arrow Minerals

North Arrow Minerals (TSXV: NAR) has completed a 2,000-tonne bulk sample from its Naujaat diamond project in Nunavut, a key step toward discovering if the project has enough fancy coloured diamonds – with a high enough value – to justify development.


North Arrow has already delineated a resource for the Q1-4 kimberlite at Naujaat, located only 7 km from tidewater near the community of Naujaat. Q1-4 hosts 48.8 million inferred tonnes grading 53.6 carats per hundred tonnes for 26.1 million carats. The bulk sample is aimed at determining the size distribution and character of a population of potentially high value fancy yellow to orange yellow diamonds found at Q1-4.

North Arrow expects processing of the sample to begin in the fourth quarter.

“Bulk sample collection from the Q1-4 kimberlite is now complete, with field crews having delivered 2,500 bulk sample bags of kimberlite to our laydown near the community of Naujaat,” said Ken Armstrong, president and CEO of North Arrow. “At approximately 2,000 tonnes, the 2,500 bags represent the high end of our anticipated tonnage range for the program and we look forward to loading the sample onto the annual Naujaat sealift in September for shipment to the processing laboratory.”

The C$5.6 million bulk sample program is funded by Burgundy Diamond Mines (ASX: BDM).

While North Arrow has made several diamond discoveries in Canada over the past decade, including the Pikoo discovery in Saskatchewan, it has been difficult to raise funds for exploration.

Last year, the junior signed an option agreement with Burgundy (then known as EHR Resources). In return for funding the bulk sample, Burgundy will earn a 40% interest in Naujaat. If the results are positive, the company can earn another 20% interest by funding a larger, 10,000-tonne bulk sample.

(This article first appeared in The Northern Miner)

AFGHAN NEWS

LGBT+ Afghans desperate to escape amid Taliban takeover

The LGBT+ community in Afghanistan now fear more violence under the Taliban rule as many try to evacuate.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
21 August, 2021

LGBT+ Afghans fear for their lives under Taliban rule [Getty]

It was never easy being gay or transgender in Afghanistan. Now it could be deadly, according to LGBT+ Afghans, whose fear of violence under the Taliban is driving a frantic bid to escape.

But how any evacuation might work is another matter, with scant practical support coming from overseas and even less hope that Islamist militants will let them into the airport.

"If I find a visa and a country gives me permission to leave, of course, I will risk everything to get out," said one gay Afghan student, whose name was withheld for his protection.

"Any country, but not here. Living here means nothing for us."

The odds are stacked against an escape as the 21-year-old hides indoors, paralysed by fear of what might happen on the street, with few exit routes open amid chaotic airport scenes.

Nor is it clear where LGBT+ Afghans might be welcome to set up home or whether sexuality or gender identity are criteria for automatic asylum in many countries around the world.

Canada has pledged to resettle 20,000 Afghans, explicitly including LGBT+ people in its commitment.

In offering such clear assurance, Canada is an outlier.

Irish media has reported that LGBT+ people will also be among its 150 Afghan refugees brought to the country. Ireland's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

But in other Western democracies, including the United States and Europe, there was no such clarity.

On Monday, the day after Kabul fell, U.S. President Joe Biden wrote a memo granting $500 million for "unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs of refugees, victims of conflict, and other persons at risk" in the tumult.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Tuesday that the United States would "bring to safety... vulnerable Afghans" without specifying who. Asked if this covered LGBT+ Afghans, the State Department declined comment.

Britain says it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghans under year one of a resettlement programme that will prioritise women, girls and religious and other minorities.

Again, it made no mention of LGBT+ Afghans and did not respond to a Thomson Reuters Foundation request for comment.

Many European leaders are wary of accepting any migrants - of any type - and some countries, including Australia, have explicitly rejected an Afghan influx.

Turkey is bolstering its border walls with Iran, which neighbours Afghanistan, expressly to keep out Afghan migrants.

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How 'Allahu Akbar' became a rallying cry against the Taliban


Secrets and Fear

Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian-based LGBT+ advocacy group, has urged governments to help gay and trans Afghan refugees.

"Public attitudes...towards LGBTQI+ people are extremely negative, which leads members of the LGBTQ+ community to keep their gender identity and sexual orientation a secret in fear of harassment, intimidation, persecution, and death," it said.

"Now, with the return of the Taliban, there is an understandable fear that the situation will worsen."

U.S. novelist Nemat Sedat, a gay Afghan-American who left his homeland aged 5, then taught at an Afghan university from 2012 to 2013, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation he had been contacted by more than 100 LGBT+ Afghans desperate to flee.

