SPACE RACE 2.0 

COMRADES LAND ON THE RED PLANET 
Zhurong rover lands on Mars; China joins US as only nations to successfully land on planet

China became the second country in the world to successfully land a rover on Mars after its Zhurong craft touched down on the red planet.

Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY 

NASA's Mars helicopter heard humming on red planet




Named after the Chinese god of fire, Zhurong was aboard the Tianwen-1 spacecraft that launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in China on July 23, 2020. It entered Mars' orbit in February before finally landing around 7:18 p.m. EDT on Friday.

© Jin Liwang, AP In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, members at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center celebrate after China's Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars.

It took more than 17 minutes after the rover opened its solar panels and antenna for signals to traverse the distance between Mars and Earth, according to The Associated Press.

China joins the United States as countries that have successfully landed a rover on Mars. A U.S. mission first landed on the planet in 2004 and has the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars.

The Soviet Union landed a probe on Mars, but the spacecraft failed minutes later. The European Space Agency had two spacecrafts crash during attempts to land on the planet.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator at NASA, congratulated the China National Space Administration on Twitter.

"Congratulations to CNSA’s #Tianwen1 team for the successful landing of China’s first Mars exploration rover, #Zhurong! Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet," he tweeted.



China's rover will spend about 93 Mars days (about 90 Earth days) surveying an area of the planet known as Utopia Planitia, the same area Perseverance landed on in February. The goal is to look at Mars' composition and evidence of water ice. The rover is about the size of a small car and has a ground-penetrating radar, a laser and sensors to gauge the atmosphere and magnetic sphere.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a congratulatory letter to the mission team, called the landing “an important step in our country’s interplanetary exploration journey, realizing the leap from Earth-moon to the planetary system and leaving the mark of the Chinese on Mars for the first time. ... The motherland and people will always remember your outstanding feats!”

The landing is one of many missions the country hopes to accomplish. China has begun to build a space station. One part of the station successfully launched in April, but China caused some panic a week ago when debris from a rocket flew uncontrollably down to Earth, crashing into the Indian Ocean.




Slides 4 of 19: This illustration made available by NASA shows the rover Opportunity on the surface of Mars. The exploratory vehicle landed on Jan. 24, 2004, and logged more than 28 miles before falling silent during a global dust storm in June 2018. There was so much dust in the Martian atmosphere that sunlight could not reach Opportunity's solar panels for power generation. Wednesday brought considerable sadness combined with a fair amount of pride to the folks at NASA, which pronounced the Mars rover Opportunity dead after a record-setting 15-year run. It had stopped communicating more than eight months ago.

1/19 SLIDES © NASA via AP

Contributing: The Associated Press

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jord_mendoza.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zhurong rover lands on Mars; China joins US as only nations to successfully land on planet

Zhurong - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhurong

Zhurong (Chinese: 祝融), also known as Chongli (Chinese: 重黎), is an important personage in Chinese mythology and Chinese folk religion. According to the Huainanzi and the philosophical texts of Mozi and his followers, Zhurong is a god of fire and of the south. The Shanhaijing gives alternative genealogies for Zhurong, including descent from both the Yan Emperor and Yellow Emperor. Some sources ass…

• Genealogy
• Description
• See also
• External links

Character genealogy
One aspect of the traditional Chinese characters used in the case of Zhurong's name is that the character 融 is composed by combining the character 鬲 (lì) which refers to a ritual cauldron or tripodal vessel with three hollow legs, which is well known from archeological reports as a characteristic Chalcolith…

Red Star, 1908/1984. Download.

It seemed to me that in your arms I felt your entire youthful world. Its despotism, its egoism, its desperate thirst for happiness—all of this was in your caresses. Your love is like murder. 

But – I love you, Lenni.

• Alexander Bogdanov, ‎Loren R. Graham, ‎Richard Stites (1908/1984). Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia. p. 9

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VOTING FRAUD DISCOVERED IN USA

'I just thought, give him another vote': 

Man charged with wife's murder illegally cast her ballot for Trump, officials say

Washington Post 

The county clerk immediately knew something strange was going on last fall. A mail ballot had arrived from Suzanne Morphew — a woman missing since May.

