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Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets. In October, a Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The $5 billion mission is designed to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, can support life. But because Europa is constantly bombarded by intense radiation created by Jupiter’s magnetic field, the Clipper spacecraft can’t orbit the moon itself. Instead, it will slide into an eccentric orbit around Jupiter and gather data by repeatedly swinging by Europa—53 times in total—before...

Russians opposed to Vladimir Putin for years have been inspired by telegenic anti-corruption campaigners willing to risk their freedom and even their lives to expose the Kremlin’s crimes. Now, after two years of war and with most opposition figures either in jail, in exile or dead, they have been left with Boris Nadezhdin. Asked by a reporter on Wednesday whether Putin considered Nadezhdin a political threat, the president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We do not consider him a rival. Not at all.” Yet political analysts said it was unlikely the Kremlin would allow Nadezhdin’s popularity to progress too far. Authorities...

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Hamas' advanced tactics using drones on armored vehicles must have been the result of Russian training, Ukraine's military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravada released on Oct. 12. While it did not constitute a clear indication of Russia's direct involvement in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the tactics strongly mirrored those used in Russia's war on Ukraine, he said. In addition, there were several other signs in the weeks leading up to the attacks that provide further evidence of increased Russian connections with Israel's foes in the region. Budanov noted that the Russian state-run news...

A senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the "successful" large-scale operation of Palestinians against the illegal Zionist entity will definitely accelerate and facilitate the regime's collapse and its imminent elimination. Ali Akbar Velayati, who is also the Secretary General of World Assembly of Islamic Awakening, made the remarks in a Saturday message to the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and Ziad al-Nakhaleh, the secretary-general of Islamic Jihad movement. "The era of domination and tyranny of the terrorist Zionist regime has come to an end," Velayati...

Access to the residence and offices of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was blocked off Wednesday by members of the elite Presidential Guard, a source close to Bazoum said, although the reason was unclear. Access to the residence and offices of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was blocked off Wednesday by members of the elite Presidential Guard. The landlocked West African state is one of the most unstable nations in the world, experiencing four coups since independence from France in 1960 as well as numerous other attempts on power. The country is struggling with two jihadist campaigns -- one in the southwest,...

The Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have made a criminal Iran’s leading drug lord, Iran International can reveal. Information obtained by Iran International shows how Naji Sharifi-Zindashti and his cartel now dominate the narcotics trade thanks to the support of the government militia. His extraordinary rise comes despite his having killed a prison guard in Iran and fleeing abroad, only to return with impunity. Investigative reporter Mojtaba Pourmohsen has uncovered how a recent rise in the number of executions of convicts sentenced to death on drug-related charges is the result of infighting between rival drug cartels with connections within the...

The new Czech head of state, who is due to take office on March 9, has clearly indicated that the era of outgoing President Miloš Zeman’s pro-Chinese policy is well and truly over. Just hours after winning the presidential elections, he was on the phone to President Zelensky to assure him about continued Czech support in the war against Russia and on Monday he raised the ire of China by holding a telephone conversation with the president of Taiwan, despite the fact that the China-claimed island has no formal relations with Prague. “Today, I spoke with the president of Taiwan...

2018 lecture in Finnish (subtitled in English), given by Martti Kari, a former Colonel working in military intelligence, with expertise in Russian “strategic culture”, and who is now at the university. Here he is explaining why Russians think and behave so differently from us in the West, which gives us some ways of guessing what they might do in the future. This has, for me, shed much light on the motivation behind the Ukrainian invasion and so much else that Russia has done. Finland, of course, borders Russia, and at various points in history has been part of Russia, fought...

In an unusual move, more than 150 Russian Orthodox clerics have called for an immediate stop to the ongoing war in Ukraine in an open letter issued on March 1. At least 176 Orthodox clerics said that they "respect the freedom of any person given to him or her by God," adding that the people of Ukraine "must make their own choices by themselves, not at the point of assault rifles and without pressure from either West or East." The letter says the clerics “bewail” the suffering that has been “undeservingly imposed on our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.” It...