"People are messaging me, telling me 'What can we do? We're going to get exterminated. The Taliban are going to weed us out and kill us,'" Sedat said in a video call.

Sedat said he was working with an American based in Kabul and lobbying his congressman to try and arrange a flight out.

Contacted over WhatsApp, the American confirmed he was at Kabul airport, but said the situation was "really bad" and he was unsure even how to get LGBT+ people safely through the city.

Chaos has swamped the airport, with reports of stampedes, Taliban fighters turning back Afghans with travel documents and women throwing their babies over the wall to U.S. soldiers.

Since Sunday, 12 people have been killed in and around the airport, according to NATO and Taliban officials.

(Reuters)

After Afghanistan, the Pax Americana is over – as is Nato. About time too

Biden’s Afghan chaos means Europe can no longer rely on him. Let’s hope a more balanced security relationship emerges

President Biden comments on the evacuation of American citizens and vulnerable Afghans, on 20 August. Photograph: Chris Kleponis/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

Simon Tisdall
Sat 21 Aug 2021 

THE GUARDIAN

The North Atlantic measurably widened last week. The more Joe Biden tried to shift blame for the Afghan chaos, the bigger the gulf with America’s UK and European allies grew. This US president, who preaches the virtues of multilateralism yet acted on his own, has done more in a few weeks to undermine the western alliance than Donald Trump ever did with all his bluster.


After the chaos in Kabul, is the American century over?

All things considered, this may not be such a bad outcome. A reckoning was long overdue. The Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq was a historic mistake. Barack Obama’s Syria cop-out was shaming, for the opposite reason. Now the hugely costly 20-year Afghan intervention is ending in calamity, more refugee chaos, and the threat of renewed terrorism which, once again, will principally affect Europe.
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If this is where US leadership leads, who needs it? When America plays global policeman, as self-described “liberal-neocons” say it must, too many people in too many places end up screaming “I can’t breathe!” America is either woefully absent – or its domineering engagement ends in tears. The cycle repeats. Fears grow that US allies are being dragged into another “forever war”, this time with China.

Selfish American behaviour during the pandemic was not untypical. Trump caused untold harm through denial and inaction. Biden’s administration has endangered millions by vaccine-hoarding. Afghanistan today is a geopolitical expression of this familiar phenomenon. Trump did not invent America First. Biden is merely its latest exponent.

The president’s televised speech last Monday was truly shocking to non-Americans. His undeserved contempt for Afghan forces and obliviousness to the sacrifices of Nato allies smacked of arrogance and betrayal. His claim that nation-building was never a US aim was grotesquely untrue. “Afghanistan was the ultimate nation-building mission,” George W Bush wrote in his 2010 memoir, Decision Points. “We had a moral obligation to leave behind something better.” Hear that, Joe?
The enemies of democracy have been strengthened. There’s no doubt Afghans are paying a terrible price.

Yet it was Biden’s apparent repudiation of the traditional US leadership role that rocked British and European establishments. “Endless military deployments of US forces” in overseas conflicts were not in the national interest, he declared. Afghanistan was solely about defending the “homeland”. For those raised in a world defined by American power and ringed by its permanent bases, this was stunning.

Armin Laschet, Angela Merkel’s choice to succeed her as Germany’s chancellor, called the withdrawal “the biggest debacle Nato has suffered since its founding”. Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, an Afghan war veteran, decried “Britain’s biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez” – another fiasco, incidentally, to which the US contributed.

Hapless Boris Johnson meanwhile snuffles about like a pig stuck in the middle. Britain’s prime minister has shamelessly sucked up to Washington since burning his EU boats. Now, furious ministers and generals must bite their tongues – for fear of damaging the wider, precarious “special” relationship. That Brexit price-tag just keeps rising.

The obvious lesson for European leaders, and even Johnson, is that Washington cannot be relied upon, if it ever could. Afghanistan is the latest proof that the US, like every other nation state, ultimately acts in its own interest – as it perceives this at a particular moment in time – no matter what solemn blood promises have been made.

In short, American exceptionalism always was illusory. Greater European self-reliance is the only logical answer.

Post-1945, it suited the US to entrench its newfound physical and economic sway over Europe, and thereby contain its Soviet superpower rival. The resulting Truman doctrine, while championing universal freedoms, essentially pivoted on self-interest. Altruism had little to do with it. Now, with US power declining relative to China and new challenges arising, self-interest dictates re-evaluation, re-prioritising, and retrenchment.

