It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, December 06, 2021
'The Matrix Resurrections' references the past in new trailer
Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Keanu Reeves' Neo is re-living the past and experiencing deja vu in the new trailer for The Matrix Resurrections.
Neo is remembering scenes from the original Matrix film released in 1999 in the clip released on Monday.
Neo is back in the simulated modern world again on a new mission where he is reunited with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who is also suffering from memory loss.
The duo fight off an attack helicopter and multiple enemies as they ride a motorcycle together.
"We can't see it, but we're all trapped inside these strange repeating loops," a younger Morpheus, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says.
The Matrix Resurrections, is coming to theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.
Lana Wachowski is directing the film after she helmed the three previous entries with her sister Lilly Wachowski. Lana Wachowski penned the script with David Mitchell and Aleksander Hemon.
Solar cell discovery may help speed development of green energy technology A finding on perovskite solar cells, which are said to be potentially more effective than silicon solar cells pictured, could help speed the development of green technology.
Dec. 6 (UPI) -- As researchers look for better materials to harness electricity from the sun, an explanation for the efficiency of one promising material -- perovskites -- has proven elusive.
Thanks to new research out of Cambridge University, however, scientists no longer are in the dark on perovskite's virtues.
It turns out that the material's variegated chemical structure actually guards against the electronic pitfalls associated with similar materials -- and could help point the way to improving both it and other materials being developed for green technologies.
The qualities of perovskite, a high-performance solar cell material that turns more of the sun's rays into electricity, have been demonstrated time and time again -- in lab test after lab test.
But despite a decade of laboratory breakthroughs, it wasn't clear why the material performed as well as it does -- until now.
Cambridge University researchers were able to identify perovskite's nanoscale secrets by surveying its chemical, structural and electronic disorder by using a few different microscopes.
The revelatory observations could accelerate perovskite's development, allowing scientists to further tweak its composition and integrate the material into commercial solar arrays -- and even help light the way for energy research using other materials.
New research shows that electrons funnel into high-quality areas of perovskite material, as pictured in the artist's interpretation -- a finding that may help improve green energy research. Image by Alex T./Ella Maru Studios
How does it work
"Now, we can basically tell you why it is very good," lead study author Kyle Frohna, a researcher at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, told UPI.
To exceed performance standards, solar cell materials typically need to be highly uniform. Crystalline silicon, the material currently used in most commercial solar arrays, is almost perfectly homogenous.
Perovskite's ability to to absorb a wide spectrum of solar wavelengths and turn them into electricity had previously confounded scientists, primarily because its makeup is the opposite of homogenous.
"The chemical composition of perovskite is more complicated [compared to silicon]. There's a lot more stuff that goes into them," Frohna said. "We effectively dissolve all these chemicals into a solvent and then print them out onto a substrate, so you end up with a very complicated landscape."
This relatively imprecise production process is much more energy efficient, cheaper and easier to scale, which is why scientists expect perovskite to eventually supplant crystalline silicon in the solar cell industry.
Scientists can make a lot of progress through trial and error, without entirely understanding what's going on beneath the surface. Perovskite is proof of this phenomenon, as are many of the lithium ion battery breakthroughs of the last decade.
But with the impacts of climate change hastening, a pressing need exists for green energy -- and the scientific breakthroughs that will enable a carbon-natural energy sector.
As many material scientists can attest, taking a lab breakthrough to market, in which it can have a real-world impact on an industry's carbon footprint, is extremely difficult. Understanding why and how a breakthrough happened can boost the odds.
"A better understanding makes it more likely that a breakthrough can be fully exploited," Martin Green, a professor at the University of New South Wales' Australian Center for Advanced Photovoltaics, who was not involved in the recent study, told UPI in an email.
Freely moving electrons
Solar cell materials work best when their electrons can move freely, without becoming trapped by material defects.
"When there are impurities or defects in the material, they can trap these electrons and cause them to stay there for too long and lose their energy -- in the form of heat instead of electricity," Frohna said.
To learn why perovskite's incongruities -- and resulting electron traps -- don't seem to be all that problematic, researchers used a series of microscopes to more precisely map the material's structural, chemical and electronic properties.
"First, we used an optical telescope to measure the material's optical quality, or electronic efficiency," corresponding author Miguel Anaya, a chemical engineer and research fellow at Cambridge, told UPI.
"For a high quality, efficient material, we expect to see close to one photon emitted for every photon absorbed."
Then, the researchers used the Diamond Light Source, a synchrotron microscope, to look at the material's chemical composition and structure.
The results returned by the two microscopes showed that perovskite has two types of disorder working in parallel -- chemical disorder and electronic disorder.
Scientists determined perovskite's chemical disorder creates structural gradients that cause electrons to gravitate toward the parts of the material that have the fewest electronic defects.
Basically, perovskite's weakness also is a strength.
"Defects are everywhere in these types of samples, but by inducing the electron to find a place in the material that is high-quality, electronically speaking, the chemical disorder masks the effects of the electronic disorder," Anaya said. Future research and development
The research team hopes that its illuminating work ultimately will grease perovskite's path from lab to market.
"Rather than fumbling around in the dark, maybe now we can make more rational decisions about how to modulate these heterogeneous landscapes to suit our purposes even better," Frohna said.
Frohna and Anaya also said they plan to repeat their work by using fully assembled solar cells, as opposed to a naked perovskite substrate.