© Provided by National Post Barry Morphew was charged with first degree murder this month, in connection with the death of his wife Suzanne Morphew.

“There’s posters all over our town,” said Lori Mitchell, the clerk and recorder in Chaffee County, a Colorado community of about 20,000 rocked by Morphew’s disappearance last Mother’s Day. “Constant things in the news about her. There’s people at the grocery store passing out fliers.”

The ballot didn’t have Morphew’s signature as required, Mitchell said. But someone had signed on the “witness” line: The woman’s husband, Barry Morphew.

“I was stunned,” Mitchell recalled. “I couldn’t believe it. I was like, what in the world is going on?”

For a long time, she said, it was just something fishy that her office reported to law enforcement. Then Barry Morphew was charged this month with murdering his wife. This week, things got stranger still: Barry was also accused of casting his wife’s ballot in a fraudulent vote for President Donald Trump.

Barry echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud as the motivation for his own alleged wrongdoing, according to an affidavit filed Thursday in court. The 53-year-old told FBI agents last month that he did it because “all these other guys are cheating” and said his wife would have backed Trump anyway.

“I just thought, give him another vote,” Barry allegedly said.

It was the latest wild twist in a widely followed missing-person case — publicized in part by Barry’s emotional pleas for his wife’s return — as well as in a presidential race dogged by false claims Trump lost the election due to fraud.

“It’s bonkers,” Mitchell told The Washington Post.

Barry is charged with a felony count of forgery and a misdemeanour count of offences related to mail ballots, court records show, on top of other charges stemming from his wife’s disappearance.

He is being held without bail and due to appear in court later this month, according to online court records, which do not show a plea. He defended himself to local media as suspicions swirled over the past year.

“I love my wife. I would never hurt my wife,” he told news station KDVR last fall. “She is the light of my and my daughters’ lives. This whole thing is killing us and that is why I want our privacy.”

His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Office of the Colorado State Public Defender’s website states that lawyers do not comment on the criminal cases of those they represent.

Barry told authorities he cast his wife’s vote “just because I wanted Trump to win,” according to the affidavit. He allegedly said he “didn’t know you couldn’t do that for your spouse.”

Melinda Moorman, Suzanne’s sister, said in an interview Saturday that she was outraged and perplexed to hear about the allegation from the sheriff.

“To hear that Barry involved himself in voter fraud is beyond comprehension to me,” she told The Post, saying that the family is still reeling from the earlier murder charge.

Moorman said she believed Morphew’s behavior was that of an “insane person.”

“It’s a very difficult thing to wrap our minds around, to believe he could have gotten to this level of evil,” she added. “As a family, we did not want to believe he was capable of this, however, everything points to this happening.”

Barry was arrested on May 5, only a few days shy of the first anniversary of Suzanne’s disappearance, on charges of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and attempt to influence a public servant.

The search for his wife began on May 10, 2020, when a neighbor reported that 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew did not return from a bike ride.

Barry Morphew told the police he was on a work trip that day, away from their home in Maysville, Colo., about a two-and-a-half hour’s drive southwest of Denver. As authorities scoured the hills of Maysville, Morphew pleaded on camera for his wife’s safe return.

“Oh Suzanne, if anyone is out there that can hear this, that has you, please, we’ll do whatever it takes to bring you back. . . . No questions asked,” he said in the video posted on Facebook. “However much they want. I will do whatever it takes to get you back. Honey, I love you. I want you back so bad.”

A sprawling investigation ensued. More than 70 investigators from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies would eventually execute more than 135 search warrants across the state and interview hundreds of people, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office.

But authorities said they never found Suzanne’s body — just her bicycle and unidentified “personal items,” KCNC reported last May.