This is the broader context in which the Afghan withdrawal should be understood – since Biden’s successors are unlikely to act very differently. EU states, with or without Britain, must finally make good on years of talk about building credible, independent European defence and security capabilities. In short, French president Emmanuel Macron is right, and Merkel is wrong.

All the same, it’s a mistake to keep beating up Biden. For sure, the withdrawal is dreadfully mismanaged. The US could and should have kept a minimal presence at the Bagram airbase, for deterrence purposes. The enemies of democracy have certainly been strengthened. There’s no doubt Afghans are paying a terrible price.

But calling time on the post-9/11 “forever wars”, as part of this necessary reformation of US foreign policy, was inevitable and unavoidable.

If Biden succeeds in his stated aims, future American global leadership will prioritise diplomacy, soft-power tools, economic and financial levers, technological advantage, intelligence-gathering and specialised defensive capabilities over brute military force, full-scale invasions, and indefinite armed occupations. Biden officials call it “smart power” for a new era. This is surely progress of a kind.

The shift is symbolised by Biden’s ending of Bush’s “global war on terror”. A policy review is expected to recommend reducing the worldwide US counter-terrorism footprint, which has grown exponentially since 2001. The new policy will reportedly look beyond Islamist terror to the rising domestic threat from far-right extremists.

A moratorium on drone strikes has been in place since January. New Pentagon guidelines will raise the threshold for launching military action and require field commanders to do more to avoid civilian casualties. It’s too late for Afghanistan, where thousands of non-combatants died. But it could reduce future bloodshed.

The Afghan project failed. The tarnished age of Pax Americana and the “endless military deployments” Biden deplored is thankfully drawing to a close. Nato – discredited, ill-led, and taken for granted – has had its day, too. A more balanced, more respectful US-Europe security relationship is required. Without it, there may be no western alliance left to lead.

Taliban’s return clouds long-delayed plans for Afghanistan’s resources

Reuters | August 19, 2021 | 

Afghan soldiers from 215 Corps take aim at Taliban insurgents. (Image courtesy of Al Jazeera | Flickr.)

China could look to steal a march on wary western nations in developing resource projects in a Taliban-led Afghanistan, state media and industry sources say, but the necessary infrastructure will take years to build and security issues may well intervene.


Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth – including large reserves of lithium, a key component in electric vehicles – has been trumpeted as a path to economic independence. But instability has repeatedly hampered past projects, dousing most foreign investor interest.

“I wouldn’t and couldn’t invest in Afghanistan with the Taliban running the country. It’s lawless,” said Ben Cleary, the chief executive of Tribeca Investment Partners, which runs a global natural resources fund and finances mining projects.

He said he couldn’t see any companies listed in Australia, Canada or the United States having a mandate to buy assets there, adding: “China would be the only potential buyer.”

Asked about prospects for investment under the Taliban, the Chinese foreign ministry said lasting peace and stability were fundamental for potential investors from all nations.

While noting security concerns, state-owned tabloid Global Times said on Tuesday that China could contribute to post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan and resume stalled projects.

Citing an unnamed Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC) source, it also said the company would consider reopening Afghanistan’s largest copper project once the situation stabilised, and international recognition of the Taliban regime, including by the Chinese government, took place.

A consortium of MCC and Jiangxi Copper took out a 30-year lease for the project, the Mes Aynak mine, in 2008 but it remains undeveloped.

One MCC source told Reuters this week it could take five to six years to build infrastructure for mining there but the project could not go anywhere while safety concerns lingered.

Eight security force members were killed in a Taliban attack on a checkpoint at the mine last year.

“It is impossible to push forward the project without a safe environment,” the source said.

MCC and Jiangxi Copper did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China, Taliban meeting

There has been no official recognition of the Taliban, though China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted Mullah Baradar, chief of the group’s political office, in Tianjin last month.

The foreign ministry said it noted that the Taliban had expressed a commitment to creating a good environment for foreign investors.

“We hope that the situation in Afghanistan will transition smoothly, and an open and inclusive political structure will be established so that no terrorist organisation will be able to take advantage of it,” the ministry added in a statement to Reuters.

Concerns about potential human rights abuses under a Taliban regime will likely be another barrier to investment in resources that also include gold, natural gas, uranium, bauxite, coal, iron ore and rare earths – sectors in which China has few if any Afghan projects.

“I think most of the world’s financial system is applying some fairly stringent ESG (environmental, social and governance) lenses now over investments in that (resources) sector,” said ANZ Senior Commodity Strategist Daniel Hynes in Sydney.