Eventually, the team hopes to find ways to identify analytical and computational shortcuts that would allow them to measure the interplay between electronic and chemical disorder without the painstaking process of acquiring and comparing the results from multiple microscopes.
Even farther down the line, the researchers said, it may be possible to use nanoscale observations like theirs for algorithms that could predict how materials will perform inside solar cells or batteries -- a breakthrough that could truly streamline the scientific process.
"To get that point we are going to new gather data from a huge amount of materials of with different compositions and qualities, so that you have a catalogue of results to draw from," Anaya said.
RIP
Medina Spirit, controversial Kentucky Derby winner, dies suddenly
Reigning Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who died Monday, won the Awesome Again Stakes on Oct. 2 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. Photo by Santa Anita
Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Three-year-old Medina Spirit, the controversial winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack Monday morning at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., trainer Bob Baffert said.
"My entire barn is devastated by this news," Baffert said in a statement to UPI. "Medina Spirit was a great champion, a member of our family who was loved by all, and we are deeply mourning his loss.
"I will always cherish the proud and personal memories of Medina Spirit and his tremendous spirit. Our most sincere condolences go out to [horse owner] Mr. Amr Zedan and the entire Zedan Racing Stables family. They are in our thoughts and prayers as we go through this difficult time."
Zedan told the Thoroughbred Daily News that the Colt died after 5-furlong workout at the track. California Horse Racing Board equine medical director Jeff Blea also told BloodHorse.com that the "sudden death" came from what appeared to be a "classic case of heart attack."
Medina Spirit won the 147th edition of the Derby on May 1 in Louisville, Ky., for Baffert's record-breaking seventh title at the event.
The victory was in jeopardy because Medina Spirit tested positive for the banned drug betamethasone after the race. Baffert claims the positive test result emerged due to the presence of an ingredient in an ointment used to treat the horse for a skin rash.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has yet to hold a hearing for the case. Churchill Downs suspended Baffert and barred him from entering horses in the Kentucky Derby for the next two years.
Baffert also was barred from entering horses at the New York Racing Association's Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct race tracks.
Medina Spirit also finished second at the 2021 Breeders' Cup Classic and third in the Preakness Stakes. The colt totaled five wins in 10 career starts and earned more than $3.5 million in prize money.
Jockey John Velazquez (L) and trainer Bob Baffert celebrate after their horse, Medina Spirit, won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Photo by John Sommers II/UPI | License Photo
Turning outrage into power: How far right is changing GOP
Reps. (from left) Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are among lawmakers whose inflammatory comments would likely have made them pariahs in the past, but were normalized by Donald Trump's presidency. (Michaels Reynolds/Pool via AP, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appears to have settled on a strategy to deal with a handful of Republican lawmakers who have stirred outrage with violent, racist and sometimes Islamophobic comments.
If you can’t police them, promote them.
The path to power for Republicans in Congress is now rooted in the capacity to generate outrage. The alarming language, and the fundraising haul it increasingly produces, is another example of how Donald Trump, the former president, has left his mark on politics, changing the way Republicans rise to influence and authority.
Success in Congress, once measured by bills passed and constituents reached, is now gauged in many ways by the ability to attract attention, even if it is negative as the GOP looks to reclaim a House majority next year by firing up Trump’s most ardent supporters.
That has helped elevate a group of far-right lawmakers — including Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona — whose inflammatory comments once would have made them pariahs.
Rather than face punishment for personal attacks that violate longstanding norms of Congress, they’ve been celebrated by conservatives, who have showered Boebert and Greene with campaign cash.
“We are not the fringe. We are the base of the party,” Greene, who has previously endorsed calls to assassinate prominent Democrats, said last week on a podcast hosted by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
The hands-off approach by Republican leadership gives them license to spread hate speech, conspiracy theories and misinformation that can have real world consequences, while testing the resolve of Democrats, who already removed Gosar and Greene from their committees.
It’s also a different tack from the one McCarthy took in 2019 when he stripped then-Rep. Steve King of Iowa of his committee assignments for lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism had become offensive terms.
Boebert offers the latest example.
In two videos that surfaced recently she likened Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who is one of three Muslims in Congress, to a terrorist concealing a bomb in a backpack. Boebert has also repeatedly referred to Omar as belonging to a “jihad squad,” as well as “black-hearted” and “evil.”
Her comments drew widespread condemnation and led to calls for Boebert to become the third GOP lawmaker this year to be removed from congressional committees. But instead of publicly apologizing to Omar, a defiant Boebert insisted that Omar should be the one to issue a public apology “to the American people” for her “anti-American” rhetoric, as well as past “anti-Semitic” comments, which Democrats condemned at the time.
In the uproar that followed, Omar received death threats, including a voicemail left by a man who called her a “traitor” and suggested she would be soon be taken “off the face of the (expletive) earth.”
“We cannot pretend this hate speech from leading politicians doesn’t have real consequences,” Omar said Tuesday while calling on the Republican Party to “actually do something to confront anti-Muslim hatred in its ranks.”
Boebert, meanwhile, burnished her image through an appearance on Fox News where she blamed Democrats who “want to cancel me” for the controversy. She has raked in $2.7 million so far this year, making her one of the top Republican fundraisers, according to campaign finance disclosures.
McCarthy, who is in line to become speaker if Republicans retake the majority in the 2022 midterm elections, downplayed the controversy Friday. He credited Boebert for attempting to privately apologize in a phone call with Omar, while breezing past Boebert’s refusal to do so publicly.