One news station, KXRM, interviewed an associate who raised questions about Barry’s alibi from the weekend Suzanne went missing. Jeffrey Puckett — a contractor hired to help with Barry’s business trip — said that Barry’s hotel room smelled of chlorine and that his bed did not appear slept-in, according to KXRM.

Yet the case stretched on without answers until this early month, when Barry was arrested near his home in Poncha Springs, Colo., according to the sheriff’s office and the district attorney for the 11th Judicial District in Colorado. During a news conference, Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said “thousands of hours” of work had gone into the search for the woman described as a devoted, loving mother of two.

Then came the charges of illegal voting.

Morphew’s case is not the only allegation of fraudulent Trump votes to emerge amid Republicans’ baseless insistence that electoral wrongdoing boosted President Joe Biden. Last month, a Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to voter fraud charges after he cast a ballot for Trump under his dead mother’s name, after registering with her driver’s license.

Bruce Bartman apologized for his actions and blamed them on pandemic isolation and listening to “too much propaganda,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Two other men in Pennsylvania have been accused of committing voter fraud by casting illegal ballots for Trump, the Inquirer reported.

Trump and his supporters promoted myriad claims of fraud in the 2020 election, challenging the results in lawsuits rejected by at least 86 judges and fueling the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Local, state and federal authorities have said there is no evidence of fraud that could have cost Trump the election.

A Republican congressman who denied there was an insurrection and likened Capitol rioters to tourists was photographed barricading the chamber doors against them
tcolson@businessinsider.com (Thomas Colson) 6 hrs ago

© Photo By Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Rep. Andrew Clyde, center, and security guards barricade the House door as rioters disrupt the joint session of Congress on January 6. Photo By Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images    

A GOP lawmaker who has said there was no insurrection was seen barricading the House on January 6.

Rep. Andrew Clyde said last week that the riot resembled a "normal tourist visit."

But he had been photographed pushing furniture against the chamber's doors.

A photo emerged of a GOP lawmaker who last week downplayed the Capitol siege and compared the rioters to tourists barricading the House doors with furniture on January 6.

Rep. Andrew Clyde said during a House oversight committee hearing on Wednesday that it was a "bald-faced lie" to call the riot an insurrection. He said the riot, in which hundreds of Trump supporters breached the Capitol, resembled a "normal tourist visit."

After Clyde's comments, a photographer shared a photo he had taken of Clyde using furniture to barricade the House against rioters trying to force their way in to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. Several people died in the riot.

"The Rep. Clyde news reminded me of this," the photographer, Tom Williams, said on Twitter.

In the hearing last week, Clyde addressed his attempts to barricade the House and suggested that because rioters did not breach the chamber it was not an insurrection.

"As one of the members who stayed in the Capitol and on the House floor and who with other Republican colleagues helped barricade the door until almost 3 p.m. that day from the mob who tried to enter, I can tell you, the House floor was never breached, and it was not an insurrection," he said.

Clyde described the rioters as an "undisciplined mob" but also said they resembled tourists, Insider's Grace Panetta reported.

"You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit," he said.

He also falsely claimed that police officers had not confiscated any firearms from people who breached the Capitol.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Brazil's Christ the Redeemer statue lights up for vaccine equality


(Reuters) - The world's most famous statue of Jesus Christ was lit up in Rio de Janeiro to promote vaccine equality as Brazil and developing countries struggle to protect residents from COVID-19.

© Reuters/PILAR OLIVARES Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rio de Janeiro

The message "Vaccine saves, United for vaccines" was projected on Saturday onto the 98-foot (30-meter) statue by Unidos Pela Vacina (United by the Vaccine), in partnership with the Cristo Redentor Sanctuary and the Ogilvy Brazil advertising agency.

In January, two healthcare workers received the first shots of coronavirus vaccines at the foot of the statue as Brazil kicked off its vaccination campaign.

Since then, 17% of residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 8% have been fully vaccinated. (Graphic on global vaccinations) https://tmsnrt.rs/3tUM8ta

The country ranks 30th in the world based on first doses given and far behind the 59% in Israel and 47% in the United States, according to a Reuters analysis.