“It would be a pretty difficult project to get underway considering all the hurdles.”
CNPC pulls out

At least one Chinese project in Afghanistan will not be going forward.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is in the process of exiting its oil project in the northern Amu Darya Basin, a company official told Reuters this week.

“It’s not a big investment. CNPC sees the investment as a failure,” said the official, without elaborating.

The state energy major began producing oil there in 2012 under a 25-year contract but stopped work the following year as plans to refine the oil in Turkmenistan hit a snag.

The project had also come under attack from local militants.

CNPC declined to comment.

An Indian consortium led by Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is also pulling out.

It was awarded rights to build a steel mill and develop iron ore mines in Afghanistan with a total investment of $11 billion in 2011.

“SAIL’s inroads into Afghanistan were purely a political commitment and they were promised a steel plant,” an official at SAIL with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

The project had been shelved due to poor iron-ore quality, lack of security and a threat to employees’ safety, the official, who declined to be named, said.

SAIL and the Indian government did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(By Tom Daly, Shivani Singh, Aizhu Chen, Melanie Burton, Neha Arora, Beijing Newsroom, Min Zhang and Muyu Xu; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

 RIGHT WING BLAIRITE

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer says invasion of Afghanistan ‘brought stability’ & ‘reduced terrorist threat’

18 Aug, 2021 12:11

(L) Keir Starmer. © Reuters / BERESFORD HODGE; (R) Kabul, Afghanistan. © AFP / Wakil Kohsar

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer argued in Parliament on Wednesday that the invasion of Afghanistan “brought stability” to the region and reduced the threat of terrorism in the West – days after the Taliban took over Kabul.

During a House of Commons debate over the withdrawal of US and UK troops from Afghanistan this week, which led to the Taliban quickly taking over the country, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the UK would “judge” the new “regime on the choices it makes and by its actions rather than its words.”

Starmer, meanwhile, condemned the “disastrous week” and “staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat,” before attempting to argue that the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks was meaningful and worthwhile.

Telling British soldiers and their families that “your sacrifice was not in vain,” Starmer said the invasion “brought stability, reduced the terrorist threat and enabled progress.

“We are all proud of what you did,” the Labour Party leader continued, acknowledging that “many returned with life-changing injuries” while hundreds more “didn’t return at all,” before adding, “Your sacrifice deserves better than this and so do the Afghan people.”

During the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan, 47,245 Afghan civilians died, along with 66,000 members of the Afghan military and police, 3,846 US contractors, nearly 2,500 US soldiers, 457 British military personnel, 444 aid workers and 72 journalists.

Trillions of dollars were spent by the US on the war, while the UK government is estimated to have spent between £22 billion and £40 billion (between $30 billion and $55 billion).

In recent days, news outlets and analysts have identified the Taliban as the greatest beneficiary of the money spent by the US on Afghanistan, noting that not only did the Taliban manage to take Kabul in a matter of hours, but the organization also captured billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry, ammunition, helicopters, ground vehicles and even drones that were left behind by departing troops.

The vast majority of British combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014 but 750 remained to maintain a presence in the country. Former prime minister Tony Blair and his Labour Party government eagerly supported the invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks and the UK was soon involved in the allied US campaign, with Blair desperate for the UK to be among the first nations involved in the bombing of Kabul

Pax Americana died in Kabul

Opinion: Brahma Chellaney lays out the end of Pax Americana, as the fall of Kabul damages US credibility, stymies anti-terror efforts, and paves the way for Chinese expansion.

Brahma Chellaney
18 Aug, 2021

An Afghan security personnel stands guard at the site a day after a car bomb explosion in Kabul on 4 August, 2021. On 15 August, the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban took Kabul. [Getty]


The terrorist takeover of Afghanistan, following President Joe Biden's precipitous and bungling military exit, has brought an ignoble end to America's longest war. This is a watershed moment that will be remembered for formalising the end of the long-fraying Pax Americana and bringing down the curtain on the West's long ascendancy.

At a time when its global preeminence was already being severely challenged by China, the US may never recover from the blow this strategic and humanitarian disaster delivers to its international credibility and standing. The message it delivers to US allies is that they count on America's support when they most need it at their own peril.

After all, the Afghanistan catastrophe unfolded after the US threw its ally - the Afghan government - under the bus and got into bed with the world's deadliest terrorists, the Taliban. President Donald Trump first struck a Faustian bargain with them, and then the Biden administration rushed to execute the military exit dictated by the deal, even though the Taliban had been openly violating the agreement.