“In America, that’s what we do,” he said. “And then we move on.”
But McCarthy has also indicated that there will be little consequence for personal attacks. Just last month he said those punished by Democrats could be in line for a promotion if he becomes speaker, floating the possibility that Gosar and Greene “may have better committee assignments” than before.
That also poses a vexing issue for Democrats. During a Wednesday caucus meeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Boebert’s behavior, but cautioned that restraint was needed.
“This is hard because these people are doing it for the publicity,” Pelosi said, according to a person in the room, who insisted on anonymity to discuss private deliberations. “There’s a judgment that has to be made about how we contribute to their fundraising and their publicity on how obnoxious and disgusting they can be.”
In many cases, the incentive to outrage can outweigh the consequences.
Greene arrived in Congress this year with a well documented history of making inflammatory comments. A former adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theories, she once mused that a wealthy Jewish family may have used space lasers to spark California wildfires.
She’s also harassed survivors of school shootings, accused Pelosi of committing crimes punishable by death and appeared in a 2019 video at the Capitol in which she argued Omar and another Muslim representative weren’t “really official” members of Congress because they didn’t take the oath of office on the Bible.
Since her election she’s used her nonstop attacks and viral online moments to reap a $6.3 million fundraising windfall — more than three times the cost of the average congressional campaign — while proving to be a speaking draw at Republican fundraisers around the country.
“If you say something bats—— crazy, if you say something extreme, you are going to raise money,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who is one of the few Republicans to publicly criticize the rhetoric of her colleagues. Mace, who publicly feuded with Greene last week, said the Georgia lawmaker was a “grifter of the first order” who takes advantage of “vulnerable conservatives.”
Gosar, who was censured last month after posting an animated video of himself killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, is nowhere near as prolific of a fundraiser. But he has become a celebrated figure for white nationalists and has made appearances at fringe right-wing events, including a gathering in Florida last February hosted by Nick Fuentes, an internet personality who has promoted white supremacist beliefs.
Still, some Republicans say just because the three have achieved a measure of fame doesn’t mean they have accumulated real influence or staying power.
“There’s always some gifted communicator who comes in,” said Rep. Tom Cole, a 10-term Oklahoma Republican, who used the GOP class of 1994, when Republicans took over the House for the first time in decades, as an example. “We’re a long way of knowing how long they’ll stay. A lot of the brightest stars of the 1994 class were gone within eight years.”
Besides he added: “The reality is the first six years, the only thing you are going to do is what they let you.”
Analysis: Politicians split on questions of bodily autonomy
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, center right, accompanied by Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, center left, waves to supporters as they walk out of of the U.S. Supreme Court, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington, after the court heard arguments in a case from Mississippi, where a 2018 law would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and several other Mississippi politicians make clear that they don’t think the government should mandate vaccination against COVID-19. They take a different stance on bodily autonomy when it comes to a woman or girl deciding whether to have an abortion.
In arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, the Mississippi attorney general’s office defended a 2018 state law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. The state solicitor general, Scott Stewart, also tried to persuade justices to overturn the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion throughout the United States and its 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe.
Reeves was lieutenant governor when the 15-week ban was pushed into law, and he has said repeatedly that he wants to restrict abortion. When Reeves appeared on “Meet the Press” days before the Supreme Court arguments, the show played a video clip of Reeves saying COVID-19 vaccine mandates were a “power grab” by the federal government.
In the context of government rules that affect people’s bodies, host Chuck Todd asked Reeves: “Why should the state of Mississippi tell a woman what they should do with their body? Why shouldn’t they have that individual freedom on their body, particularly in the first 20 weeks?”
Reeves responded: “The far left love to scream, ‘My body, my choice.’ And what I would submit to you, Chuck, is they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion there is an actual killing of an innocent, unborn child that is in that womb.”
The Supreme Court is expected to take several months to rule on the Mississippi case. Six conservative justices indicated they would uphold the Mississippi law. Doing so would undermine Roe and Casey, which allow states to regulate but not ban abortion up until the point of fetal viability, at roughly 24 weeks.
Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, sued the state when then-Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed the 15-week ban in March 2018. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves (no relation to Tate Reeves) issued a temporary restraining order that immediately blocked the law from taking effect.
In a detailed ruling in November 2018, Judge Reeves wrote that “this Court concludes that the Mississippi Legislature’s professed interest in ‘women’s health’ is pure gaslighting.” He cited the state’s high infant mortality statistics and noted that Mississippi has not expanded Medicaid, which is an option most states have taken under the 2010 federal health law signed by then-President Barack Obama. Mississippi still has not expanded Medicaid because of opposition from Reeves and other Republican leaders.
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn and Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, who are Republicans, join Reeves in wanting to restrict abortion and in denouncing COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
“I respect your right to make whatever health care decision, as it pertains to the coronavirus, that you think is best for you in consultation with your health care provider,” Gunn said Oct. 28 at the Mississippi Economic Council’s Hobnob event. “This is America. One of the greatest rights we have in this country is to make the decisions that we think are best for us in regards to our health care.”
On the day the Supreme Court heard arguments about the Mississippi abortion case, Gunn said in a statement that the Mississippi House “has repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to save the lives of the unborn children in our State. This bill is just another example of the House’s commitment to the unborn.”
Gipson was a House committee chairman who worked to push the 15-week abortion ban into law, and he filed written arguments asking the Supreme Court to uphold it. During Hobnob, Gipson said federal vaccination mandates are “as un-American as anything I’ve ever seen in my life.”