New cases of COVID-19 are once again rising in Brazil and infections are at 82% of the peak the country hit in March, according to a Reuters analysis. (Graphic on Brazil cases and deaths) https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/brazil

© Reuters/PILAR OLIVARES Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rio de Janeiro

In May 2020, the statue was lit up to call for wearing masks to slow the progress of the pandemic. Brazil has reported the third-highest number of cases in the world and the second-highest number of deaths, with over 435,000 lives lost.

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Federal government to fund safer drug supply pilot project in Peterborough

Greg Davis 

© AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File The federal government is launching a safe supply drug pilot project in Peterborough, Ont.

The federal government is providing $200,000 to help launch a safe supply drug project in Peterborough to address the region's increase in opioid overdose deaths.

On Monday, Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef announced that over the next 27 months a safe supply project will be run in the city, providing a pharmaceutical alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply and helping prevent overdoses. The project is being funding by Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program. The cost of medication for participants on the pilot program is covered by provincial drug plan benefits.

As of early May, there have been 20 suspected opioid-related deaths so far in 2021 in the Peterborough area. In 2020, opioid-related emergency room visits in Peterborough were nearly double that of the provincial average.

Read more: Suspected opioid deaths in Peterborough area rise to 20 so far in 2021, health unit says

"Just like many communities across Canada, Peterborough has suffered tragic losses due to the overdose crisis," said Monsef. "The Government of Canada is proud to support projects like this one that will help expand the services and treatments available for those at risk of overdose in communities like Peterborough."

The initiative will pilot the use of a nurse practitioner to deliver safer drug supply to 10 patients in Peterborough. The project is being led by the Peterborough 360 Degree Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic (NPLC), which focuses on accessible health-care for marginalized individuals, in partnership with Trent University/Fleming College School of Nursing.

360 Degree executive director Suzanne Galloway says the project is another tool to help reduce the "tragic impact of opioid poisonings from the illegal drug supply in the community."

She says the first phase of the project will include research from August to December involving prescribers, pharmacists, addictions treatment providers, harm-eduction professionals and people who use drugs to help develop a model of safer supply that can work for Peterborough.

That will be followed in 2022 with a "small-scale" eight- to 10-month pilot project in 2022 involving a "heavy evaluation" component, said Galloway.

The 10 participants will receive an "opioid-replacement therapy" such as a pharmaceutical-grade opioid, says Galloway, to replace the fentanyl from the street-acquired supply they have been relying on. Individuals will work on their goals — whether it's to eliminate drug use completely or reduce use.

There will be no physical clinic per se, but it will be a part of the individuals' primary health care. The pilot also aims to create a long-term sustainable model — and possibly scale up the model, said Galloway.

"We will be reviewing the outcomes of the participants, the providers and the community to refine our local approach," Galloway said. "And share our knowledge of how the promising practice of safer supply projects might be offered in other small communities across Canada."

Read more: Calls for safer opioid supply grow as COVID-19 pandemic compounds overdose crisis

The project will also study what wraparound supports can be created for the individuals, such as housing, counselling and a potential safe consumption site in the city.

"We intend to have a pretty strong peer-support element as well to access social services," said Galloway. Our clinic’s vision is a community where all people have access to high-quality primary healthcare and an equal opportunity to be healthy. Safer Supply is one of the ways that we can reach this vision."

Kathy Hardill, lead/clinical direction at 360 Degree, says the project will engage with individuals at "high risk" to enable comprehensive provision of primary care.

"The aspiration of the project is to create a community-wide, community practice for safe supply prescribing," she said. "These 10 individuals may be patients of the clinic or the broader primary care community. We look forward to creating those collaborations and partnerships."

On behalf of Mayor Diane Therrien, city Coun. Andrew Beamer thanked the federal government for its leadership and funding to help address the opioid crisis, which he says has devastated many families in the community.