NAVAREA III 0864/21AZOV SEA 1.- GUNNERY FIRING 081800UTC DEC21 THRU 081800UTC JAN22 IN AREAS BOUNDED BY:A. 46-18-00N 035-27-00E 46-11-18N 035-58-12E 45-57-42N 035-17-12E 46-01-06N 035-01-18E 46-04-30N 035-09-18E B. 46-31-00N 036-20-00E 46-31-00N 036-42-00E 46-17-00N 036-40-00E 46-17-00N 035-54-00E 46-24-00N 035-54-00E 46-24-00N 036-14-00E C. 47-01-12N 037-41-48E 46-59-12N 037-59-12E 46-59-12N 038-07-18E 46-57-42N 038-07-18E 46-52-12N 037-35-24E NAVIGATION TEMPORARILY DANGEROUS 2.- CANCEL THIS MESSAGE 081900UTC JAN22

The Czech Republic is expelling 18 employees of the Russian embassy in Prague, who were allegedly "identified as members of the Russian secret services", Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said at news conference. According to local media reports, the move comes in response to evidence obtained by the country's security services which suggests Russia's involvement in two ammunition depot explosions in 2014 in the Czech Republic which killed two people. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said in the same news conference that "there is well-grounded suspicion about the involvement of officers of the Russian intelligence service GRU, unit 29155, in the...

Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn't it a pity Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

It’s a new version of an old weapon — a creator of botnets that can drive an internet service offline with floods of fake data — that puts to use a previously untapped source of computing power: the ever-growing “internet of things.” That doesn’t mean the Russian FSB security service will soon be peering through Americans’ cell phones and laptops or internet-connected doorbells. Instead, it means that the Russian government has a new tool for creating a DDoS-capable botnet. These botnets harness the computing power of millions of internet-connected things, direct them to spew random data at specific computers, and...

Coronavirus is both a public health problem and an economic problem, and the two work against each other. The measures we must take to save lives necessarily mean shutting down large parts of our consumer-driven economy. People are losing jobs and businesses are losing revenue. Does that mean we simply ignore the virus and let people get sick and sometimes die? No, that won’t work, either. Our healthcare system can’t handle what would happen. It would collapse and be unable to help anyone with anything. We need to sustain the economy for however long it takes to beat down the...

A photo surfaced Sunday (Jan. 19) on Weibo showing People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers sitting next to a map of Taiwan that appears to indicate a southerly route for China's invasion of Taiwan, first going through Kinmen and Penghu, before landing troops in southern Taiwan. After President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) enjoyed a landslide victory in Taiwan's elections on Jan. 11, Communist China has been doubling down on its rhetoric about the tattered "one country, two systems" framework and adhering to the "1992 Consensus" — expressing its opposition to "Taiwan independence" despite the fact that Taiwan has never been a part...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Iran admitted shooting down a Ukrainian airline and killing all 176 people on board, called for assurances from Tehran “of readiness for a full and open investigation, bringing those responsible to justice, the return of the bodies of the dead, payment of compensation, official apologies through diplomatic channels.” ---------- A statement by the Iranian Armed Forces on Jan. 11: 3. In such critical and critical conditions, Flight PS752 of the Ukrainian airlines departs from Imam Khomeini Airport and, while in rotation, is completely approaching a sensitive military center of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps and...

At least one person has been killed in a shooting in downtown Moscow on Thursday evening, local media have reported. An unidentified gunman opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle in the lobby of the Federal Security Services (FSB) building before fleeing the scene, the RBC news website cited an police source as saying.

Japan and South Korea's "Japan-Korea Military Intelligence Protection Agreement" (GSOMIA) will lapse next Saturday (23rd), Japan-Korea Foreign Ministry will hold a director-level consultation on Friday, and the Japanese side asks whether South Korea is Renewed GSOMIA to make a "wise correspondence." According to comprehensive foreign media reports, South Korea announced in August that it will not renew GSOMIA, which allows for the exchange of military intelligence between Japan and South Korea. Today, the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Miyazaki Saki, and the South Asian Foreign Minister of the South Korean Foreign Ministry,...

China is making swift progress on its 200 billion yuan (US$29.08 billion) fund aimed at investing in home-grown semiconductor development, as the world’s second-largest economy looks to reduce dependence on foreign chips amid a tech war with the US. New investment is likely to lean towards applications in the downstream supply chain, such as chip design, advanced materials and equipment areas, according to the report. The fundraising progress comes amid an escalating tech war with the US, which has seen China tone down statements on its wider “Made in China 2025” policy ambitions, after President Xi Jinping first called for...