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Emily Wagster Pettus has covered Mississippi government and politics since 1994. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
Japanese Ground-Self Defense Force (JGDDF) Type 90 tanks drive toward a target during the annual drill with live ammunitions exercise at Minami Eniwa Camp Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, in Eniwa, northern Japan of Hokkaido. Dozens of tanks are rolling over the next two weeks on Hokkaido, a main military stronghold for a country with perhaps the world's most little known yet powerful army. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
ENIWA, Japan (AP) — Dozens of tanks and soldiers fired explosives and machine guns in drills Monday on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a nation that is perhaps the world’s least-known military powerhouse.
Just across the sea from rival Russia, Japan opened up its humbly named Self Defense Force’s firing exercises to the media in a display of public firepower that coincides with a recent escalation of Chinese and Russian military moves around Japanese territory.
The drills, which foreign journalists rarely have a chance to witness, will continue for nine days and include about 1,300 Ground Self Defense Force troops. On Monday, as hundreds of soldiers cheered from the sidelines and waved unit flags, lines of tanks shot at targets meant to represent enemy missiles or armored vehicles. The exercises illuminate a fascinating, easy-to-miss point. Japan, despite an officially pacifist constitution written when memories of its World War II rampage were still fresh — and painful — boasts a military that puts all but a few nations to shame.
And, with a host of threats lurking in Northeast Asia, its hawkish leaders are eager for more.
It’s not an easy sell. In a nation still reviled by many of its neighbors for its past military actions, and where domestic pacifism runs high, any military buildup is controversial. Japan has focused on its defensive capabilities and carefully avoids using the word “military” for its troops. But as it looks to defend its territorial and military interests against an assertive China, North Korea and Russia, officials in Tokyo are pushing citizens to put aside widespread unease over a more robust role for the military and support increased defense spending.
As it is, tens of billions of dollars each year have built an arsenal of nearly 1,000 warplanes and dozens of destroyers and submarines. Japan’s forces rival those of Britain and France, and show no sign of slowing down in a pursuit of the best equipment and weapons money can buy.
Not everyone agrees with this buildup. Critics, both Japan’s neighbors and at home, urge Tokyo to learn from its past and pull back from military expansion.
There’s also domestic wariness over nuclear weapons. Japan, the only nation to have atomic bombs dropped on it in war, possesses no nuclear deterrent, unlike other top global militaries, and relies on the so-called U.S. nuclear umbrella.
Proponents of the new military muscle flexing, however, say the expansion is well-timed and crucial to the Japanese alliance with Washington.
China and Russia have stepped up military cooperation in recent years in an attempt to counter growing U.S.-led regional partnerships.
In October, a fleet of five warships each from China and Russia circled Japan as they traveled through the Pacific to the East China Sea. Last month, their warplanes flew together near Japan’s airspace, causing Japanese fighter jets to scramble. In fiscal year 2020 through March, Japanese fighters scrambled more than 700 times — two-thirds against Chinese warplanes, with the remainder mostly against Russians — the Defense Ministry said.
Russia’s military also recently deployed coastal defense missile systems, the Bastion, near disputed islands off the northern coast of Hokkaido.
Japan was disarmed after its WW II defeat. But a month after the Korean War began in 1950, U.S. occupation forces in Japan created a 75,000-member lightly armed de facto army called the National Police Reserve. The Self Defense Force, the country’s current military, was founded in 1954.
Today, Japan is ranked fifth globally in overall military power after the United States, Russia, China and India, and its defense budget ranked sixth in the 2021 ranking of 140 countries by the Global Firepower rating site.
During archconservative former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s more than eight-year rule, which ended a year ago, Japan significantly expanded its military role and budget. Abe also watered down the war-renouncing Article 9 of the constitution in 2015, allowing Japan to come to the defense of the United States and other partner nations.
Japan has rapidly stepped up its military role in its alliance with Washington, and has made more purchases of costly American weapons and equipment, including fighter jets and missile interceptors.
“Japan faces different risks coming from multiple fronts,” said defense expert Heigo Sato, a professor at the Institute of World Studies at Takushoku University in Tokyo.
Among those risks are North Korea’s increased willingness to test high-powered missiles and other weapons, provocations by armed Chinese fishing boats and coast guard ships, and Russia’s deployment of missiles and naval forces.
One of North Korea’s missiles flew over Hokkaido, landing in the Pacific in 2017. In September, another fell within the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone off northwestern Japan.
Under a bilateral security pact, Japan hosts about 50,000 U.S. troops, mostly on the southern island of Okinawa, which, along with Japanese units in Hokkaido, are strategically crucial to the U.S. presence in the Pacific.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October, said during his first troop review that he would consider “all options,” including possibly pursuing pre-emptive strike capabilities to further “increase Japan’s defense power” — a divisive issue that opponents say violates the constitution.
Japan has more than 900 warplanes, 48 destroyers, including eight Aegis missile-combating systems, and 20 submarines. That exceeds Britain, Germany and Italy. Japan is also buying 147 F-35s, including 42 F-35Bs, making it the largest user of American stealth fighters outside of the United States, where 353 are to be deployed.
Their deployment is crucial for Japanese defense in the Indo-Pacific, and the country is now retrofitting two flattops, the Izumo and Kaga, as the country’s first aircraft carriers since the end of the World War II.
Among Japan’s biggest worries is China’s increased naval activity, including an aircraft carrier that has been repeatedly spotted off Japan’s southern coasts.