"So my families have been devastated by this — it's heartbreaking," he said. "This funding and support will go a long way to support the community. It will go a long way to support the health and the well-being of individuals and families. And it will save lives."

Peterborough Police Service Chief Scott Gilbert says the service is happy to be a partner in the project.

"The Safer Supply Project will be another tool in the toolbox for assisting community members with addictions," he said.

Monsef says while there may be critics of the safe supply project, she says the government is following evidence and calls from families of victims and those overcoming addictions.

"Our approach will be compassionate, it will be based on evidence and we will trust community leaders to lead," she said. "The goal here is to save lives."

— More to come.

Video: Suspected opioid deaths rise to 20 in Peterborough region: health unit

Exodus to jungles, villages as Myanmar troops retake town

(Reuters) - Thousands of residents of a hill town in northwest Myanmar were hiding in jungles, villages and valleys on Monday after fleeing an assault by state troops, witnesses said, as the army advanced into the town after days battling local militias.

© Reuters/Stringer . FILE PHOTO: GOVT SOLDIER

Mindat, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Indian border in Chin state, has seen some of the most intense fighting since a Feb. 1 coup that has led to the emergence of ragtag local armies that are stifling the junta's bid to consolidate power.

Martial law was declared in Mindat on Thursday before the army launched its assault, using artillery and helicopters against a newly formed Chinland Defence Force, a militia armed mainly with hunting rifles, which said it had pulled back to spare civilians from being caught in the crossfire.

Several residents reached by Reuters said food was in short supply and estimated as many as 5,000 to 8,000 people had fled the town, with roads blocked and the presence of troops in the streets preventing their return.

"Almost everyone left the city," said a volunteer fighter who said she was in a jungle. "Most of them are in hiding."

A representative of the local people's administrative group of Mindat said he was among some 200 people, including women and children, who had trekked across rocky roads and hills carrying blankets, rice and cooking pots.

He said the group was attacked with heavy weapons when troops spotted smoke from their cooking fires.

"We have to move from one place to another. We cannot settle in a place in the jungle," he told Reuters by phone.

"Some men were arrested as they went into town to get more food for us. We cannot get into town currently. We are going to starve in few days."

The Chinland Defence Forces in a statement on Monday said it had killed five government troops in Hakha, another town in Chin State.

The United Nations children's fund UNICEF in a tweet urged security forces to ensure safety of children in Mindat, the latest international call for restraint after human rights groups, the United States and Britain condemned the use of war weapons against civilians.

MULTIPLE FRONTS

The United States, Britain and Canada on Monday announced more sanctions against businesses and individuals tied to the junta. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged more countries to follow suit.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the coup, with the military battling armed and peaceful resistance on multiple fronts, adding to concerns about economic collapse and a humanitarian crisis from old conflicts reigniting in border regions.

The fighters in Chin State say they are part of the People's Defence Forces of the shadow government, which has called on the international community for help.

In an effort to coordinate the anti-junta forces, the shadow government on Monday issued a list of instructions to all the civilian armies, which it said must operate under its command and control.

Aid groups in direct contact with residents of Mindat made urgent calls on social media on Monday for donations or food, clothing and medicine.

Salai, 24, who has been organising an emergency response, said she had spoken to people hiding in a valley and on farmland who had fled the advance of soldiers.

"They looted people's property. They burned down people's houses. It is really upsetting," said Salai.

"Some in the town were injured by gunshots, including a young girl. She cannot get medical treatment."

A military spokesman did not answer calls or messages seeking comment.

In its nightly news bulletin, state-run MRTV said security forces returned fire after coming under attack from insurgents in Mindat, who fled, and that government troops had been attacked elsewhere in Chin State.

So far, 790 people have been killed in the junta's crackdown on its opponents, according to the activist group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The military disputes that figure. Reuters cannot independently verify arrests and casualty numbers.

The military says it intervened after its complaints of fraud in a November election won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party were ignored.

An international monitoring group on Monday said the results of that election "were, by and large, representative of the will of the people of Myanmar".

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)