"The US may never recover from the blow this strategic and humanitarian disaster delivers to its international credibility and standing"

The dramatic collapse of the Afghan defences and then the government was directly linked to the US betrayal. Biden admits Trump "drew US forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500" in Afghanistan. By refusing to retain that small military footprint and by ordering a rapid exit at the onset of the annual fighting season, Biden pulled the rug out from under the Afghan military's feet, thus facilitating the Taliban's sweep.

The US had trained and equipped the Afghan forces not to play an independent role but to rely on American and NATO capabilities for a host of battlefield imperatives - from close air support, including drones for situational awareness, to keeping US-supplied weapon systems operational. Biden's calamitous troop pullout without a transition plan to sustain the Afghans' combat capabilities unleashed a domino effect, with 8,500 NATO forces and some 18,000 US military contractors also withdrawing and leaving the Afghan military in the lurch.

As former CIA Director General David Petraeus has explained, ever since US combat operations in Afghanistan ended on January 1, 2015, Afghan soldiers had been bravely "fighting and dying for their country" until the US suddenly ditched them this summer, mortally compromising Afghan defences.

This assessment is reinforced by the number of military deaths: Since the US combat role ended more than six and a half years ago, Afghan security forces lost tens of thousands of soldiers, while the Americans suffered just 99 fatalities, many in non-hostile incidents.

This is not the first time the US has dumped its allies - or even the first time in recent memory. In the fall of 2019, the US abruptly abandoned its Kurdish allies in northern Syria, leaving them at the mercy of a Turkish offensive.

But in Afghanistan, the US sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Its self-inflicted defeat and humiliation have resulted from a failure of political, not military, leadership. Biden, ignoring conditions on the ground, overruled his top military generals in April and ordered all US troops to return home. Now, two decades of American war in Afghanistan have culminated with the enemy riding triumphantly back to power.

"The geopolitical implications of the US defeat in Afghanistan are much more significant globally than the American defeat in Vietnam"

Whereas 58,220 Americans (largely draftees) were killed in Vietnam, 2,448 US soldiers (all volunteers) died over the course of 20 years in Afghanistan. Yet, the geopolitical implications of the US defeat in Afghanistan are much more significant globally than the American defeat in Vietnam.

The Pakistan-reared Taliban may not have a global mission, but their militaristic theology of violent Islamism makes them a critical link in an international jihadist movement that whips hostility toward non-Sunni Muslims into nihilistic rage against modernity. The Taliban's recapture of power will energise and embolden other violent groups in this movement, helping to deliver the rebirth of global terror.

In the Taliban's emirate, al-Qaeda, remnants of the Islamic State (IS), and Pakistani terrorist groups are all likely to find sanctuary. According to a recent United Nations Security Council report, "the Taliban and al-Qaeda remain closely aligned" and cooperate through the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network, a front for Pakistani intelligence.

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Terror and the Taliban
Perspectives
Fawaz A. Gerges
17 August, 2021

The unraveling of the effort to build a democratic, secular Afghanistan will pose a far greater threat to the free world than Syria's meltdown, which triggered a huge flow of refugees to Europe and allowed IS to declare a caliphate and extend it into Iraq. The Taliban's absolute power in Afghanistan will sooner or later threaten US security interests at home and abroad.

By contrast, China's interests will be aided by the Taliban's defeat of the world's most powerful military. The exit of a vanquished America creates greater space for China's coercion and expansionism, including against Taiwan, while underscoring the irreversible decline of US power.

"The images of helicopters transporting Americans from the US embassy compound in Kabul, recalling the frenzied evacuation from Saigon in 1975, will serve as a testament to America's loss of credibility - and the world's loss of Pax Americana"

An opportunistic China is certain to exploit the new opening to make strategic inroads into mineral-rich Afghanistan and deepen its penetration of Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia. To co-opt the Taliban, with which it has maintained longstanding ties, China has already dangled the prospect of providing the two things the militia needs to govern Afghanistan: diplomatic recognition and much-needed infrastructure and economic assistance.

The reconstitution of a medieval, ultra-conservative, jihad-extolling emirate in Afghanistan will be a monument to US perfidy. And the images of Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters transporting Americans from the US embassy compound in Kabul, recalling the frenzied evacuation from Saigon in 1975, will serve as a testament to America's loss of credibility - and the world's loss of Pax Americana.

Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, is the author of nine books, including Asian Juggernaut, Water: Asia's New Battleground, and Water, Peace, and War: Confronting the Global Water Crisis.

Follow him on Twitter: @Chellaney
© Project Syndicate 1995–2021
Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.