Japan has customarily maintained a defense budget cap at 1% of its GDP, though in recent years the country has faced calls from Washington to spend more.
Kishida says he is open to doubling the cap to the NATO standard of 2%.
As a first step, his Cabinet recently approved a 770 billion yen ($6.8 billion) extra budget for the fiscal year to accelerate missile defense and reconnaissance activity around Japanese territorial seas and airspace, and to bolster mobility and emergency responses to defend its remote East China Sea islands. That would bring the 2021 defense spending total to 6.1 trillion yen ($53.2 billion), up 15% from the previous year, and 1.09% of Japan’s GDP.
Experts say a defense budget increase is the price Japan must pay now to make up for a shortfall during much of the postwar era, when the country prioritized economic growth over national security.
As China is playing tough in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as a regional flashpoint, with Japan, the United States and other democracies developing closer ties with the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as a renegade territory to be united by force if necessary.
China’s buildup of military facilities in the South China Sea has heightened Tokyo’s concerns in the East China Sea, where the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands are also claimed by Beijing, which calls them Diaoyu. China has sent a fleet of armed coast guard boats to routinely circle them and to go in and out of Japanese-claimed waters, sometimes chasing Japanese fishing boats in the area.
Japan deploys PAC3 land-to-air missile interceptors on its westernmost island of Yonaguni, which is only 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of Taiwan.
In part because of a relative decline of America’s global influence, Japan has expanded military partnerships and joint exercises beyond its alliance with the United States, including with Australia, Canada, Britain, France and other European countries, as well as in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Japan also cooperates with NATO.
Despite the government’s argument that more is needed, there are worries domestically over Japan’s rapid expansion of defense capabilities and costs.
“Although the defense policy needs to respond flexibly to changes in the national security environment, a soaring defense budget could cause neighboring countries to misunderstand that Japan is becoming a military power and accelerate an arms race,” the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun said in a recent editorial.
South African anti-apartheid icon Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim dies at 84
Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, an anti-apartheid icon and former deputy minister in South Africa, died on Monday, officials said. He was 84.
Officials said Ebrahim died after a long illness at his home in Johannesburg.
A former deputy minister of international relations, Ebrahim was an activist whose life was described as one of courage characterized by a "spirit of sacrifice."
Born July 1, 1937, Ebrahim joined the liberation movement in 1952 as a youth activist and participated in the Congress of the People Campaign, which adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. His activism continued into the 1960s, until he was arrested and charged under the Sabotage Act in 1961 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1979.
Ebrahim went into exile in 1980 on the advice of the African National Congress. He returned to serve as deputy Dirco minister from 2009 to 2014.
The ANC hailed Ebrahim on Monday as a veteran member of the party and praised his contribution to the struggle for South African liberation, which was achieved with the fall of Apartheid in the early 1990s. South Africa: Anti-apartheid veteran Ebrahim dies aged 84
Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, a veteran of the fight against apartheid who spent years imprisoned on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, has died aged 84, South Africa’s ruling party announced.
Ebrahim passed away at his Johannesburg home after a long illness, the African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement on Monday.
He “was a longstanding member of the ANC, a patriot who served his country in different capacities with humility, dedication and distinction”, the party said.
A largely unsung figure in the chronicles of apartheid, Ebrahim joined the struggle against white-minority rule in his early teens, becoming an ANC youth activist in 1952.
His life followed the arc of the liberation movement – beginning with non-violent protests, becoming a fighter, being imprisoned on Robben Island twice, and eventually joining the democratic government.
Known as “Ebie”, he was born in Durban on July 1, 1937. As a child, he saw his father get arrested twice for breaking laws that prevented Indians from travelling freely within South Africa.
By the time he was 13, he was already taking part in liberation politics.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent resistance campaigns in India, Ebrahim attended speeches by Albert Luthuli, the ANC leader who in 1960 became the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
He tried joining protest campaigns, but the liberation parties would not let him because of his young age.
As an Indian, Ebrahim initially was not allowed to join the ANC. He instead joined the Natal Indian Congress and became a delegate to the landmark Congress of the People in 1955.
That meeting gathered activists of all races, pulling together a massive public consultation on how South Africans wanted to be governed. The result was the Freedom Charter, now seen as a foundational document underpinning South African democracy.
As with many others in the movement, the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 changed Ebrahim’s mind about peaceful resistance. The sight of police shooting 69 protesters dead pushed him to join the ANC’s armed wing. ‘Assaulted, starved in prison’
He was arrested in 1963 and imprisoned on Robben Island, where he studied alongside Mandela and shared a cell with former President Jacob Zuma.
“In prison we were assaulted, starved, under-clothed and exposed to bitter cold weather,” he wrote later in a memoir.
“We were sworn at and humiliated in the most degrading manner. We broke stones and ate a measly meal.
“For years we were made to stand stark naked for long periods of time in an open courtyard, sometimes in biting cold weather. One of my close friends died of exposure.”
Nonetheless, Ebrahim used his prison days to obtain two university degrees.
After his release, he went into exile to rejoin the ANC. But in 1986, he was kidnapped by apartheid agents in neighbouring Swaziland, now Eswanti,, tortured and then imprisoned again on Robben Island.
Mandela tasked him with consulting fellow political prisoners on the talks that eventually led to the end of apartheid and the transition to democracy.
Ebrahim was freed in 1991 and won a seat in parliament in the first democratic elections.
He later served as a diplomat and mediator in conflicts including between Israel and the Palestinians, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Burundi, Kosovo, Bolivia and Nepal.
In an interview with AFP in June 2021, Ebrahim said he was deeply concerned that the fruits of democracy had not been spread evenly, pointing to deep poverty and unemployment.
But he voiced confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“He continues to take steps to root out maladministration and corruption. We will recover,” he told AFP.
And he expressed disappointment in his former cellmate Zuma, who has been charged with a slate of corruption cases.
“I was very close to him and we slept next to each other,” he said, however, adding that in prison Zuma was “highly disciplined”.
Email leak reveals the surprising friendship between Hunter Biden and his 'buddy' Tucker Carlson, says report
In email, Biden described Carlson as "a nice guy - that I completely disagree with on everything."
Alia Shoaib Sun, December 5, 2021 President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden (L) and Fox News host Tucker Carlson (R).
Paul Morigi/Getty Images (L), Fox News (R).
The Daily Mail published emails that reveal a close friendship between Hunter Biden and Tucker Carlson.
Biden wrote a college recommendation for Carlson's son, and Carlson intervened in an unflattering news story about Biden.
The intimate interactions appear to be at odds with Carlson's public attitude towards Biden.
Emails published by The Daily Mail appear to show a surprisingly close friendship between Hunter Biden and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
In the emails, President Joe Biden's son tells Carlson that he loves him and his family and describes him as his "friend" and "buddy."
The Daily Mail said it found the emails on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, which was the subject of intense controversy before the 2020 presidential election.
The laptop was said to have been left in a Delaware computer shop, then handed to former President Donald Trump allies, and eventually ended up with the Daily Mail.
One email exchange published by the outlet revealed that Biden wrote a letter of recommendation to Georgetown University for Carlson's son.
LinWood/Telegram
"Hunter! I can't thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Buckley's behalf," Carlson wrote in the email from November 2014.
"So nice of you. I know it'll help. Hope you're great and we can all get dinner soon. Tucker," the email continued.
The intimate interactions appear to be at odds with Carlson's public attitude towards Biden.
the 2020 presidential campaign, Carlson referred to the younger Biden as a "fallen man."
Another email exchange from August 2015 revealed that Carlson appeared to have intervened in a Daily Mail news story about Biden using a website for those seeking extramarital affairs.
At the time, Biden denied reports that he had opened an "Ashley Madison" account using his name and email address.
On August 27, Biden wrote "call me pls" to Carlson, and two hours later, the Fox News anchor responded, revealing that he had contacted the editor on Biden's behalf.
"Just lost my shit on the editor over there. He claims the London office forced him to do it. He's a pig either way, and I told him so,"' Carlson wrote.
"This whole thing is disgusting and awful, and it breaks my heart that you all have to go through it. I'm really sorry. Let me know if there's anything Susie and I can do to help."
Biden responded: "I'm sorry for even calling you. I know I put you in a difficult position- and upon reflection, as you're [a] friend I should have never done that."
He also said that the reports were false and was agitated after a journalist went to his house and questioned his daughter.
"Regardless, I should have never put you in this position – you have your own family, all of whom I love, and your own business, and defending me is not something a friend should ask a friend to do. Tell Susie we love her and miss you both very much," the email continued. In another email, Biden wrote to a friend and described Carlson as "a nice guy - that I completely disagree with on everything."
A Fox News spokeswoman told The Daily Mail that Carlson "has been transparent about his relationship with the president's son."
Although he declined to comment on Biden's college recommendation letter for his son, he confirmed that he had called the Daily Mail editor on Biden's behalf.
"Daily Mail reporter showed up at his house when he wasn't home and informed one of his daughters that her dad was cheating on her mom. I don't care if it's Hunter Biden or not, that's awful," he told the outlet.
"I knew the Daily Mail's Washington editor at the time, so I called and told him I thought he was a pig for doing that. That's still my opinion."
Earlier this week, Trump-allied lawyer Lin Wood published some of the emails on his Telegram account and criticized the pair's "buddy buddy" relationship.
The ‘stench’ of politicization: Sonia Sotomayor’s supreme court warning
Oral arguments over the Mississippi abortion case this week showed the threat to Roe v Wade from an increasingly politicized court
‘The perception of nonchalance towards the integrity of the court among the six conservative justices now in the majority is striking.’
Sotomayor began by noting that in the past 30 years no fewer than 15 justices of all political backgrounds had supported the right to an abortion up to the point of fetal viability. Only four had objected.
Now after so many years of relative consensus, the legality of abortion enshrined in the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v Wade and reaffirmed in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v Casey was suddenly on the line.
Politicians in Mississippi, Sotomayor remarked (while leaving it unsaid that they were rightwing Republicans), had devised new legislation to ban abortions after just 15 weeks of pregnancy. By these politicians’ own admission, their bills were targeted specifically at the three new justices on the supreme court (all appointed by Trump, though she left that unspoken too).
Then she went in for the kill.
She addressed the danger posed by the court’s sudden and apparently politically motivated change of heart not just to abortion rights but to the rule of law itself.
If the nation’s highest court, with its newly constituted Trumpian majority, were to go along with the ploy set for it by Mississippi and throw out half a century of settled law affirming a woman’s right to choose, then what would happen to the court’s legitimacy as a place in American democracy that rises above the cut and thrust of grubby partisanship?
“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts?” she said. “I don’t see how it is possible.”
Stench. The word ricocheted off the august walls of the courtroom like a bullet.
“It was a shocking moment,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “An unadorned recognition of the legitimacy issues that are clearly preoccupying a number of the justices.”
For Stephen Vladeck, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas at Austin, the takeaway of this week’s hearing was not how many justices were preoccupied with the reputational damage facing an increasingly politicised court, but how few. “To me, the single most distressing feature of Justice Sotomayor’s arguments was how little anyone else seemed to care,” he told the Guardian.
Vladeck said he was dismayed by the “casualness with which so many of the justices seemed to be taking an issue that is so central to so many women. A ruling that gets rid of Roe would be enormously damaging in the eyes of millions of Americans, yet some of the conservative justices don’t seem to think that’s important.”
The perception of nonchalance towards the integrity of the court among the six conservative justices now in the majority is striking. In advance of last week’s supercharged hearing, several of those same justices bent over backwards to try to convince the American people that they are neutral servants of the constitution.
The three justices appointed by Trump have been especially keen to portray themselves as having not a partisan bone in their body. Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first of the three appointments, insisted in September 2019 that it was “rubbish” to imply that the justices were “like politicians with robes”.
More recently Amy Coney Barrett, another of Trump’s triumvirate of appointees, told an audience in Kentucky that the supreme court was not “comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks”.
But she was speaking at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville and was introduced at the event by the politician after whom the venue is named – Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the US Senate. It was his shenanigans, blocking Merrick Garland’s confirmation to the court in 2016 on grounds that it was in an election year then rushing through Barrett’s confirmation much closer to election day in 2020, that gave Trump his three picks.
But it is the third of Trump’s supreme court proteges, Brett Kavanaugh, whose position is perhaps most glaring. During his confirmation process in 2018 Kavanaugh went to great lengths to underline his respect for the decisions made by his predecessors on the court, and for the legal doctrine known as stare decisis, which requires justices to honor past rulings in all but exceptional cases.
Kavanaugh assured senators worried about his stance on abortion that he saw Roe v Wade as “settled law”.
He went even further in his conversations with Susan Collins, the relatively moderate Republican senator from Maine on whose vote Kavanaugh depended. When she announced her decision to back him for the supreme court, she revealed what he had said to her during private conversations.
“There has been considerable … concern that Judge Kavanaugh would seek to overturn Roe v Wade,” she said. “Protecting this right is important to me. As Judge Kavanaugh asserted to me, a long-established precedent is not something to be trimmed, narrowed, discarded or overlooked.”
But when it came round to Kavanaugh’s turn to speak in this week’s debate he read out a long list of supreme court cases in which prior precedents had been overturned. He left observers with the clear impression that he was preparing to do precisely what he promised Collins and her fellow senators that he would not do – run roughshod over a pillar of constitutional law.
The pointed interventions of the Trump justices and their conservative peers in this week’s hearing have led most observers convinced that abortion rights in the US are likely to be grossly restricted or abolished outright when the court rules next June. That would be uncannily as Trump himself had predicted.
In a televised debate during the 2016 presidential race, Trump was asked by the Fox News host Chris Wallace whether he wanted the court, including any justices he might appoint as president, to overturn the right to an abortion. He replied: “I am pro-life, and I will be appointing pro-life judges. I would think that that will go back to the individual states.”
Trump did go on to appoint anti-abortion judges, and they are now poised to send control back to individual states, 21 of which currently have laws in place that would effectively ban abortions overnight were Roe v Wade overturned.
Vladeck fears that the vast and growing disconnect between what the conservative justices say they are doing – impartially and faithfully upholding the law of the land, and what they are actually doing – playing along with the machinations of politicians in states like Mississippi, bodes very ill for the legitimacy of the court.
In the long run it could also harm America’s future as a country of laws.
“Public perception matters,” he said. “The more the court appears to be guided by contemporary partisan preferences as opposed to permanent legal principles, the harder it will be for millions of Americans on the wrong side of these cases to understand why they should be bound by them.”
CAPITALI$M WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
Struggling Chinese Developer Evergrande Warns It Could Run out of Money
FILE - A security guard stands at the headquarters of China Evergrande Group
in Hong Kong, Oct. 4, 2021.
BEIJING —
A Chinese developer that is struggling under $310 billion in debt warned Friday it may run out of money to "perform its financial obligations" — sending regulators scrambling to reassure investors that China's financial markets can be protected from a potential impact.
Evergrande Group's struggle to comply with official pressure to reduce debt has fueled anxiety that a possible default might trigger a financial crisis. Economists say global markets are unlikely to be affected, but banks and bondholders might suffer because Beijing wants to avoid a bailout.
WATCH: Why Is China's Evergrande in Trouble?
After reviewing Evergrande's finances, "there is no guarantee that the Group will have sufficient funds to continue to perform its financial obligations," the company said in a statement through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Shortly after that, regulators tried to soothe investor fears by issuing statements saying China's financial system was strong and that default rates are low. They said most developers are financially healthy and that Beijing will keep lending markets functioning.
"The spillover impact of the group's risk events on the stable operation of the capital market is controllable," the China Securities Regulatory Commission said on its website. The central bank and bank regulator issued similar statements.
Beijing tightened restrictions on developers' use of borrowed money last year in a campaign to rein in surging corporate debt that is seen as a threat to economic stability.
The ruling Communist Party has made reducing financial risk a priority since 2018. In 2014, authorities allowed the first corporate bond default since the 1949 communist revolution. Defaults have gradually been allowed to increase in hopes of forcing borrowers and investors to be more disciplined.
Despite that, total corporate, government and household debt rose from the equivalent of 270% of annual economic output in 2018 to nearly 300% last year, unusually high for a middle-income country. Economists say a financial crisis is unlikely but that debt could drag on economic growth.
Evergrande, the global real estate industry's biggest debtor, owes 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion), mostly to domestic banks and bond investors. It also owes $19 billion to foreign bondholders.
Evergrande said it has 2.3 trillion yuan ($350 billion) in assets, but the company has struggled to turn that into cash to pay bondholders and other creditors. It called off the $2.6 billion sale of a stake in a subsidiary last October because the buyer failed to follow through on its purchase.
Evergrande's statement Friday said the company faces a demand to fulfill a $260 million obligation. It said if that obligation cannot be met, other creditors might demand repayment of debts earlier than normal.
The company has missed deadlines to pay interest on some bonds but made payments before a grace period ended and was declared in default. Evergrande also said some bondholders can choose to be paid by receiving apartments that are under construction.
The Evergrande chairman, Xu Jiayin, was summoned to meet Friday with officials of its home province of Guangdong, a government statement said. The statement said a government team would be sent to Evergrande headquarters to help oversee risk management. Evergrande's struggle has prompted warnings that a financial squeeze on real estate — an industry that propelled China's explosive 1998-2008 economic boom — could lead to trouble for banks and an abrupt and politically dangerous collapse in growth.
Also Friday, another developer, Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., warned it might fail to pay off a $400 million bond due next week.
A midsize developer, Fantasia Holdings Group, announced October 5 that it failed to make a $205.7 million payment due to bondholders.
Hundreds of smaller Chinese developers have gone bankrupt since regulators began tightening control over the industry's finances in 2017.
The slowdown in construction helped to depress China's economic growth an unexpectedly low 4.9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in September. Forecasters expect growth to decelerate further if the financing curbs stay in place.
In the latest blow to the cash-strapped Evergrande group, the Chinese government has now summoned the founder of the real estate firm, after the company issued a statement saying that it might not have sufficient funds to meet its financial obligations. #EvergrandeFounder#China#WION
'JUST A ONE OFF'
Chinese regulators say Evergrande default an individual case, impact controllable
Xinhua, December 4, 2021
The recent default of property developer China Evergrande Group is an individual case and will pose little impact on the market, the country's regulatory authorities said Friday.
Evergrande's problem was mainly caused by its own mismanagement and break-neck expansion, an official with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) told the press when asked to comment on Evergrande's recent default on guarantee obligation.
The overseas U.S. dollar bond market is quite mature with well-defined legal provisions and procedures on how to deal with relevant issues and its investors are good at risk identification, said the official. "The risks caused by a certain individual real estate firm in the short term will not undermine the fund-raising function of the market for the medium and long run."
Housing sales, land purchases and financing have already returned to normal in China. Some Chinese property developers are beginning to buy back their overseas bonds, and investors are also starting to buy dollar bonds issued by Chinese property developers, according to the PBOC.
China is committed to creating a level-playing field and advancing the two-way opening-up of its financial markets. Relevant Chinese authorities will continue to communicate with their overseas regulatory counterparts, said the central bank.
The PBOC stated that companies issuing bond overseas and their shareholders will be urged to strictly follow market disciplines, properly handle their debt issues, and meet their debt obligations in accordance with law and market principles. For those firms which would like to make outward remittances for debt repayment or bond buy-back purposes, relevant authorities in China will support and facilitate their efforts under the existing policy framework.
The PBOC supported the provincial government of Guangdong in sending a team of advisors to the firm, noting that this will help Evergrande resolve its risks, enhance its internal risk management and maintain normal business operation.
"We will continue to work together with the provincial government of Guangdong, the relevant agencies as well as local governments in risk resolution, with the aim of promoting stable and healthy development of the real estate sector, and safeguarding lawful rights and interests of home buyers," the PBOC official said.
"We believe that regulatory authorities in relevant jurisdictions would handle this issue in a law-based and fair manner," a spokesman with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said.
Noting the current default will not have negative impact on the safe and sound operation of China's banking and insurance industries, the spokesman said there will be no change for the principles and stance upheld by the financial regulatory agencies in protecting the legitimate rights of consumers, investors and businesses according to the law.
There will be no change for China's market-oriented financial reform and opening-up under the rule of law and in accordance with international standards, said the spokesman.
Currently, Guangdong provincial government, other relevant local governments and agencies are guiding and urging Evergrande Group and its affiliates to resolve risks steadily and orderly in accordance with laws and regulations, and to proactively resume and complete housing construction for delivery to buyers. Financial institutions including banks and insurance companies are also actively participating in relevant work, said the CBIRC.
China's real estate industry as a whole remains robust, and most property firms are focusing on and properly managing their main lines of business, said the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
"Currently, the A-share market remains stable, resilient and active," said the securities regulator, stressing that the potential overflow effect of Evergrande's risks on the stability of China's capital markets is under control.
The default rate on the exchange bond market has been at a relatively low level of 1%, and public companies and bond issuers with real-estate businesses have kept their major financial metrics intact, it said.
To promote the stable and sound development of both the capital markets and real estate industry in China, the CSRC said it will continue to maintain the effective fund-raising function of the country's capital markets and support the normal financing needs of real estate companies.
